Documentary

REVIEW: Shirkers (2018 – Documentary)

Release Poster – Netflix

The following is a review of the Netflix Documentary Shirkers — Directed by Sandi Tan.

In the early 1990s, a group of teenage Singaporean cinephiles became filmmakers when they wrote, cast, produced, and shot their independent road movie, Shirkers. Though the film was directed by their American mentor Georges Cardona, the premise and the script came from Sandi Tan who also played the protagonist. As Sandi Tan waited to go into post-production on Shirkers, Cardona, who was in possession of the film reels, ignored her and disappeared out of nowhere with the film — leaving her and her friends empty-handed and without the film that a film critic friend of theirs thought was childish but ahead of its time.  (more…)

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REVIEW: Jane Fonda in Five Acts (2018 – Documentary)

Release Poster – HBO

The following is a review of Jane Fonda in Five Acts — An HBO Documentary Film.

Documentary filmmaker Susan Lacy, who directed last year’s Spielberg, has with her newest HBO documentary film — Jane Fonda in Five Acts — pointed the camera at Jane Fonda, one of the most fascinating and controversial American movie stars of the last sixty years. The film takes you through her career, which included both ups and downs, and attempts to make the argument that she was defined by others until she found herself down the road. (more…)

REVIEW: King in the Wilderness (2018 – Documentary)

Release Poster – HBO

The following is a short review of HBO’s King in the Wilderness – Directed by Peter W. Kunhardt.

On the 50th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, HBO released a documentary portrait of the late-great activist, baptist, and civil rights movement leader from Emmy-winning director Peter W. Kunhardt. The documentary titled King in the Wilderness is made up of talking head interviews with the people that knew King, who all try to paint us a picture of King’s state in the last few years of his life before he was shot and killed in 1968. (more…)

REVIEW: First Team: Juventus – Part Two (2018)

Release Poster – Netflix

The following is a review of the last three episodes of the first season of First Team: Juventus – A Netflix Documentary Series.

You may not have noticed, but Netflix doesn’t always release every episode of a season at once. With some shows and docu-series, they’ve started to release half of the content at one point, only to release the conclusion at a later point (often six months later). Back in February, I reviewed the first part of First Team: Juventus, which was basically three episodes on the first half of the 2017/2018 football season. Now, Netflix has released the second half of the season, and while it is more compelling, it, unfortunately, suffers from some of the same issues that the first part did. (more…)

REVIEW: Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (2018 – Documentary)

Poster – HBO

The following is a review of the HBO Documentary – Robin Williams: Come Inside my Mind.

For no reason, in particular, I rewatched Vincent Ward’s What Dreams May Come the other day. It is a fantasy-drama from the late 1990s that is memorable for its unique look as it showed audiences a different version of the afterlife. It is a film about the immortality of the human soul, the idea of soulmates, and it is also a film that pays particular attention to a character who died by suicide. (more…)

REVIEW: The Director and the Jedi (2018 – Documentary)

The following is a review of The Director and the Jedi — Directed by Anthony Wonke.

You can’t talk about Star Wars right now. I mean, sure, you have the ability to talk about the franchise, but the vocal minority of the Star Wars fandom has become rather toxic. As someone once put it, no one hates Star Wars more than Star Wars fans. As a big Star Wars fan, I had always disagreed with that notion, but the first fan reaction that made me realize the truth in that phrase was the reaction to Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi. (more…)

IJR Awards 2017: Film and Documentary Nominations Announced

Today I’m revealing the second half of the 2017 nominations for this blog’s IJR Awards (I’m Jeffrey Rex Awards, but you probably already guessed that). The final legend award (Film Legend) isn’t getting any nominees, instead I’ll reveal the winner, or honoree, when all of the winners are to be announced on March 1st.
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