A wonderful man died early this morning. Tony Malone, a fixture of live entertainment throughout Ireland, made his way to his next act long before his earthly career should have come to a close. He was full of life, at times larger than life, great with a joke, infectiously fun-loving, and a marvelous singer. He [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Documentary'
Fados
May 27th, 2009 · No Comments
Tags: Documentary · Foreign Language · Musical · Review
Girls, Tricky
May 13th, 2009 · No Comments
This week marks the opening of the beautiful new Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, a multifaceted feast for the eyes that delivers on its high expectations as the new jewel of both the museum and Millennium/Grant Park. While the modern and contemporary galleries are lovely, the most exciting part of the new space [...]
Tags: Documentary · Review · Short
Phantom India
May 5th, 2009 · No Comments
The purpose for the Criterion Collection’s Eclipse Series, as far as I understand, is to make available overlooked films and filmmakers, works which would not likely otherwise be available on DVD but which have significant value. To that end, Louis Malle’s seven-part travelogue, Phantom India, perfectly satisfies that goal. Originally presented as a television documentary [...]
Tags: Capsule · Documentary · Foreign Language
When the Levees Broke
April 7th, 2009 · No Comments
During the production of Spike Lee’s New Katrina documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, I recall hearing a news story that the film was going to suggest that the New Orleans levees were intentionally detonated in order to protect the more affluent neighborhoods at the expense of the poorer communities. That notion immediately [...]
Tags: Capsule · Director · Documentary
To Be and To Have
March 26th, 2009 · No Comments
On Sunday I will attend a screening of Singing In the Rain as part of a memorial service for a long-time supporter of the Gene Siskel Film Center. It is a really wonderful idea, but one which got me thinking: if I were to request a cinema-going send-off for my earthly body, what movie would I select? The [...]
Tags: Capsule · Documentary · Family · Foreign Language
The Last Waltz
March 3rd, 2009 · No Comments
When I bought a Blu-ray player many months ago, a promotion allowed me to choose five free discs from a generous selection of, say, ten available titles. I am sure that those behind the promotion would argue that they tried to pick titles that would appeal across the widest possible audience, but there we’re any [...]
Tags: Capsule · Director · Documentary · Musical
Encounters at the End of the World
February 21st, 2009 · No Comments
I submit that Werner Herzog is one of the greatest living filmmakers, a man with a unique and compelling perspective on the human condition. I equally submit that Encounters at the End of the World, while a treat to experience, is not among the best of his work. Some of the underwater photography he was able [...]
Tags: Capsule · Director · Documentary
The War Tapes
February 14th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Had it not been for the popularity – and resultant unavailability – of several films ahead of it in my Netflix queue, The War Tapes may have never made it into my DVD player. I know exactly how and when I added it to my list, but since that time a lot has happened, and [...]
Tags: Capsule · Documentary
Man on Wire
February 5th, 2009 · No Comments
There is something extraordinary about a well-conceived documentary, such that what one would merely expect to be the telling of a historic event turns out to be a complex study of human nature, from the ordinary to the pathological. The historic event itself is clearly cinematic: Philippe Petit’s daring high-wire crossing between the twin towers of the World [...]
Tags: Capsule · Documentary
General Idi Amin Dada (1974)
May 14th, 2007 · No Comments
Barbet Schroeder’s “self portrait” of Uganda’s charismatic and sociopathic leader, General Idi Amin Dada, is highly recommended viewing, especially prior to experiencing Forest Whitaker’s Oscar-winning performance in The Last King of Scotland. Schroeder was given amazingly intimate, yet hardly candid, access to the dictator. The ironic result of this bizarre collection of staged scenes is [...]
Tags: Biographical · Capsule · Documentary
An Inconvenient Truth
April 30th, 2007 · No Comments
I have little to add to the dialogue about An Inconvenient Truth. As Oscar-winners go, it fully fits the “will win” category — as opposed to “should win.” And that’s not a comment about the superiority of its competitors, only one of which I’ve seen, but simply an observation that there isn’t anything remarkable about [...]
Tags: Biographical · Documentary · Family
In the Realms of the Unreal
March 29th, 2006 · No Comments
I don’t recall exactly how or when I was first introduced to the work of outsider artist Henry Darger, the Chicago recluse who produced volumes of writings and scores of large, double-sided paintings in his one-room apartment, none of which were discovered until the time of his death. Having read about this 2004 documentary, it [...]
Tags: Documentary
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
