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Aroused

Porn stars are people, too.


Documentary

Rod Lott
As director Deborah Anderson states at the beginning of her documentary, Aroused is not a story about pornography, but about women. For half of its 69-minute running time (deliberate?), I believed her.
 
Tuesday, June 4, 2013

The Imposter

Too good to be true, and yet ...


Documentary

Rod Lott
Although now I can’t remember the publication, I recall reading an article about con artist Frédéric Bourdin and thinking, “This would make a really good documentary.” A few years later, The Imposter is that documentary.
 
Friday, February 15, 2013

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel

An icon of fashion takes the spotlight.


Documentary

Phil Bacharach
You might not know it, but chances are Diana Vreeland has a great deal to do with what you think when it comes to fashion, style and design. As fashion editor for Harper’s Bazaar and, later, editor of Vogue, she injected post-World War II America with an almost revolutionary sense of, as she put it, “pizzazz.”
 
Friday, February 8, 2013

Paul Williams: Still Alive

The lover, the dreamer and me.


Documentary

Rod Lott
All the love audiences have for the Oscar-nominated Searching for Sugar Man (which I wasn't crazy about) is what I feel for Paul Williams: Still Alive.
 
Friday, February 1, 2013

Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis

The one-time ‘Nutty Professor’ just wants to be loved. Is that so wrong? Well, now that you mentioned it ...


Documentary

Rod Lott
There's a long-standing joke about Jerry Lewis being loved by the French, and to paraphrase The Simpsons, it’s funny ’cuz it’s true. We even see the adulation — then, now — in Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis, a two-hour documentary about the man whom one celebrity admirer calls “The Beatles of movie comedy.”
 
Thursday, January 31, 2013

Searching for Sugar Man

A true story that's truly sweet.


Documentary

Phil Bacharach
This is a golden age of documentaries, and I don’t mean the propagandistic variety via Michael Moore or 2016: Obama’s America. Given the pervasive timidity and lack of imagination in Hollywood today, film buffs are well advised to take stock of documentaries, where the most gripping stories are being told.
 
Wednesday, January 16, 2013

I Am Bruce Lee

They call him Bruce.


Documentary

Rod Lott
I was incorrect in thinking the documentary I Am Bruce Lee wouldn't reveal anything new about the screen's greatest martial artist. While not exactly earth-shattering, the facts I learned numbered many.
 
Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Classic Albums: Peter Gabriel: So

The whole story behind the music, now ‘In Your Eyes.’


Documentary

Rod Lott
Peter Gabriel’s 1986 album, So, found the former Genesis vocalist at his commercial and critical peak. Now, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, it’s not only been reissued in a three-disc box set, but is the subject of the Classic Albums documentary series.
 
Friday, November 30, 2012

With Great Power ...: The Stan Lee Story

A not-quite-Marvelous look at a pop-culture giant.


Documentary

Rod Lott
There's a great story surrounding Stan Lee and Marvel Comics. I know because a month ago, I read all about it in Sean Howe’s new book about the very topic. As for the documentary With Great Power  ...: The Stan Lee Story, however, it's perfectly fine if the only portrait you care to see is superficial, self-laudatory and largely wart-free.
 
Wednesday, November 28, 2012

The Definitive Document of the Dead

It’s all messed up.


Documentary

Rod Lott
Significantly updated from his 1985 documentary, The Definitive Document of the Dead promises to be the last word director Roy Frumkes has to say on his subject of zombie godfather George A. Romero. If not, perhaps it should be.
 
Monday, November 26, 2012

Nitro Circus: The Movie

Wow! Ouch!


Documentary

Rod Lott
Granted only a limited theatrical release this summer, Nitro Circus: The Movie is like Jackass with more athleticism, more engineering know-how, more maturity, more corporate sponsors, and much less testicular trauma.
 
Friday, November 9, 2012

Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present

The definition of art is challenged — often with full nudity — in a dynamic documentary.


Documentary

Rod Lott
Is it art?
 
Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

The truth hurts.


Documentary

Rod Lott
I can't believe — just. cannot. believe. — that Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory lost the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature this past spring. And to a football movie, no less! It's another case of the jocks running ragged over the outcasts, except these outcasts were able to effect something few docs achieve: change.
 
Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live

Grab your things / I’ve come to take you home.


Documentary

Rod Lott
I'd say Peter Gabriel has aged wonderfully, judging from the concert film Secret World, but the performance is nearly two decades old, from 1993. Although far removed from his heyday as an MTV idol — the venue looks as if its audience were lifted from a BMW dealership super-sale — he still sounded great.
 
Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Of Dolls & Murder

Who knew playing with dolls could help fight crime?


Documentary

Rod Lott
Susan Marks' Of Dolls & Murder is a rather straightforward documentary on an oddball subject: forensic pathologists teaching medical investigation skills to police officers via "nutshell studies."
 
Friday, July 13, 2012
 
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