Step (2017)

As Roger Ebert famously stated, "Movies are the most powerful empathy machine in all the arts." When I watch movies from foreign countries like Iran, I often think about how beneficial it would be for all Americans to watch them. They would be shocked at how much they share in common with people a world away who are supposedly our, "enemy". The same could be said about a documentary like Step. It's sad to think that it would require a film to make people realize how much they have in common with someone they share a country with, but that's the world we live in today. There are so many outlets for information and entertainment that people are able to live in a carefully curated bubble just for them where they only see/hear things that reinforce what they already believe. That's why art like this documentary is important. It bursts the bubble and helps us recognize our shared humanity.

Tower (2016)

Who would have thought that a movie about a massacre would be the film to leave me with a renewed faith in humanity? I certainly didn't! While most films would focus on the shooter and his motives, this film hardly makes mention of him. This isn't a case of plastering one of the Boston Bombers on the cover of Rolling Stone like he's some sort of rock star. I'm not totally certain, but I feel like they don't even say the Austin Shooter's name out loud, and the only photo of him is as a baby. This is a film about the victims, about their lives and their experiences. It is also a film about compassion, sacrifice and even forgiveness. Oh and it's a cartoon too. Man I love cinema!

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

Insane that a piece  conceived decades ago is still relevant today. It's what happens when you choose to ignore a problem rather than confront it. You call something a "riot" rather than an "uprising" or "protest" so that you can diminish it and write it off. When you treat a tragedy as a one-off, rather than a symptom of something greater, you diminish our ability to get at the heart of the disease. Bury your head in the sand all you want, but there is something gravely wrong with this country and the issue of race. Having a black President for eight years allowed us to further the delusion, and look where that got us! The information in this film is not new. We just need to finally accept what it is saying and look within ourselves. Otherwise, what hope is there for a brighter tomorrow?

Five Came Back (2017)

This was an interesting experience. Since I had already read Mark Harris' excellent book of the same name, a lot of these stories were old news to me and that really held me back in the early chapters. I mean it was cool getting to see some of the footage that I'd only read about, but nothing new was really brought to the table. There wasn't anything that really justified this being a film rather than a book. But then there's that final third. In its final hour, this doc really becomes cinema. As fascinating as I found the book, it didn't move me. The final segment of this film moved me greatly. Five Came Back will go down as one of the finest documentaries about cinema ever.

Best of Cinerama (1963)

The first Cinerama production was titled, This is Cinerama. But it might as well have been titled This is Cinema because the roots go that deep. The five films compiled to make Best of Cinerama, bear a stronger kinship to the medium's pioneers than they do to Ford or Hitchcock. Part documentary, part travelogue, part amusement park ride, these Cinerama productions feel like the logical successors to the short curiosities and one-offs that the Lumiere Brothers and Edison trafficked in. Can't make it to The Louvre to see The Mona Lisa in its natural setting? Cinerama has you covered! Not tall enough to ride a rollercoaster? Cinerama has you covered! This is Cinema at its most elemental. This is Pure Cinema. And it is glorious.

Ornette: Made in America (1984)

While certainly flawed, this film comes closer than any other I've seen to an accurate cinematic representation of jazz. Shirley Clarke's editing has a great sense of rhythm that perfectly marries sound and vision. But she also understands the importance of solos. Sometimes the music gets to be front and center. Sometimes the visuals are allowed to take the lead. It's a delicate tapestry of new and old media that is filled to the brim with recurrent themes that are both aural and visual. Even the incorporation of video games seems to suggest the ways in which jazz assimilates new styles and techniques. As far as I know Shirley Clark didn't play an instrument, but through this film she pulls of a remarkable duet with one of American Music's most original voices ever.

Cameraperson (2016)

Aside from a few moments of intense montage that draw parallels between  seemingly disparate things, this is an extremely unobtrusive film. It is one sequence, and then it is another sequence, separated by black like it's an early Jim Jarmusch film. Each black screen cleansing the palate and clearing your mind of what came before so that you can better appreciate the next spectacle on its own. But can you truly forget what came before? Everything adds up. What came before shapes how we react to what comes after. And by mixing in home movies as well, Kristen Johnson also addresses the call and response between one's  work-life and home-life. But it does this all in such a measured way. Thoughts come to you as you watch and you think that they are by chance, but Johnson intended you to have them. That's her hand pulling up a weed to create a better composition. She is the Cameraperson and we are seeing things as she sees them, so that we might share her thoughts.

Weiner (2016)

The fact that this documentary exists is insane. But it's also kind of the point. This is a portrait of a man so drunk on power that he believes he can get away with anything. This is a portrait of a man who cannot tell when it's over. So of course he allowed cameras to keep filming his zombie campaign. I get the impulse to counter the mainstream media story by allowing people to see "the real Anthony Weiner", but how can you be so blind as to not realize the way you are coming off in all this candid footage? I don't even know if Donald Trump has that much ego! As head-shaking and vomit inducing as this whole mess is on a personal and political level, it sure does make for riveting and fascinating cinema. Oh and if you're reading this on the day that it posts, please go out and vote tomorrow.

Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman (2009)

It wasn't until this most recent viewing (my third) that I really made the connection between architectural photography and film criticism. How did I miss it? Those are my two greatest passions! And it's all right there! At their most basic, both are creative endeavors that rely on someone else's creativity for a starting point. They're both about finding what is unique in a work and bringing attention to it in the most artful way possible. Both professions allow the artist to advocate for new talent as well as the old masters. Is it merely coincidence that a common term for having a particular "take" on a film, is to say that you have "an angle" on it? Julius Shulman was an amazing advocate for modernism and was able to transform that advocacy into masterful works that are able stand on  their own. We should all strive to be that good at what we do.

13th (2016)

There is no room for ambiguity in this documentary. Ava DuVernay has a message to impart and she wants to make damn sure that you get it. While she never resorts to Michael Moore narration or Errol Morris recreations, the bravura editing by Spencer Averick (obviously under DuVernay's direction) makes damn sure that nothing is lost on anyone. A single cut can bridge 150 years and help us to better understand how we got into this mess in the first place. Sure it's unsubtle, that's deliberate. DuVernay knows how important it is to pick the right tool for the job. If you want to carve the statue of David, you use a chisel. If you want to tear down the Prison Industrial Complex, you use a sledge hammer. I'm glad that this film is on Netflix so that it can be seen by as many people as possible because this is a documentary for right now.

The Witness (2016)

How much of a news story do you have to read to be outraged? How much of a news story do you have to read before you click that "share" button on Facebook? While I'm sure plenty of you share responsibly, I know for a fact that plenty also share stories based entirely on the headline. I do it myself. And that's how false information spreads. This film is not a click-bait headline. This film is a "long read". This film goes deep and goes wide. You think you know the story of Kitty Genovese, but even her own family didn't know her whole story. Can anyone really know the whole story? Does the quest ever end?

O.J.: Made In America (2016)

Back in 2000 there was a TV movie about the OJ case titled American Tragedy. I remember at the time thinking that the title was quite an overstatement for a film about an ex-athlete's murder trial. It's not like Simpson was a politician or something. Someday I'll check that movie out, but having now consumed over seven hours of expertly crafted documentary filmmaking on the subject, I completely agree with that title.

It's twenty years later and all of the issues at play during the first trial are still problems today. Rather than showing us how far we have come in two decades, this film makes us acutely aware that nothing has changed. In fact, things have gotten worse. This is not a nostalgia piece. This film is relevant to the here and now. Orenthal James Simpson might have fallen from a great height, but it's nothing compared to how far American Culture has fallen. If Spike Lee had made this film, it would have ended or began with someone yelling, "WAKE UP!"

Life Itself (2014)

If you know me at all you know that I'm extremely hard on documentaries. Paint by numbers does not work for me. Bio docs are often the worst offenders. If I wanted a list of incidents I would just read the person's Wikipedia page. While Life Itself certainly does make a point of checking off all the key moments in Roger Ebert's life, it stands out by choosing to mirror the structure of the biography on which it was based.

Rather than telling a strict chronological narrative, Ebert's book is structured much more like a series of essays where each covers a different aspect of his life. There's the one about journalism, the one about alcoholism, the one about Scorsese, the one about Chaz, etc. Instead of a simple list of accomplishments, you get to take in all the numerous and diverse aspects of Roger's life. He wasn't just a film critic. He wasn't just a recovering alcoholic. He wasn't just a TV personality. He was all those things and many more. This is a film about all the different elements that make up a person. This is a film about Life Itself.

The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)

While it might seem weird to say in this era of everyone having a camera on them at all times: This film really reinforces the importance of documenting your scene. If you aren't doing it, who is? The Germs only have one full-length album and frontman Darby Crash was already dead by the time this film was released. But thanks to Penelope Spheeris' camera, he can live on for forever. I know we are all supposed to put our phones down and actually experience life, but if you really think something is awesome and worth sharing, please record it and share it. The world needs more awesome things. Don't be so selfish. Spread the wealth. You might be preserving something which would have otherwise been forgotten.

One Day Since Yesterday: Peter Bogdanovich and the Lost American Film (2014)

As a pretty serious movie nut, I have seen quite a lot of documentaries about film. Docs about specific films, docs about specific filmmakers, docs about movements, docs about techniques - I’ve seen them all. As edifying as most of these are, few of them actually rate as good cinema. Most of these docs come from a place of fanaticism and therefore the impulse is to include anything and everything that you can find related to your subject. This results in a long ramble that merely ends because there is no more material. What makes Bill Teck’s One Day Since Yesterday so unique is that it actually has a shape to it. Rather than just being a big love letter to They All Laughed, Teck is able to place that film within the context of Peter Bogdanovich’s greater life and filmography. There’s a real arc to this film. You begin by learning about Bogdanovich before he met Dorothy Stratten, then you get to spend a long time on their relationship and learn about the lovely film they made together, and then you are there with Peter through his loss of Dorothy, and lastly you get to see the various ways in which that loss is still shaping his life and career. As the end credits will attest, there was a lot more material that could have been used in the body of the film, but wisely Teck chose to place his narrative and emotion first. The result is a satisfying and heartbreaking whole that all cinephiles should seek out as soon as possible. It's on Netflix!

Call Me Lucky (2015)

I know 2015 is only half over, but I’m pretty sure I’ve just seen the best documentary of the year. Like Searching for Sugarman and 20 Feet from Stardom it’s an exploration of a fascinating person you’re probably not that familiar with. Like Life Itself it gives everyone a chance to sing the praises of an individual who has meant so much to so many. And Like Deliver Us from Evil it confronts the topics we’d rather not discuss in the bluntest terms possible. It’s so many different movies all wrapped up into one hilarious and heartbreaking whole.

Don’t know who Barry Crimmins is? Great! That’s the perfect way to go into this film. Let the filmmakers take you for a ride that weaves laughter and tears together so ably. Even when things turn REALLY dark, there are still moments of levity to be found. It puts you through your paces in a way that only the best films can. And did I mention that it is directed by Bobcat Goldthwait?! If for some reason you have any preconceived notions about that name, I promise you they will have vanished by the time this movie is over. Make an effort to go see it whenever it comes near.

Don't know where it's playing? Check out their website for the full list of theaters currently showing this gem. More theaters being added weekly!

Paris is Burning (1990)

Such an astounding documentary! This film was instrumental in bringing a very specific, important and ignored subculture to the attention of the world at large. The ripples caused by the Drag Balls depicted here can still be felt to this day in popular culture the world over. Faced with homo/transphobia and the decimation of AIDS in the 80's, the members of this vibrant community refused to be anything but themselves. Even if it was just for a night, these balls allowed them a brief respite from the darkness.

Though many of the participants in this film are no longer with us, they live on in a work that is still so vital. The fight for marriage equality may now be a thing of the past, but stories like Venus Xtravaganza's are still happening every single day all across America. There are still battles to win. Everyone should see this film. It's funny, fabulous and heartbreaking without even breaking a sweat.

Actress (2014)

Thanks to Netflix, everyone is consuming documentaries en masse. All sorts of films that would never draw a big enough audience to justify a theatrical release, are suddenly getting a fair shake in the digital world. Think of a subject and there is a doc about it. Yet, despite all this diversity in subject, I haven't really seen that much variety in form. If a film is about an issue, it's a bunch of talking heads and graphics. If it's about a person it's an unending train of incidents with no shape. And of course there's the over-reliance on chyrons and talking heads. You will not find any of that in Actress. With its choice of subject and stylized photography, this movie comes out feeling like it could be a spiritual sibling to the David Lynch films Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire. Who would have thought that a film about a bit player from The Wire would yield so many interesting thoughts about femininity, relationships, the entertainment industry and the American Dream? A documentary can be anything you want. You just have to let it.

Sans Soleil (1983)

I really don't know how to accurately describe Sans Soleil. It isn't entirely a documentary since it has scripted narration that is from the perspective of one fictional person to another. But it is also very much not a narrative film. It exists somewhere in between the two styles and creates something that could only have come from the mind of the elusive Chris Marker. The images are so beautiful and the ideas so insightful that either could easily exist without the other. But it is the ways in which they merge and play off one another that makes this film so truly wonderful. What could have been an above average TV travel special or NPR segment, instead becomes a fascinating examination of memory and one of the most unique cinematic experiences you will ever have. When you or I go on vacation, we come back with a few photos and maybe one interesting story. Chris Marker comes back with a masterpiece.

Gimme Shelter (1970)

On the commentary track for Zodiac, David Fincher describes the infamous overhead shot of the ill-fated Paul Stein's taxi making its way around Presidio Heights thusly:

"The idea here was to have this sense of both detachment, you know. God's POV looking down on something he has no control over and also this way of...you're both locked on to what's happening and powerless to change it."

For me, that sentiment perfectly encapsulates the experience of watching Gimme Shelter. You know where this is heading. You know it is headed somewhere bad because you have the advantage of hindsight and can see all of the foreshadowing. But there is also absolutely nothing you can do about it. All you can do is silently sit there and bare witness to the end of an era.

I'm sort of perplexed at the inclusion of a 5.1 soundtrack on the Bluray. Of course the music is excellent. But it is really hard to party when rape and murder is just a shot away. But then again, the show must go on.