Category
DVD Reviews
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08.20.10Louie Bluie DVD ReviewI've always found it amazing that Terry Zwigoff's esoteric brand of filmmaking managed to crack the mainstream. While films like Bad Santa and Ghost World might not be blockbusters, they're definitely a bit more palatable to general audiences than his quirky documentary roots. In my opinion, Crumb remains his best work but Louie Bluie is surely a close second, marking a strong feature film debut. The film is an hour-long portrait of country blues and string band musician Howard "Louis Bluie" Armstrong. Not unlike Zwigoff's follow-up feature Crumb, this film divides its screen time by giving the viewer a bit ...
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08.16.10Crumb Blu-ray ReviewTerry Zwigoff’s Crumb is a magnificent example of a film that successfully manages the delicate balance between traditional retrospective talking-head biopic and a more immediate and intimate character piece. The level of access to Crumb and his family is rooted in an off-camera friendship that exists beyond the boundaries of this film, resulting in a unique look inside the otherwise reclusive life of one of the 20th century's most gifted artists. Robert Crumb found fame in the 1960s as a co-founder of Zap Comics, a movement of LSD-inspired adult-oriented underground comic books originally written and illustrated by Crumb. Curiously, he never ...
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06.22.10Close-Up Blu Ray ReviewAbbas Kiarostami’s 1990 docudrama Close-Up completely buries the defining line between documentary and drama. It’s a subversive piece of meta filmmaking that comments on the value of art and cinema through the trial of one overzealous man whose desire to live vicariously through the films — and filmmaker’s — he loves drove him to deception. The opening ten minutes of Close-Up manages to lay out the entire plot of the film while still keeping the audience completely in the dark. Two dashboard mounted cameras capture a taxi ride — in what seems to be real time — as a journalist ...
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04.23.10Capturing Reality DVD ReviewIt seems we're approaching the point where a documentary has been made about practically everything, so it only makes sense that eventually we'd get a documentary about documentary filmmaking! The meta-ness is mind-blowing! For documentary fans and filmmakers, Capturing Reality is a great resource and starting point for discussion of the techniques and ethics of non-fiction filmmaking. For the casual viewer, it's probably boring as hell. For me, it was a chance to get some insight from some of my favourite filmmakers on one of my favourite forms of storytelling. There's a lot of debate within documentary circles about the idea ...
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03.17.10The Universe Season 4 Blu Ray ReviewIf I think about the Universe for too long I'm liable to pass out and wet my pants. It's THAT mind-blowing. How can something actually go on forever? Luckily, the History Channel has just released season 4 of its great series 'The Universe' to help clear up some important questions about the deep, dark vastness of space. Want to know what would happen if the Moon disappeared? You'll find the answers in this great collection! I've only just began watching this show for this review, so I'm a little behind. I'm not sure if previous seasons have covered the basics ...
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02.08.10Prom Night in Mississippi DVD ReviewThe high school prom has been a staple in modern cinema for as long as I can remember. So many great films have climaxed with a killer school dance: Carrie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Back to the Future, Sixteen Candles. With Prom Night in Mississippi, director Paul Saltzman throws his chips on the table, trading in time travel and pig's blood for...small town racism! After all, this is prom night in Mississippi, not Hill Valley. So apparently Charleston, Mississippi still holds segregated proms. How messed up is that? I guess it's not totally surprising that there are still pockets of the ...