Circling back to the achievements he made wth his breakout doc Sharkwater, filmmaker/conservationist Rob Stewart checks in in the status of sharks in his final film Sharkwater: Extinction. The documentary, however, takes on a parallel meaning because it’s not only a swan song to an endangered species, it’s also a touching goodbye to Stewart and his career in activism.
NOTE: Wonders of the Sea is currently being screened in 3D across Canada, but this review reflects the 2D version of the film. Wonders of the Sea has everything that you would get out of an uninterrupted computer screensaver of the ocean floor: opulent underwater visuals of fish and undefinable critters, and crossover transitions that meld everything together. The screensaver is better, however, because it’s quiet. Wonders of the Sea is informative, but there are too many…
Hale County This Morning, This Evening is an unconventional documentary of sorts, but it makes sense for photographer RaMell Ross to make his feature-length filmmaking debut with this project. After all, it’s essentially an assortment of photographs that have come to life. The film captures fragmented life in Hale County, Alabama; creating a fly-on-the-wall visit for audiences who observe the community during routines and conversations. Only a few subjects are interviewed on camera, but they speak openly…
Inventing Tomorrow, Laura Nix’s uplifting documentary about teenage scientists competing at the Intel ISEF (the science fair to end all science fairs), is a much-needed antidote to the cynicism that seems to be increasingly present everywhere we look.
Hal Ashby is undoubtedly one of the underrated greats of American cinema. While he never quite became a household name, his films frequently had a certain magical quality to them; never quite being the film that people think of when referring to the great works of an actor, but rather that other film that always comes out in the second or third breath. Films like Harold & Maude, The Last Detail, Bound for Glory and Being There ensured that he would…
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.”
