Doc Corner: You Must See 'Sam Now'

By Glenn Charlie Dunks

Reed Harkness’s Sam Now is really something special. A debut that taps into an achingly sad story within his own family, covering decades of pain and the smiles used to cover it up. I could not take my eyes off of it, reverberating as it does with a potent mix of tragedy and the relief that comes with finally getting it off your shoulders. In finally telling this story so many years in the making, Harkness has given us a documentary that taps into completely unexpected wells of emotion—a Boyhood (of sorts) where life’s dramatic turns offer us a portrait of male anguish that would be hard to watch if it weren’t so vibrantly made and open-hearted in its delivery.

Synopses describe Sam Now as a “mystery”, but that does it a disservice. There is a mystery, of course. But it’s solved pretty quickly. And what follows is a quiet reckoning that is more compelling than any true crime narrative could ever hope to achieve.

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Doc Corner: It's Child's Play and 'Living with Chucky'

By Glenn Charlie Dunks

No space within movie fandom feels more like a genuine community like the space taken up by horror. Not to get too Vin Diesel in The Fast and the Furious franchise, but for many, horror is a family that ties and binds people together. Even more so for queer lovers of the horror genre. Horror is particularly amenable to subtextual readings as well as straight-up camp and gay storytelling for many reasons, but that bond comes at least partly because horror (as a broad concept) and LGBTQ+ people have so much in common. Not that you need me to tell you any of that.

These narrative strands come together in Kyra Elise Gardner’s Living with Chucky. Ostensibly a documentary about the killer doll franchise that began as Child’s Play and has morphed more famously into The House of Chucky. It is also a telling of how this franchise was able to do what it did and remain relevant three decades later. Gardner is the daughter of one of the visual effects and puppeteer masters who’s brought Chucky to life over the years, so you could say she has particular insight.

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Doc Corner: Gianfranco Rosi's 'In Viaggio'

By Glenn Dunks

I will be honest with you. I initially had no real desire to watch In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis. I believe my words were “because of the whole pope thing”, which I personally think is entirely fair. Especially after another European filmmaker, Wim Wenders, had his own Pope Francis doc not too long ago. It does, however, prove to be a much more interesting than initial perceptions would have suggested. And, to be honest, director Gainfranco Rosi—a director whose work only seems to be getting better and better (which is saying quite a lot)—deserves better than a ‘thanks, but no thanks.’ After all, I don’t think any other filmmaker can claim both a Golden Bear and a Golden Lion for works of non-fiction.

Rosi’s film is not the immersive experience that recent works like Notturno and Fire at Sea were, but it was probably never going to be. Reset expectations then, and we have In Viaggio, a surprising documentary built almost entirely out of archival footage as Pope Francis jet-sets around the world. Again, it’s better than it sounds.

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Doc Corner: A to Z of the Longlist (Part 5)

By Glenn Dunks

History can unfold in a lot of different ways. So too, how filmmakers choose to uncover, reveal and tell it in films for audiences. This week’s selection of films through the alphabet of 2022 titles that were eligible for the 95^th Academy Awards (parts one to four available in the archives) show this off to great effect (even if the movies themselves don’t always succeed).

One uses comedy to explain how a man hoodwinked his way through one of the more baffling true crimes (if you can call it that) in modern history. Another takes a brief snippet of archival war footage to unravel a hidden queer love story at a time where such things weren't to be spoken about. Another is more traditional, detailing an incredible story from the annals of cinema history that could very easily have been ignored.

And at least in the first one—we get to see Alan Cumming lip syncing for his life.

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Sundance: 'Eileen' is the movie 'Carol' couldn't be

by Jason Adams

The blonde woman in expensive clothes explodes into the dowdy brunette’s life like fireworks. She just appears one day, flung out of space, and nothing will ever be the same for the Plain Jane working girl again. Everything is upended in Midcentury America, surprise feelings warming in the brunette's belly she doesn’t even have a name for, inspiring a sudden need to run. And yes you’d be forgiven if you thought I was speaking about Carol, Todd Hayne’s 2015 masterpiece about a love affair between Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, who no matter what Harge says were not ugly people. 

No I speak of a different lesbian potboiler that just popped off at Sundance this year, director William “Lady Macbeth” Oldroyd’s Eileen, based on Ottessa Moshfegh’s 2015 novel...

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