Searching for Ingmar Bergman, a new documentary from renowned German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta, is an intimate portrait of the famed Swedish filmmaker’s life and legacy, focusing both on his voluminous oeuvre (Bergman’s first film credit as a screenwriter in the early 1940s to his last film, Saraband, in 2004) and his family life.
Almost Almost Famous is high energy and often kind of cheesy – much like the performers it follows. While the film certainly isn’t terrible and there are a handful of moments that feel honest and genuine, this is a documentary that never quite manages to find its footing.
Twitter has been featured in movies, but Laurie McGuinness’ Funny Tweets is allegedly the first film about Twitter, an open forum that allows users to connect to the world through condensed text. The film reminds its viewers that it’s “not affiliated with or sponsored by” the social media platform but, hey, they could’ve fooled me. The documentary is overflowing with gratitude expressed by comedians and writers who sing the Twittersphere gospel.
“We should have known this.” “Someone must have known.”
The central question at the core of Nathaniel Kahn’s The Price of Everything is how importantly, or inherently, is money connected to art? The answer reveals itself through the understanding of artists, historians and dealers, with that importance going higher as monetary power does. In other words, this documentary ultimately makes two points: art is inherently financial, and capitalism will slowly but surely cause the demise of it.
By: Trevor Chartrand On the internet, rumors and stories spread wildly, and most people are logical and cautious enough to question everything they read online. Folks often dismiss fantastical, source-less narratives because, come on, that never could have happened, right? Well, maybe not. A new documentary titled The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man examines one of these online rumors and proves that there’s some validity here – so maybe we…
Directed by Tom Volf, Maria by Callas examines the life and art of one of the twentieth century’s greatest opera singers, Maria Callas. Through archival footage of Callas on stage, her personal correspondence to friends, and interviews with the singer recorder at various points throughout her career, the film attempts to show the personal, intimate side of a woman that was the subject of much media attention during her lifetime.
I generally have a problem with documentarians who assume too much from their audience before their movie even begins. The purpose of most documentaries is to pitch ideas to viewers and then supply supported arguments – gradually warming over movie goers. A documentary like this one, Restoring Tomorrow, immediately expects viewers to be just as – if not more – attached to the subject manner than the doc’s own filmmaker, Aaron Wolf.
By: Jessica Goddard An engrossing call-to-action documentary by the late Rob Stewart, Sharkwater: Extinction is a brave journalistic exploration further into the destructive shark fin trade, following up 2006’s acclaimed Sharkwater.
By: Jessica Goddard Half documentary, half pet project from Michael Caine, My Generation is vaguely informative but mostly a colourful nostalgia trip to 1960s creative hotspot London. The film arcs from explaining the roots of the culturally significant music, fashion, and photography of young London in the 60s to imparting what happened when those same tastemakers dove headfirst into vice (Caine told The Guardian in a recent interview, “What ruined the 60s, towards the end…