Doc Corner: Bowie and 'Moonage Daydream' at Melbourne International Film Festival

By Glenn Dunks

Moonage Daydream is unlike any other Brett Morgen film. If you expected the same stately warmth that imbued Jane or even a tragic rock and roll epitaph like Cobain: Montage of Heck, then you would be wrong. This is evident immediately into its 140-minute runtime, beginning as it does with not just any David Bowie song, but the (incredible, it must be noted) Pet Shop Boys remix of “Hallo Spaceboy” from 1996. I love a bit of trolling the rock crowd, so I was instantly on board. The mere inclusion of this song—to say nothing of the kaleidoscopic, tie-dyed montage that accompanies it—keyed me in that Morgen wasn’t just going to do what a Bowie fan may expect from a biography documentary.

These high-octane opening minutes don’t exactly let up, either. Moonage Daydream is a work of documentary that is almost as exhausting as it is exhilarating.

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Doc Corner: 'Blue Island'

By Glenn Dunks

Chan Tze Woon’s second feature is also his second about Hong Kong’s fight for independence. It follows Yellowing in 2016. Like many filmmakers working in non-fiction today, Chan incorporates actors and the process of moviemaking into Blue Island. This is a documentary that makes heavy use of recreations and performance, yet these are elements that are frequently weaved throughout rather seamlessly. It doesn’t always work, with some of Chan’s conceits coming and going at whim, but it becomes a smart choice.

For the story he’s trying to tell is one explicitly built around Hong Kong as an epicenter of street activism where one generation’s fighters have much to learn from those who came before. Where history becomes the present with far too much familiarity.

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Doc Corner: 'We Met in Virtual Reality' on HBO Max

By Glenn Dunks

I recently rewatched Steven Spielberg’s largely unsuccessful Ready Player One, a movie with many faults that are not relevant right now. But key to its failings is how completely uninterested in virtual reality it actually is. For all of its effort in setting up its admittedly rather awe-inspiring virtual world, it completely misunderstands (or, more likely, is just uninterested in exploring) why people would turn to such a space in the first place.

I thought of Ready Player One a lot as I watched Joe Huntings’ We Met in Virtual Reality, which is shot entirely in a VR landscape with all the boxy, hyper-coloured, anime-infused glory. This isn’t an action movie though. Rather, it’s a sweetly affecting documentary about online connections and the way some people feel more at home with a dragon tail and hooves than they do in the real world.

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Doc Corner: Sundance Winner 'Fire of Love'

By Glenn Dunks

There are three big reasons to see Fire of Love, preferably on the big screen if possible. The third I will get to later, but the first is the story. That of a couple who found themselves through the admittedly rather niche field of volcanology. There’s is one of mutual respect and adoration that I admired also for how much faith they granted the public to understand their world. You certainly don’t see that every day.

The second is the archive footage that makes up the entirety of its runtime. It’s a beauty and a truly wonderous, jaw-dropping visual spectacle.

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Doc Corner: Rebecca Huntt’s 'Beba'

By Glenn Dunks

That Beba is the work of a first-time filmmaker is both immediately impressive and also quickly apparent. There’s a maturity here that belies Rebecca Huntt’s autobiographical documentary portrait. It’s something that leaps out from its opening moments as flickering 16mm photography plays over poignant narration. “Violence is in my D.N.A.”, she says. “I carry an ancient pain that I struggle to understand.” It’s powerful stuff, but as it progresses, Huntt’s film finds itself swaying in the wind despite the really great stuff at its core.

That maturity is often balanced by selfishness that renders itself with a film that is unfocused almost as if by design. Huntt is a messy, complicated person; something that this movie impresses upon the viewer frequently. Whether it’s as a result of her family or society—most likely a strong dash of both—is something that the movie attempts to grapple with.

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