May 7, 2010: War Games and the Man Who Stopped Them Continuing on my string of documentary viewings at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival, War Games and the Man Who Stopped Them is a Polish film about a military man who worked his way up through the ranks, became involved with Poland’s intelligence service, then […]
May 5, 2010: Into Eternity Into Eternity is a documentary about long-term nuclear waste storage. The particular story concerns a huge engineering project in Finland to store the waste deep beneath the surface of the earth, but it’s clear that the concerns apply anywhere in the world, and are even more pressing for countries which […]
May 3, 2010: Steam of Life Steam of Life is a Finnish documentary about what men talk about in the sauna. This is a meticulous and reverential effort, with footage from hectic cityscapes setting the stage for scenes in crowded public saunas in urban areas, while long slow establishing shots of forests and water precede […]
May 3, 2010: The People vs. George Lucas I want to do this documentary justice in my review, but I’ll warn you now that I don’t think it’s going to happen. Just see the movie for yourself. The People vs. George Lucas looks at the push and pull relationship that rabid Star Wars fans of […]
May 2, 2010: Talhotblond: Continuing with my little blast of documentary films during the Hot Docs festival in Toronto, I saw a midnight screening of “Talhotblond:”. It tells a tale of instant messaging intrigue, detailing human conflicts as old as time itself but now more geographically dispersed due to the wonders of the internet. Actually, […]
May 1, 2010: The Big Lebowski Why, when I first saw The Big Lebowski (1998) several years ago, didn’t I like it?? The Dude and his crew swear like sailors, revel in the minutiae of their day-to-day lives, and strike a puzzling mix of laissez-faire and unrepentant rage when an identity mix-up drags The Dude […]
April 30, 2010: And Everything Is Going Fine Before seeing And Everything Is Going Fine, I vaguely knew who Spalding Gray was, but really knew nothing of what he did. After seeing it, I have a much better idea of what a unique person he was, so honest and forthcoming that all he had to […]
April 27, 2010: Death at a Funeral (2010) I knew from the trailer, really, that this remake of Death at a Funeral was likely to be a train wreck. But when you line up that much comedic talent, I can’t resist. What I should have done is watch the Frank Oz-directed 2007 British original instead. […]
April 27, 2010: Kick-Ass Kick-Ass generated some controversy, and I was wary because of its comic-book pedigree, but it turned out to be far better than I expected. A bunch of high school geeks talk about superheroes and why nobody ever actually bothers to become one. When one of them gets into a car crash […]
April 19, 2010: Chloe Was Atom Egoyan ever as great as we all think he was? He’s undeniably talented when it comes to the technical elements of filmmaking, and that goes a long way. But for me, he pretty consistently misfires in some way. Mind you, when I think back over the films I’ve seen […]