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Doc Talk: On the Ropes, Kid Stays in the Picture, American Teen
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Columns
Historically it's nothing new. Just look at Merian C. Cooper for a prime example. Or go back to the Lumiere brothers. But these days it's becoming more and more common for successful documentary filmmakers to jump ship, most of the time only temporarily, and give fiction a try. Michael Moore, Barbara Kopple and Errol Morris have all done it. Seth Gordon seems to be sticking with it. Werner Herzog has been balancing both mediums for a while. And now the latest documentarian to make the transition is Nanette Burstein, whose fiction debut, the raunchy yet sweet rom-com Going the Distance, opens this Friday.
Usually I'm disappointed with the filmmakers who try it, even while recognizing that maybe a cash-grab fiction project here will help finance a great non-fiction film there. The truth is few documentarians make good narrative features (see Canadian Bacon, Havoc, The Dark Wind, Four Christmases). Burstein is the exception, though. I revisited her three feature-length docs, two of them co-directed with Brett Morgen, and one made solo, and have to say she's better off doing stuff like Going the Distance, even with its faults. It's not that she's a bad documentarian, but her work in that medium is actually more pedestrian than this new Hollywood effort.
Watch Johnny Knoxville Try to Save Detroit
Filed under: Documentary, DIY/Filmmaking, Film Clips, Trailers and Clips
When you mention the name Johnny Knoxville, one thing comes to mind: Jackass. The man has made a career out of performing dangerous stunts and juvenile pranks with his friends -- turning it into a multimedia empire in the process. However, one's body can only take so much abuse -- and as Knoxville gets older, I'm sure he's already planning his next move. The old noggin' probably doesn't take the thumps like it used to.It turns out that Knoxville might have a future ahead of him as a documentarian. Boot-makers Palladium have been creating a series of viral videos where people don a pair of their boots, grab a camcorder, and explore the urban landscape while talking to the locals. Knoxville is the latest person to meet the challenge, and his film Detroit Lives is scheduled to go up at the Palladium site today. In the meantime, we've got a trailer that doesn't feature a single scene of someone performing an excretory function -- which may be a first for Knoxville.
Detroit, once the fourth largest city in the country, now looks like an urban wasteland. With the decline of the American auto industry, the city has fallen on hard times. But, as Knoxville soon learns, not everyone's giving up on the city. Young artists, entrepreneurs, and dreamers are toughing it out -- hoping to revitalize this once proud city and restore it to the glory days of its past. No small task, given how desolate and decayed some places featured in the video look.
Hit the jump to check out the trailer for Detroit Lives and be sure to keep an eye on the Palladium website for the full length version's debut. Can you take Knoxville seriously outside of Jackass or is he dead to you when he's not getting hit in the groin?
Another Michael Jackson Concert Film May Be on the Way
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Music & Musicals, RumorMonger, Fandom
Just when you thought you were safe from moon-walking at your local multiplex, rumblings are descending about another Michael Jackson concert film. This time the source material stretches back to 1981, and the From a historical perspective, the tour material could be fascinating. The Triumph Tour was a huge deal at the time; Michael was between Off the Wall and Thriller, and the tour reunited the Jackson brothers for a series of sold-out concerts. A live album from the tour, The Jacksons Live!, was released in 1981. Last year's rehearsal footage documentary, Michael Jackson's This Is It, made more than $260 million worldwide, but that was in the wake of Jackson's death. It came out in time to satisfy hunger by his fans for the concert tour that never was. Would archival footage from 30 years ago be able to tap into that same interest?
Is 2010 The Best Year for Documentaries Ever?
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Awards, Box Office, Cinematical Indie
I've had a feeling that this was the best year for documentaries ever. But I also thought the feeling had to do with the fact I'm seeing a whole lot more docs now that I'm the resident doc guy here at Cinematical. I also went to my first film festival devoted completely to the non-fiction format (Silverdocs). Meanwhile, though, I did notice that the docs selected for both Tribeca and Toronto fests were more noteworthy this year than normal.
And let's not forget the docs that came out of Sundance, many of which either blur the line between fiction and documentary (Exit Through the Gift Shop, Catfish) or at times feel more like great narrative features than documentaries (Restrepo, Last Train Home). Not to mention, 2010 is the year we've got an all-star documentarian anthology film (Freakonomics). You know non-fiction film has made it when five filmmakers can be considered "all stars."
The reason for my questioning if this is like non-fiction's 1939 (considered the best year for fiction film of all time, right?) is a claim by award season analyst Scott Feinberg that this is "the strongest - or, at the very least, the deepest - year yet in the history of documentary filmmaking." He lists 29 films on his radar. I think that means films he's seen and recommends, none of which is my very favorite film of 2010 so far, Last Train Home. The Chinese doc, which is also one of my favorite docs in years, made the front page of the New York Times yesterday with a profile in anticipation of its theatrical release this Friday.
Trailer Park: Inside Job, The Love of the Hawthorn Tree, Legendary
Filed under: Documentary, Horror, Thrillers, Toronto International Film Festival, Cinematical Indie, Trailers and Clips
More than half the votes in last week's Trailer Park poll went to expected winner Black Swan (with 57%). There is definitely a lot of interest in Darren Aronofsky's latest, far more than any of the other nine films. I am a bit surprised to see the Joaquin Phoenix documentary I'm Still Here garnering so few votes and coming in seventh place (4.1%), though I am glad to see people were into second-place winner, Machete Maidens Unleashed! (10.8%).
This weekend saw the release of The Last Exorcism so it makes sense that we saw a lot of creepy trailers for horror films this week, many of them on Horror Squad rather than here at Cinematical. By coincidence only, I think, are the timely debuts of trailers for the non-horror film 127 Hours, which at least has a gruesome element to it, and the documentary Inside Job, which features a blurb calling it a scarier movie than anything Wes Craven and John Carpenter have ever made. Both of these films were my top two favorites of the week.
Another commonality among this crop of trailers is many of them are screening at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. These include those first two titles, as well as Adam Wingard's An Awful Way to Die, Guillem Morales' Julia's Eyes and Stephen Frears' Tamara Drewe. Meanwhile, this week's big star is Danny Glover, who appears in two new trailers -- Age of the Dragons and Legendary.
See this week's trailer rankings and vote for your favorite after the jump.
Doc Talk: 'Animal Love,' 'Mine' and 'Gates of Heaven'
Filed under: Documentary, Columns, Cinematical Indie
This week's Doc Talk was inspired in part by Dennis Lim's recent New York Times piece on films that blur the distinctions between fiction and non-fiction. I love the opening paragraph, which through the ideas of Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette states a belief I've always carried, that all movies are documentaries in some way or another. I'll forgive Lim for not addressing this year's three biggest question mark docs, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Catfish and I'm Still Here (and salute Eric Kohn's lumping of these "elusive" titles), all of which have been met with doubt with regards to their complete truthfulness.
But I'm not concentrating on that topic now. Perhaps later once I've seen the Joaquin Phoenix movie. Instead, Lim's article got me curious about Ulrich Seidl's Animal Love and that subsequently put me in a mood for a triple feature focused on docs about pet owners. So I followed the Seidl with the Hurricane Katrina film Mine and the Errol Morris classic Gates of Heaven, which I'd somehow never seen before. I'm currently in the market to get a dog and I thought this trio would fit this perspective.
Afterward, though, I'm a tad fearsome of becoming an obsessive owner -- or at least afraid of the emotional attachment and possible sadness that would come if my dog is lost or dies. I wonder if you pet lovers are better off just renting Marmaduke when it hits DVD next week than viewing any of these documentaries.
Cinematical Seven: Indies That Might've Slipped Under Your Radar
Filed under: Action, Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Foreign Language, Horror, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, IFC, Magnolia, Sony Classics, Cinematical Seven, Remakes and Sequels
After I pitched my Cinematical Seven about films that might've slipped under the radar so far this year -- to tie in with today's DVD/Blu-ray release of The Square, an Aussie noir that I really dug at SXSW '09 -- I grew a little worried that David Ehrlich's list of "The 5 Best Films You've (Probably) Missed This Year" would beat me to the punch. However, only his pick of the wonderfully off-kilter Dogtooth overlapped with my own selections, so without any further ado, here's seven (more) movies to keep an eye out for.
1. The Good, The Bad, The Weird (now on DVD/Blu-ray) - As I wrote elsewhere... "From the trio of spot-on lead performances to the prevalence of practical stunts, from the relentlessly lush color scheme and period details to the often sweeping cinematography, not to mention the constantly energetic soundtrack, every last aspect is dedicated to making the most of this heady showcase of glorious excess, the bastard child of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and Kung Fu Hustle."
Free Flick of the Day: Grey Gardens
Filed under: Documentary, Home Entertainment
There are few modern families that reach the iconic status of the Kennedys. Naturally, this is due to John F. Kennedy's presidency, womanizing, and assassination, before Robert F. Kennedy suffered a similar fate ... not to mention the continuing politics of Ted Kennedy, Chappaquiddick, and a myriad of fatal plane crashes.
But noteworthy connections swing out past the Kennedy name. There's the media-linked Shrivers and the Lawfords on the Kennedy side, plus further links through Jackie O, including Gore Vidal and the notorious Big Edie and Little Edie Beales, the subject of Albert and David Maysles' 1975 documentary Grey Gardens.
'The Cove' and a Follow-Up Series Debut on Animal Planet
Filed under: Documentary, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie
If you still haven't seen the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove after all the attention we've given it, I don't know what to tell you other than ... here's another recommendation for you to watch the film, which exposes the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. Both shocking and entertaining, director Louie Psihoyos (and producer Fisher Stevens) presents the cause with a narrative resembling that of a spy thriller. And now it's about to make its network TV debut on Animal Planet. The doc will premiere this Sunday (August 29) at 9pm, appropriately in the middle of a marathon of Whale Wars. For those of us who have already seen The Cove and want updates, Animal Planet is also presenting a three-part series titled Blood Dolphin$, which follows activist Ric O'Barry, the star of the film, and his team on new missions to save dolphins in Taiji and other parts of the world. Sadly, from what's previewed in the show's trailer, it does not look like much has changed since the doc drew awareness to the Japanese dolphin fishing industry last year. The first episode of the series, titled "Return to Taiji," debuts Friday (August 27) at 11pm. The other two installments are part of a two-part visit to hTe Solomon Islands. They premiere September 10 and 17.
Trailer Park: Another Year, Machete Maidens Unleashed, Case 39
Filed under: Documentary, Horror, Thrillers, Cinematical Indie, Trailers and Clips
Last week's Trailer Park poll ended with a tie. Funny thing is, it was between my favorite trailer, for The Next Three Days, and my least favorite, for Love and Other Drugs. Each took 30% of your votes while Enter the Void came in third place with 16%.
Another trailer for Love and Other Drugs -- an international one -- has shown up this week and it makes the film look a little more appealing by selling it more as a drama than a bad romantic comedy. But it also features a lot of the same footage as the domestic spot I showcased last week so I'm not including it. Feel free to watch it elsewhere.
Because one of the big movies opening this week is Piranha 3D, the trailer trend of the week is bad-looking horror flicks. There's even a trailer for a documentary about Filipino grindhouse horror movies of the '70s. I'm not much of a scary movie guy to begin with, but I especially hate horror movie ads -- so again, I'm not including the majority of them in my rankings.
Another surprising mini-trend of the week: black swans. One of the examples is obvious, Black Swan, and it gets my vote for the week's best. To figure out which other film features the dark bird, be sure to watch all the trailers listed after the jump (hint: it's not a horror flick).
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