Category Archives: Documentary

Holy Grail: The State of Nonfiction

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71E_fbTzfFc%5D Lately, a number of people have approached me about a troubling trend in documentary films. Basically, there’s a sense that while documentaries have risen to prominence, so too has a lack of creativity and a somewhat lazy reliance on … Continue reading

Posted in Documentary, ESPN 30 for 30, Films, Movies, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Gatekeepers

Sometimes watching a film on the big screen can make all the difference. I had seen Dror Moreh’s The Gatekeepers in tiny form some time ago and while I didn’t question the film’s emotional capacity, I identified it unfairly as a typical … Continue reading

Posted in 2013 Movies, Documentary, Films, Movies, Oscar Talk, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oscar Predictions: Best Documentary Feature

Best Documentary Feature Nominees: Searching for Sugar Man (dir. Malik Bendjelloul) How to Survive a Plague (dir. David France) The Invisible War (dir. Kirby Dick) 5 Broken Cameras (dir. Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi) The Gatekeepers (dir. Dror Moreh) Almost all of the categories are … Continue reading

Posted in Central Park Five, Documentary, Films, Movies, Oscar Talk, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oscar Noms Aftermath

Well, all told I didn’t do all that badly, nailing  73% of all categories not icluding shorts (those were a crapshoot) and 80% if you include my alternates. I whiffed on Emmanuelle Riva, and Amour in general. I thought the … Continue reading

Posted in Amour, Anna Karenina, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Documentary, Films, Movies, Oscar Talk, Uncategorized, Zero Dark Thirty | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

FINAL 2013 OSCAR NOMINATION PREDICTIONS

While this has been a particularly unpredictable Oscar season, now that the dust has all but settled on the nominations, a good amount of “locks” have surfaced in all categories. What makes this year more fun than most is the … Continue reading

Posted in Amour, Anna Karenina, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Documentary, Films, Movies, Oscar Talk, Uncategorized, Zero Dark Thirty | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Those Oscar Missed: Best Documentary Feature

CONTRIBUTED BY JAKE THOMPSON Best Documentary Feature can be an excellent showcase for documentaries that should not be missed.  I admit that I don’t get to see as many as I would like to, but when I do get to … Continue reading

Posted in Documentary, Oscar Talk | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Those Oscar Missed: Best Documentary (Short Subject)

CONTRIBUTED BY JAKE THOMPSON Best Documentary (Short Subject) is one of the few Oscar categories that home viewers would probably not be very familiar with.  As with the other two short film categories, I was originally not going to include … Continue reading

Posted in Documentary, Oscar Talk | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

REVIEW: How to Survive a Plague

Haunting and uncomfortably real, How to Survive a Plague uses the passion for its subject and the aggressive passion of it subjects to tell a powerful story of hope. With candid footage that shows people suffering from AIDS on the … Continue reading

Posted in Documentary, Films, Movies, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Best Feature Documentary Oscar Shortlist

This would have been an excellent list of nonfiction selections had The Central Park Five not been inexplicably left out. I guess it wouldn’t be the Documentary Oscar category without a few egregious snubs (see: Steve James). I need to … Continue reading

Posted in Detropia, Documentary, Errol Morris, Films, Movies, Oscar Talk | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

REVIEW: The Imposter

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS It’s nothing new for a documentary or another form of nonfiction to play on an observer’s perception of truth as way to increase the engagement of a complex story. In some ways, every piece of supposed … Continue reading

Posted in Documentary, Films, Movies, Reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments