http://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/articles.sec-81-1-documentary.html 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. ]]> 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.” ]]> 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.
]]> 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.”]]> 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.]]> 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.]]> 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.]]> 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.
]]> 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. ]]> 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.]]> Is it art?]]> 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.]]> 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.]]> 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."]]> Don't tell anyone, but in my first year of high school, I owned a couple of Simply Red cassettes, purchased from Sound Warehouse. If you clicked on the link to read this review, it's likely you did, too.
]]> How many pre-teens not only have a idea of what they want to do with their life, but actually already are doing something about it? The answer: At least three, based upon those you'll meet in Racing Dreams, a fun, fast-paced, feature-length documentary about kids competing for the national karting championship as they chase hopeful NASCAR futures.
]]> Remember how joyous you felt at the end of 2006's excellent Irish indie Once? Well, The Swell Season is why there is no sequel. Hell, it practically is the sequel, only factual instead of fictional.
]]> I grew up reading comic books — and today, occasionally make some extra dough writing for them — but I must admit, I’ve never heard of Rock ’n’ Roll Comics, the underground sensation at the heart of this lo-fi documentary from Wild Eye Releasing. Turns out, not knowing matters not; hardcore comics fans — or those just into esoteric, DIY projects — should find it interesting, if told with a little true-to-spirit sloppiness.
]]> In my next life, I'm going to be an architect. I knew that before watching Urbanized, the documentary on the magic of cities, but now it's solidified.
]]> Corman's World is not the first time producer Roger Corman has been the subject of a documentary film, but until the next one comes along, Alex Stapleton's stands definitive.]]>