Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus review – a stark, emotional finale from master musician
The Guardian | Documentary films
by Leslie Felperin
1d ago
In his last weeks of life, the Oscar-winning composer is filmed at the piano by his son. It is an almost wordless paean to a remarkable career Short of presenting nothing more than music and a blank screen, this documentary about the late Japanese composer-performer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s last appearances is as stark and minimal as a concert film can get. And yet it’s a work suffused with emotional tones and shades, surprisingly not all of them sad even though the subject knew at the time of filming he had mere weeks left before he’d die of cancer. There are moments when director Neo Sora, Sakamot ..read more
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‘There was unfinished business with Boys State’: inside the female follow-up to the hit film
The Guardian | Documentary films
by Adrian Horton
2d ago
Girls State tracks the high-schoolers taking part in a mock government simulation just as a devastating supreme court ruling is about to change everything Nearly seven years ago, the film-makers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine went to Texas to see government in action, albeit one run by teenagers. The country was well into the Trump administration – Muslim bans and kids in cages dominated the headlines – when the two began filming an annual American Legion convention known as Boys State, a weeklong mock government simulation for 1,000 high school boys, in the summer of 2018. The duo tried to fil ..read more
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STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces review – intimate portrait of a comedy legend
The Guardian | Documentary films
by Peter Bradshaw
3d ago
From his childhood job in Disneyland and huge standup success to movie stardom and later life career as a dry humorist this is a fascinating insight into a wild and crazy career Comedian Steve Martin now comes as close as he’s ever going to get to opening up about his life, his thoughts and his feelings in this absorbingly detailed two-part Apple documentary by director Morgan Neville. Part one is conventionally autobiographical, with archive clips and family photos and Martin’s own sonorous, ironic voiceover covering his painful childhood: failing to please his strict dad and then the extraor ..read more
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Wild Water review – gentle film following West Yorkshire’s most daring swimmers
The Guardian | Documentary films
by Cath Clarke
3d ago
This homespun documentary highlights Gaddings Dam, where intrepid wild swimmers visit in all weathers Here’s a gentle and rather lovely documentary about the community of wild swimmers who dip all year round at Gaddings Dam on the West Yorkshire moors. A beautiful spot, the dam is England’s highest beach – though it’s unlikely to be winning any awards for the sunniest. Not that lashing rain, storm-force winds or thick ice put off the hardy year-round dippers. They’re a jolly bunch – slightly bonkers, which is meant kindly. Most don’t do wetsuits; when the water temperature drops, on go the woo ..read more
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Celluloid Underground review – love letter to a lifelong passion for film and illicit treasure trove
The Guardian | Documentary films
by Peter Bradshaw
4d ago
Iranian critic Ehsan Khoshbakht’s personal essay about a man’s smizdat film print collection shows the lengths cinephiles will go to to protect the art form The passion of cinephilia is the subject of this absorbing personal essay movie from Iranian critic and film historian Ehsan Khoshbakht, now co-director of the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna, Italy, who narrates the film in a style that reminded me a little of Mark Cousins and also perhaps Werner Herzog. Khoshbakht grew up in post-revolutionary Iran where he developed a love of movies and of moving images generally, even the stern ..read more
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William Shatner: ‘Good science fiction is humanity, moved into a different milieu’
The Guardian | Documentary films
by Charles Bramesco
1w ago
Ahead of a new documentary, You Can Call Me Bill, the Star Trek icon shares his eternal interest in learning more about the world Cranked out to accommodate the recent boom in demand for fresh content to binge, too many celebrity-profile documentaries are defaulting to the formulaic sameness of assembly-line product: open with some candid talking-head soundbites, a walk down memory lane through their early years, deeper dives into the major bullet points of their career, and tie it up with a bit of summarizing introspection looking back on it all. Conversely, Alexandre O Philippe’s new William ..read more
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‘If you’re anointed tonight, you can be dumped on tomorrow’: Steve Martin on fame, failure and TV humiliation
The Guardian | Documentary films
by Ryan Gilbey
1w ago
Jerry Seinfeld calls him ‘the most idolised comedian ever’. Yet after five decades at the top, success still makes him cringe. He discusses doubting himself, starring in a documentary – and that Dennis Pennis encounter I didn’t expect Steve Martin to be funny. Sure, it was his skewwhiff sensibility that made The Jerk, The Man With Two Brains, LA Story and Bowfinger so deliriously inspired. And he was comedy’s first double-platinum-record-selling, stadium-touring megastar; he began wearing a white suit on stage only so that he could be seen by fans in the cheap seats several postcodes away. He ..read more
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Freaknik: behind the wild party that became a cultural phenomenon
The Guardian | Documentary films
by Andrew Lawrence
1w ago
A new documentary looks back on the college cookout that turned into a defining event for Black students in Atlanta and beyond throughout the 80s and 90s When Hulu announced plans to release a documentary on Freaknik late last year, the news landed more like a threat. “Freaknik aunties are shook,” read one Revolt TV headline. TMZ reported that an “older generation of ragers” was ”freaking out”. One TikToker who claimed to have attended several of the spring break festivals during its 90s heyday captured the prevailing mood among her peers. “I dunno, y’all,” she sighed, “we might be in trouble ..read more
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Christspiracy: The Spirituality Secret review – Jesus was a vegetarian and other entertaining tosh
The Guardian | Documentary films
by Leslie Felperin
1w ago
Unsupported assertions and gormless naivety drive this mishmash of pseudoscience and manipulated religious doctrine Clearly scheduled to give vegetarians and vegans ammunition to shame carnivorous family members around the Easter and Passover dinner table, this passionate but unpersuasive documentary argues that Jesus was probably a vegetarian. Ultimately, the theory gets largely traced back to the apocryphal Gospel of the Ebionites, a text that’s been around since the second century; director Kip Andersen, however, makes a whole song and dance out of “discovering” this notion in a roundabout ..read more
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Calvinia review – jarringly nostalgic look at a South African childhood
The Guardian | Documentary films
by Phuong Le
1w ago
Ran der Merwe’s documentary returns the director to the Northern Cape where he grew up, but glosses over trauma and injustice Situated in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, Calvinia is a rural town blessed with a magnificently scenic landscape, where towering mountain ranges give way to far-reaching plains. It is also the birthplace of film-maker Rudivan der Merwe, whose documentary ode, with its triptych structure guided by childhood memories, is both a pilgrimage and farewell to his home town. Van der Merwe first fixes his camera on his parents, who were livestock ranchers. In contr ..read more
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