Watching the Documentary Finalists: Part 1 - Other People's Lives
Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at 11:11PM Glenn here looking at each of the 15 films on the Academy’s documentary finalists which, five of which will be shortlisted for nominations on January 14th
The documentary finalist list announced last month does us a small bit of good. While it was sad to see such excellent feats of non-fiction filmmaking as The Pearl Button, In Jackson Heights, Sherpa and Stray Dog (to name just a few) removed from contention, reducing the astronomically long submission list of 124 down to a more manageable 15 titles does help us out dramatically in being able to not only get a grasp on the category for 2015, but also to give us a sample of what the Academy’s doc branch thought of the documentaries of any given year beyond the five eventual nominees. This year’s finalist list has its regular faces, but wasn't entirely devoid of surprises and many of the year’s best films found a spot despite some egregious choices thrown in. Each of the three posts in this series are divided into vague groups – (Pt 1) movies dedicated to other peoples’ lives, (Pt 2) movies about the world on the political edge, and (Pt 3) movies about confrontations.
Activists, actors and musicians after the jump...
HE NAME ME MALALA
Director: Davis Guggenheim (one prior win)
Synopsis: A portrait of Malala Yousafzai who was shot by the Taliban, but survived to not only tell the world her tale, but become a spokeswoman for women’s education rights around the world.
Festivals:Telluride (premiere), Toronto, Mumbai, Hamburg, San Diego, Adelaide
Awards: Audience Award (San Diego)
Nominations: ACE, BFCA, Phoenix Film Critics, San Diego Film Critics, Satellite Awards, Annie Awards (Best Animated Special Program, Outstanding Achievement in Production Design in an Animated Feature)
Box-Office: $2,650,000 (second highest on shortlist)
Review: My problem with the films of Davis Guggenheim is that they play more like commercials than they do actual documentaries. It was my complaint about An Inconvenient Truth and people said much the same about Searching for Superman. While there are some nice moments of animation that show Pakistani history with beautifully painted brush strokes, there are just as many if not more passages that play like little else than advertisements for her resources as a spokesperson. “Hire her!” the film practically begs while she and her circle extol clichéd motivational and inspirational slogans. Maybe it says more about the cynic in me, but it’s impossible to ignore especially when tied with the general disinterest Guggenheim displays for either technical finesse or journalistic investigation. He Named Me Malala becomes little more than bland, feel-good documentary filmmaking with many questions about Malala's life left not only unasnwered, but unasked. It ends with a hashtag because it knows its target audience would rather be pandered to with easy-chair pleasantries.
Oscar: It shouldn’t, but as the second-highest grossing doc of the 15, it has a shot. However, I expect without the zeitgeist behind it like it was with An Inconvenient Truth it won’t happen.
Trailer
AMY
Director: Asif Kapadia
Synopsis: The life of jazz singer Amy Winehouse from her early days singing in her friends’ cars to the global fame that ultimately sent her spiralling out of control to her death at age 27.
Festivals: Cannes (premiere), Edinburgh, East End, Palm Springs,
Awards: NSFC, EFA, LAFCAA, NBR, Boston Online, Boston Society, Indiana Film Journalists, BIFA (Film, Director, Craft, Doc), Southeastern Film Critics, Hollywood Film Awards,
Nominations: ACE, OFCS, BFCA, Austin Film Critics, Chicago Film Critics, Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics, Detroit Film Critics, Phoenix Film Critics, San Diego Film Critics, San Francisco Film Critics, St. Louis Film Critics, Toronto Film Critics, Washington DC Area Film Critics, EIFF (Audience), IndieWire Critics Poll, London Film Critics Circle (Film, British Film, Doc),
Box-Office: $8,407,000 (second-highest doc gross of 2015)
Review: My initial review + later thoughts on the film’s ethics
Oscar: I have struggled with this for months. The film isn’t what the documentary branch are known for gravitating towards in both style and demographic, but they have been getting a bit funkier with some of their choices as of late and the film’s extraordinary box-office can only help. Nevertheless, I can’t help but think it’ll be a big “snub!” on Oscar morning.
Trailer
THE HUNTING GROUND
Director: Kirby Dick (two prior nominations)
Synopsis: The epidemic of college campus rape across the United States is investigated with emphasis paid to the women taking charge and bringing it to the public attention.
Festivals: Sundance (premiere), Stockholm, Melbourne, Bergen, Sheffield
Awards: PGA (Stanley Kramer Award), BIFF (Human Rights Award), International Press Academy, Hollywood Music in Media Awards (Best Original Score-Music in Visual Media),
Nominations: PGA, BFCA (song), Chicago Film Critics, Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics, St. Louis Film Critics (Doc + Song), Utah Film Critics, Grammy (Song), Satellite Awards (Doc + Song)
Box-Office: $406,000
Review: Director Kirby Dick, one of America’s leading documentarians, and his production partner Amy Ziering have courted controversy once more like they did with This Film is Not Yet Rated and Outrage for being one-sided and potentially misrepresenting statistics – Variety critic Emma Taylor was particularly against it, and Emily Yoffe at Slate has attacked it for the same reasons. It's enough to make you question the film, but in the moment (hey, there’s nothing that says documentarians have to abide by lawful definitions of “innocent until proven guilty”, I guess) there is an undeniable power to The Hunting Ground that is hard to ignore. The statistics are appalling, the first-hand accounts are horrific and it feels impossible not to cry, especially after Dick pulls a very Von Trier move on the audience in the opening moments. Perhaps the glut of stats are presented too dryly, and perhaps it would have been interesting to see more from those involved in the first wave of Take Back the Night protests (of which are only glimpsed), but otherwise this is a powerful and angry documentary worth paying attention to.
Oscar: I would be more confident of its Diane Warren/Lady Gaga’s penned theme song, “Till It Happens to You” making the original song nomination. That the branch responded to the director's last institutional rape doc, The Invisible War, could be either a pro (they liked it!) or a con (they don’t need to nominate another one). If it does miss, I suspect it will be a close one.
Trailer
WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE?
Director: Liz Garbus (one prior nomination)
Synopsis: A look at the life and career of iconic jazz and soul musician Nina Simone through her own words.
Festivals: Sundance (premiere), HotDocs, San Francisco
Awards: N/A
Nominations: IDA (Video Source Award), Image, Black Reel
Box-Office: Qualifying release; Netflix
Review: I am not entirely sure that it’s a coincidence, but there is perhaps something to the fact that I found What Happened, Miss Simone?, which is about a woman and directed by a woman, far more interested in its subject, far more empathetic, and far more engrossed in her many facets than Asif Kapadia was by shaping his scrapbook approach to Amy Winehouse’s life. Director Liz Garbus provides keen insight into the personal successes and failures of “Miss Simone” with an appropriate level of class and dignity, using Simone’s own words to detail the performer’s journey and her own disappointments. It’s not the sort of filmmaking that makes the hairs stand on the back of your neck, but there’s a regalness to Miss Simone that is so perfectly pitched and befits its subject. Deeply sad and with an undercurrent of anger, it praises and critiques its subject in equal strength.
Oscar: While many are questioning whether the Netflix model can succeed with narrative features like Beasts of No Nation, being a “Netflix documentary” is not a negative as seen by previous nominees The Square and Virunga. That this particular film plays so well at home only helps its cause, and being aimed at an older demographic helps, too. Garbus is a previous nominee and unlike Listen to Me Marlon (see below) it actually covers bigger themes like race and politics that help make it feel less like fan worship and more like a nuanced artistic portrait. It’s a strong contender.
Trailer
LISTEN TO ME MARLON
Director: Stevan Riley
Synopsis: The life and times of Marlon Brando as told through his own hypnosis tapes, discovered in a box by the Brando estate and mixed with interviews and other audio from his life.
Festivals: Sundance (Premiere), HotDocs, Seattle, Sydney, Melbourne, Stockholm, New Zealand, Montclair
Awards: IDA (Writing), San Francisco Film Critics, Traverse City Film Festival (Founders Prize)
Nominations: NBR, Gotham Awards, IndieWire Critics Poll, Detroit Film Critics, Toronto Film Critics
Box-Office: $426,000
Review: Amir’s review + my brief thoughts
Oscar: I have noted the Academy’s stand-offish attitude to documentaries about film before as recent years have seen several acclaimed documentaries “surprise” by failing to grab nominations or short list placements. I wouldn’t expect it to change this year, for despite Marlon’s quality I suspect adhering closer to personal introspection than anything broader will mean it gets set aside for movies with bigger issues on their mind.
Trailer
Reader Comments (8)
not to self: watch Listen to Me Marlon this weekend. Not sure how i've waited this long.
If The Hunting Ground is nominated, I will be very angry. In addition to the pieces you noted, there is a very good article in The New Yorker by Jeannie Suk, a feminist professor at Harvard Law, about why the film is dangerous because it seemingly does not attempt to verify what it presents - it just takes its interviews at face value, which is becoming an increasingly common practice among victims' rights activists. (The story from the Harvard Law grad in the film does not jibe with reality, to say the least.)
Cosign 100% on Miss Simone. So much more interesting and complex than Amy.
Oh, I saw all of these movies! Listen to Me Marlon was definitely the best out of this section, and He Named Me Malala was easily the worst. Every time the interviewer would ask a hard hitting question of her, she'd just sidestep and he'd let it go and it was so disappointing.
What Happened, Miss Simone, Listen to Me Marlon, and Amy are all deserving documentaries. But since they are all "troubled" star bio-documentaries, it makes me think Malala might win. Never underestimate the power of a Nobel Prize, right? Regardless, this category continues to have the highest quality contenders of all of the Oscar categories.
Kacey, you mean she and everyone around her would answer in platitudes about peace and about love and about humanity and all that stuff that made my eyes roll? Yeah.
Suzanne, it's curious that that is kind of Kirby Dick's MO lately (like in OUTRAGE in which he just outed politicians without physical proof). My interest has been piqued enough to dig a little deeper. Glad to hear you agree about MISS SIMONE. That film is just so much more interested in its subject than AMY. I mean, it's right there in the title. It's digging to find "what happened, Miss Simone?" because, truly, it was a great loss to music that her own demons impeded her talent.
Nathaniel, it's so good because at least in its framing device it attempts something a bit different.
Very well-written, comprehensive post!
I've seen all 5 of these and have to agree with you on basically all fronts.
Malala felt like a made-for-TV doc. Not cinematic in its scope nor the exploration of its subject.
Amy is definitely not for me. Maybe for those who reads gossip magazines?
Hunting Ground - by-the-numbers dpc Very important topic wasted in subpar/irresponsible filmmaking.
Miss Simone - Great attempt at unveiling this one-of-a-kind human being; or rather, at least scratched the surface and left us in awe of the story of her life.
Brando - a strange, ominous documentary which brings us closer to the real Brando than anything. Well crafted narration at that.
I also wouldn't be surpised to see Amy snubbed, despite it's clean-up so far.
I did love it though. I watched it on the plane and bawled the whole way through like a crazy person!
Every one of these docs is a worthy nominee. I'd hesitate on giving a win to Malala, since its strengths lie more in its subject matter than its technical execution. I'd probably flip a coin between Marlon & Amy.