Film
Barrymore: Christopher Plummer Plays the Hollywood Icon
Anyone even slightly versed in Hollywood lore knows that the scandals that make TMZ twitter are child’s play…
Ernest Hardy
Film
Bill W: Meet the Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous
The idea that addiction (drugs, alcoholism) is a disease is still scoffed at in some quarters, but what…
Film
The Odd Life of Timothy Green: Jennifer Garner’s Mommy Dilemma
“Lots of people hate anything that’s different,” says Cindy Green (Jennifer Garner) to her Pinterest/vision-board child Timothy (CJ…
Film
The Perfect Family: Whatever Happened to Kathleen Turner?
There’s a vague echo of John Waters’ Serial Mom in director Anne Renton’s The Perfect Family. But where…
Film
Surviving Progress: Again, the Earth Is Going to Hell
Right from the start, this documentary lets viewers know there will be no easy answers to the questions…
Film
The Raid: Redemption: Nonstop Gore and Action From Indonesia
Lean, fast-moving, and filled with brutally beautiful (or beautifully brutal) game-changing fight sequences, Gareth Evans’ Indonesian martial-arts film…
Film
The Forgiveness of Blood: An American Indie Director’s Balkan Blood Feud
Director Joshua Marston demonstrated his ability to sustain almost unbearable dramatic tension in his debut feature film, Maria…
Film
Kinyarwanda: Dramatizing the Rwandan Genocide of the ’90s
One of the goals of writer/director Alrick Brown’s Kinyarwanda, set in the midst of the Rwandan genocide of…
Film
Everyday Sunshine: Remember the ’80s? Remember Fishbone?
“They should have been the band that went way beyond any of us who were influenced by them,”…
Film
Oranges and Sunshine: Emily Watson Discovers an Adoption Scandal
Based on the true story of the collusion between British and Australian governments to illegally ship tens of…
Film
Finding Joe: Celebrating Joseph Campbell
There’s much to savor in director Patrick Takaya Solomon’s documentary about the life—but mainly the work—of the late…
Film
Mozart’s Sister: Music History, Rewritten
In heavily outlining the tragedies and injustices that befell the musically gifted older sister of Wolfgang “Amadeus,” writer/director…
Film
The Big Uneasy: Hurricane Katrina Re-Examined, From the Levee Side of the Storm
Written and directed by New Orleans resident Harry Shearer, The Big Uneasy illustrates in detail what many folks…
Film
Queen to Play: Yes, an Exciting Film About Chess
After chambermaid Hélène (Sandrine Bonnaire) glimpses an American couple (Jennifer Beals and Dominic Gould) playing chess in the…
Film
Circo: A Moving Mexican Circus Documentary
“The circus is tough and beautiful,” says a talking head in Aaron Schock’s documentary on the small, struggling,…
Film
Lemmy: The Metal Icon in a Fawning Documentary
“Lemmy is the baddest motherfucker in the world,” exclaims Dave Grohl in this fawning new music doc. It’s…
Film
The Tempest: Helen Mirren Can’t Save This Shakespearean Muddle
In Julie Taymor’s hands, Shakespeare’s The Tempest becomes a listless feminist parable. The duchess Prospera (Helen Mirren) has…
Film
Behind the Burly Q: Nudies Before They Were Indie
Although now swathed in nostalgic longing/hipster appropriation, the art of burlesque was once a vibrant, multitiered cultural enterprise—escapist…
Film
Waking Sleeping Beauty: Behind the Scenes at Disney Animation
Last fall saw the documentary Walt & El Grupo, about Walt Disney and a team of his most…
Film
Women Without Men: Forbidden Love in 1950s Iran
Adapted from Shahrnoush Parsipour’s novel of the same name, Women Without Men opens with an act of suicide…