Doc Corner: A to Z of the Longlist (Part 3)

By Glenn Dunks

Continuing our A to Z march through the documentary longlist (yes, even if has already been whittled down) in the lead up to our best of the year list.

In previous weeks we have looked at letters A through C and then D through F. This week brings a few big hitters of documentary in 2022 including one high profile absentee from the Academy’s shortlist of 15 (Good Night Oppy), a surprise inclusion on that same list (Hallejulah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song) and a quiet indie achievement that won acclaim and awards on the festival circuit (I Didn’t See You There).

Good Night Oppy begins with elaborate visual effects, generous narration from Angela Bassett, and an introduction to a robot character with eyes on being a Wall-E for the science nerds. I was immediately turned off.

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Doc Corner: 'The Super 8 Years'

By Glenn Dunks

At one point early on in The Super 8 Years (Les années Super 8), Annie Ernaux notes in her soothing, authorial voice that a trip to the countryside—all tall grass, wildflowers, and mud—was like experiencing nostalgia for something she had never even experienced before. A sort of primal part of the human existence that wishes for the calm, the peace, and the relative relaxation of existing within nature without the extravagancies of modern life. It’s an amusing bon mot from the Nobel Prize winner, since this documentary feeds into that very concept:

I have never experienced the world that Ernaux embeds us in, but she welcomes the viewer through narration and the intuitive editing of Clément Pinteaux in such a manner that it feels like reliving a memory that I have never experienced. I was transported. A brisk dream of 65-minutes built entirely out of her family’s super 8 camera home movies that is all fleeting memories stung with melancholy and bliss.

Come to think of it, a more fitting double-feature with Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun I could not imagine.

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Doc Corner: Robert, Downey, 'Sr.'

By Glenn Dunks

Sometimes movie stars use their power for good. How else to describe Netflix—home of Lindsay Lohan in Falling for Christmas and the fittingly titled Ryan Gosling vehicle The Grey Man—releasing a black and white documentary about an underground cinema pioneer known best for absurdist satires and stoner comedies of the ‘60s and ‘70s. In this case, we surely have to give gratitude to Robert Downey Jr. It’s hard to believe Sr. would be there on millions of people’s TV if it weren’t for him.

Thankfully, not so content to just let his name sell the picture and be done with it, Sr. is a probing, funny exploration of art and the people who make it, and the impression that both can leave on those around them.

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Review: "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" Provides Wonderful Family Entertainment

By Christopher James

It’s been 18 years since Antonio Banderas’ Puss in Boots first flashed his huge eyes onscreen in box office smash and Cannes in-competition film Shrek 2. Though the Shrek franchise faded with each half-baked sequel, Puss in Boots got the origin story treatment in a 2011 installment. A decade later you'd assume that this Puss in Boots: The Last Wish would feel stale and dated. Instead it's a charming winner filled with imagination and fun! The story is a familiar one, centering around wish fulfillment and a grand race. Yet, there is plenty of juice left in this fairy tale world. The film blends childlike mania with poignant themes of belonging to make this perfect programming for families looking for a movie this holiday season.

When we catch up with Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas), he’s leading a sing-a-long about his prowess while getting in a fight with both a town and a giant...

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Doc Corner: Laura Poitras with 'All The Beauty and the Bloodshed'

By Glenn Dunks

There is a line early in All the Beauty and the Bloodshed where somebody describes the film’s subject, photographer and activist Nan Goldin, as somebody who “knew how to use her power.” I found it appropriate that the director of this movie is Laura Poitras, somebody to whom you could also say knows how to use their power. Poitras is, after all, the filmmaker who has been at the centre of multiple political stories—I mean, it’s rare for a documentarian to be a character in a dramatization of a major news story (she was portrayed by Melissa Leo in Oliver Stone’s Snowden). And to watch a Poitras film is often to be swept up in a swirl of chaos and pain.

Unlike Risk (about Julian Assange) or her Oscar-winning Citizenfour (about Edward Snowden), Poitras herself is not a part of the story here. Nevertheless, her latest is the thrilling and involving work of a filmmaker whose skills feel almost unparalleled. There’s a quiet, almost sneaking, grandeur to her work here as a filmmaker, directing the viewer down the many paths of Goldin’s story with grace, humility and intrigue, and with a technical finesse that is subtle yet entirely specific from one cut to the next.

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