Director: Agnès Varda Agnès Varda died on 29 March this year at the age of 90. I've seen too few of her films: the ones offered to me by MUBI in the wake of her death... last year's charming Faces Places... her own mini-documentary on the making of partner Jacques Demy's The Young Girls Of … Continue reading Review: Varda by Agnès
Directors: Alan Elliott, Sydney Pollack Stars: Aretha Franklin, Reverend James Cleveland, Clara Ward In Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining there is a scene in which Scatman Crothers' hotel employee Dick Halloran talks to young Danny Torrance about his incredible psychic gift. In order to put it into words that the boy can understand, he likens … Continue reading Review: Amazing Grace
Director: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter "I wanted every person who has ever been dismissed because of the way they look to feel like they were on that stage, killing 'em, killing 'em." This quote from Beyoncé, which floats through the first of Homecoming's intervals, should serve to quiet dismissals that this film is merely a concert film. It is … Continue reading Review: Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé
Directors: Julie Cohen, Betsy West With biopic On The Basis Of Sex currently playing in cinemas, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is having something of a career victory lap at the movies. Complimenting the dramatised version of her life starring Felicity Jones (or perhaps showing it up) is this delightful documentary from Julie Cohen and … Continue reading Review: RBG
Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi Renowned climber Alex Honnold is, at first glance, your typical extreme-sports type; gangly, obsessive, prodigiously selfish and prone to describing himself as "stoked". This film, made by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi in partnership with expert aerial cinematographer Jimmy Chin, documents Honnold. It acts as a character portrait, framed around his … Continue reading Review: Free Solo
Director: Tim Wardle We've all heard of the theory of six degrees of separation (or six degrees of Kevin Bacon, if you prefer). How society is interwoven to the degree that you can join the dots between any six people and find some form of connection. Tim Wardle's enthused documentary Three Identical Strangers delves into this … Continue reading Review: Three Identical Strangers
Director: Bart Layton Stars: Barry Keoghan, Evan Peters, Blake Jenner To what extent are movies culpable in real life crimes? It's a question that rears its head with regularity, particularly when the perpetrator(s) are young. Popular culture has a self-evident influence over our lives, shaping (but not defining) our preferences and politics, and perhaps also … Continue reading Review: American Animals
Director: Yance Ford In this bold documentary, Yance Ford scrutinises racial prejudices and segregation in the United States by bringing intense humanity to the subject, itemising a family tragedy by way of example. In 1992, his brother William Ford, Jr. was murdered but his killer evaded justice. Now, twenty-five years later, Ford uses his abilities … Continue reading Review: Strong Island
Director: Chris Moukarbel Stars: Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Bobby Campbell "I want to become a woman in this business and grow up. I mean, you become famous at 21 or 22, it's like you stop growing up," so says Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Lady Gaga in this new documentary following the creation of her … Continue reading Review: Gaga: Five Foot Two
Directors: Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes, Olivia Neergaard-Holm You are witnessing a front three-quarter view of an adult sharing several tender moments. That is to say, this documentary is an access point into the creative history of master filmmaker David Lynch, but not a Pandora's box of answers to the riddles in his narratives. If you're … Continue reading Review: David Lynch The Art Life
Director: Raoul Peck I am a white male and citizen of the UK. I'm coming up on 34 years old at the time of writing. I do not live in a racially diverse part of the country, nor have I at any point in my life. One might refer to me as sheltered and privileged and … Continue reading Review: I Am Not Your Negro
Director: John Dower You can understand why affable documentarian Louis Theroux would save the subject of Scientology for his feature debut - directed by John Dower. The strange, secretive 'religion' is so notorious for its bizarre and ominous power and influence, especially within LA, that it's as juicy a target as he's ever encountered. The … Continue reading Review: My Scientology Movie
Director: Andrew Dominik Arthur Cave died on July 14th 2015. He fell to his death from the Brighton cliffs after taking LSD. He was fifteen years old. These gut-wrenching facts are all over Andrew Dominik's artful documentary One More Time With Feeling but it takes a long time for them to be addressed head-on. Even then … Continue reading Review: One More Time With Feeling
Earlier this year I wrote a somewhat critical appraisal of Charlie Lyne's documentary on high school movies Beyond Clueless, bemoaning what I felt was a lack of depth. However, in the months since I've found myself revisiting the feature on more than one occasion. While I still find some of the insights lacking, the technique … Continue reading Review: Fear Itself
By sheer coincidence yesterday I watched Dogtooth for the first time; Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos' bizarre and striking fictional story of siblings living in enforced seclusion from the world by their overly protective and misguided parents. One wonders what the Angulo family would make of the film. For here, in Crystal Moselle's equally unusual documentary we … Continue reading Review: The Wolfpack
