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Archive for the ‘Documentaries’ Category

“TABLOID”: Torn from the headlines

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , on August 19, 2011| 1 Comment »

Tabloid girl Joyce McKinney back in the scandalous '70s...

“TABLOID”  My rating: B (Opening Aug. 19 at the Tivoli and Glenwood at Red Bridge)

87 minutes | No MPAA rating

“Tabloid” finds heavy duty documentarist Errol Morris happily slumming. And boy, is he having fun.

The maker of such noteworthy non-fiction films as “Gates of Heaven” (pet cemeteries), “Mr. Death” (a Holocaust denier), “The Thin Blue Line” (prosecutorial malfeasance in Texas) and the Oscar-winning “The Fog of War” (Robert McNamara), Morris tends to gravitate toward weighty subject matter.

But with “Tabloid” he delves into a torn-from-the-headlines scandal to reveal the face of a true American eccentric.

Morris’ subject is Joyce McKinney, a former beauty queen from North Carolina who in 1977 set off a media feeding frenzy when she and several confederates traveled to England and kidnapped her former boyfriend, a young Morman doing missionary work.

(more…)

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“BUSKING THE SYSTEM”: Playing for life

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , , on August 19, 2011| 1 Comment »

Kansas Citian Phillip Bradley is one of the subjects of "Busking the System," a documentary about musicians playing in NYC's subways

“BUSKING THE SYSTEM” My rating: C+  (Opening Aug. 19 at the Screenland Crown Center)

80 minutes | No MPAA rating

An art form? An irritation? Begging with a fancy label? Or perhaps just a legitimate expression of personal thoughts and impulses?

However you view it, busking — performing in public places for contributions from the crowd — is a fact of life in NYC, especially down on the subway platforms.

Justin Morales’ documentary “Busking the System” follows several aspiring buskers (two with Kansas City connections) to the Big Apple where they try their hands at playing their music for crowds of commuters and tourists.

It’s not an easy gig, despite efforts in recent years by the subway authority to legitimize busking by holding auditions with the winning acts getting the most visible locations and time slots.

Among the subjects of this likable but unremarkable documentary are Phillip Bradley, a Kansas City singer/songwriter/guitarist, and Nathan Corsi, a native of Akron, Ohio, whose family has since relocated to KC.

(more…)

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DVD: Don’t walk on my laugh line, Comrade

Posted in Documentaries, New on DVD, tagged , , , , on July 31, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“EXPORTING RAYMOND” (Available Aug. 2 )

When “Everybody Loves Raymond” ended its run after nine years and 210 episodes, creator Phil Rosenthal began thinking about whether his TV show about a bickering but basically loving middle-class family might translate to other cultures.

After all, “The Nanny” became a hit in Europe with casts of various nationalities. Why not “Raymond”?

With that in mind Rosenthal agreed to help a Russian TV network develop its own version of “Raymond.” Rosenthal brought along a video crew to document the progress, and the result is “Exporting Raymond,” a fish-out-of-water real-life comedy in which the Hollywood mover and shaker gets a sobering lesson in how the rest of the world operates.

"Everybody Loves Kostya"...the Russian "Raymond"

OK, I don’t want to make Rosenthal seem like some sort of boorish Tinsel Town heavy hitter. (more…)

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“PROJECT NIM”: Monkey business

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“PROJECT NIM” My rating: B+ (Opening July 29 at the Glenwood Arts)

93 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

We humans are an arrogant lot. Exhibit A is James Marsh’s “Project Nim,” a devastating documentary about a monkey.

Not just any monkey, but a chimp named Nim who in the mid-70’s was the celebrated subject of an experiment  in primate intelligence and the eternal question of nature vs. nurture.

Shortly after his birth in an Oklahoma primate research facility, Nim was taken from his sedated mother and given to a wealthy New York family to raise as their own child.

The creator of this experiment, Columbia University psychologist Herbert Terrace, wanted to see if a chimpanzee reared as a human could learn to speak in sign language. How great would it be if an animal could tell us what it’s thinking and feeling?

(more…)

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“PAGE ONE”: The Old Gray Lady ain’t what she used to be…

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , , , , on July 22, 2011| 1 Comment »

David Carr...defending the honor of the New York Times in "Page One"

“PAGE ONE”  My rating: B  (Opens July 22 at the Glenwood Arts)

88 minutes: MPAA rating: R

The recent woes of print journalism are front and center in “Page One,” a documentary for which director Alex Rossi  spent a year observing the inner workings of our greatest newspaper, The New York Times.

Although it remains America’s most successful daily, the old gray lady nevertheless is struggling to stay economically viable in an era when the internet and other free sources of news have cut badly into both her advertising revenue and her once-exclusive position as the ultimate source of information on current events.

And if things are bad for the unassailable Times, imagine what it’s like for other papers.

(I personally could tell you a few tales of woe…but, no, that’s for another day.) (more…)

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Our indie film avatar: John Shipp

Posted in Documentaries, KC Film Scene, tagged , , , , on July 18, 2011| 5 Comments »

John Shipp: film peddler

“THE FILM PEDDLER”  (Playing at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 22, at the Screenland Crown Center.)

I’ve known John Shipp for more than 30 years, but it took this lighthearted, utterly charming documentary for me to truly appreciate the guy.

In recent years Shipp has been known as a film booker and as a moving force in Kansas City FilmFest, the Film Society of Greater Kansas City and CinemaKC.

But this film, made by his nephews, Devin and Shannon Kelley (their first effort, and it’s a keeper), opened my eyes to Shipp’s wildly colorful backstory.

More than four decades ago, we’re informed, Shipp became the youngest MGM branch manager ever. But working for a big company wasn’t precisely what this ambitious guy was looking for.

Shipp wanted to be his own boss. And he more or less created (more…)

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“BUCK”: Tall in the Saddle

Posted in Documentaries, tagged , , , , on July 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Buck Brannaman

“BUCK” My rating: B+ (Opens wide on July 1)

88 minutes | MPAA rating: PG

Heroes are hard to come by in this day and age. But I think we’ve got a new one.

Buck Brannaman trains horses. He is, in fact, one of the men on whom the title character of “The Horse Whisperer” was based.

His ability to read these animals, to commune with them telepathically (one good old boy rancher calls it “voodoo”), to meld minds so that no sooner does Brannaman think it than the horse responds, would be enough to make him a world-class curiosity.

But as the new documentary “Buck” illustrates, what makes Brannaman truly heroic is not his skill with horses (more…)

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“CONAN O’BRIEN CAN’T STOP” : Anger and exhilaration

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , , , on July 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“CONAN O’BRIEN CAN’T STOP”  My rating: B- (Opening July 1 at the Screenland Crossroads)

89 minutes | MPAA rating: R

It’s said that comedy is born of anger. And you’ll no find a better illustration of that than Conan’s O’Brien’s Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.

In the wake of his 2010 breakup/betrayal with NBC, the former “Tonight Show” host — who in return for a huge cash settlement agreed not to appear on TV, radio or the Internet for six months — opted to launch a nationwide comedy tour.

It was no small affair: a full band, backup singers/dancers, elaborate props (like a masturbating stuffed panda) and an ever-changing slate of special guests.

And it was all fueled by rage.

In “Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop” the normally affable funnyman (more…)

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DVD review: Eluding Big Brother

Posted in Documentaries, New on DVD, tagged , , , on June 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“ERASING DAVID” (Available June 28)

In this hugely thought-provoking doc from Britain, filmmaker David Bond kisses his child and pregnant wife goodbye and attempts to disappear.

His goal: to elude for one full month a pair of  professional investigators  he’s hired to track him down.

For anyone who has ever though it might be cool to simply pack it all in and live off the information grid, “Erasing David” will be a sobering reality check. (more…)

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Buck Brannaman: Quiet dignity

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , , on June 27, 2011| 3 Comments »

Cowboy culture is tough, rough and taciturn, right?

Slow-talking guys in jeans and Stetsons.

Yep.

Nope.

Thank you, Ma’am.

Not a whole lot of touchy-feely.

But here’s Buck Brannaman, quite possibly the most important cowboy in America, talking to the documentary camera about his abuse-filled childhood.

About how his widowed father would go on drunken tears and beat Buck and older brother Smokey.

About the winter night when young Buck, terrified of another session of torment, fled into sub-zero weather in his pajamas and survived by sharing a ranch dog’s straw-filled barrel.

Ironically, that tortured childhood may have been instrumental in creating the man Buck Brannaman is today, a real-life horse whisperer whose clinics for horses and their owners are legendary, whose methodology rejects “breaking” an animal and instead relies on his ability to get on the equine wavelength.

After a session with the gentle Brannaman, a horse seems to know telepathically what he wants it do do.

“I dream about horses,” Brannaman said (more…)

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