Skip to Content

‘The Final Member’ is a film you’re unlikely to forget

Reykjavik, Iceland is home to the singular and beloved Icelandic Phallological Museum. Begun in earnest by Siggi Hjartarson out of his own home in Husavik 40 years prior, the museum now features the world’s largest collection of preserved mammalian penises. Running the gamut from a 2mm hamster penis bone to several unbelievably massive whale penises, the museum is an astounding personal accomplishment. But Siggi’s collection remains incomplete without its missing piece, its crown jewel, its Final Member–the genitalia of a human male.

Read More about ‘The Final Member’ is a film you’re unlikely to forget

Essential Docs: ‘Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse’

When John Milius first put pen to paper on a screenplay that set Joseph Conrad’s seminal novel Heart of Darkness in the jungles of Vietnam, he had no idea he’d be embarking on a decade-long trip through creative hell. When George Lucas dropped out of directing Apocalpyse Now in favor of making Star Wars, he …

Read More about Essential Docs: ‘Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse’

‘Cocksucker Blues’ the antithesis of lazy rock n’ roll mythmaking

Cocksucker Blues USA, 1972 Directed by Robert Frank Rock critics, like film critics, abhor a narrative vacuum. Blues begets R&B begets rock n’ roll, which begets the British Invasion, and from there, it’s a multi-pronged evolution into hard rock, glam, punk, and onwards into a million sundry subgenres. Each generation repels against their forbears and …

Read More about ‘Cocksucker Blues’ the antithesis of lazy rock n’ roll mythmaking

Essential Docs: ‘Man with a Movie Camera’

When Sight and Sound magazine updated its lists of the greatest films of all time in 2012, lost in a sea of “Vertigo or Citizen Kane?” think pieces was arguably a bigger bit of news. Yes, among the ranks of Ozu, Kubrick, Ford, Fellini, and the rest of the top 10 was a Russian avant garde filmmaker, …

Read More about Essential Docs: ‘Man with a Movie Camera’

Essential Viewing: The Best Documentaries of 2013 (part two)

Leviathan Directed by Lucian Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel USA, 2012 The Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab is slowly out to reshape the way you see cinema and the world. Rather than set out to document the world via a recitation of facts and experiences, they’re strapping the cameras right at the edge of life – in …

Read More about Essential Viewing: The Best Documentaries of 2013 (part two)

‘Narco Cultura’ a shocking, damning drug-cartel documentary

One of the most shocking moments of the new documentary Narco Cultura comes near the end, as one of the musicians who profits from the most heinous and violent acts committed by Mexican drug cartels deliberately misquotes a memorable line from Brian de Palma’s Scarface: “First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the bitches.”

Read More about ‘Narco Cultura’ a shocking, damning drug-cartel documentary

‘At Berkeley’ Movie Review – is a peek into prestige from Frederick Wiseman

At the venerable age of 83, the legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman has quietly stormed the citadels of academia with his leisurely piece At Berkeley, a peek behind the gently manicured lawns of one of the most prestigious educational centres in the world. Over a lilting 4-hour lecture, Wiseman’s cameras penetrate the professional lives of the institution’s scholars and students, from the chancellor to its freshmen, capturing a fascinating fresco of an ivory tower trapped in amber, following the continual reverberations of the 2008 financial earthquake.

Read More about ‘At Berkeley’ Movie Review – is a peek into prestige from Frederick Wiseman

Fantastic Fest 2013: ‘Mirage Men’ a fascinating, if maddeningly vague, UFO documentary

The vast, unknowable nature of the unidentified flying object is at the heart of the maddeningly, and deliberately, impenetrable new documentary Mirage Men, playing at this year’s Fantastic Fest. If the truth is, as was once promised, out there, it has yet to be found. Mirage Men argues, in what may not be the most terribly surprising twist depending on your level of cynicism, that the United States government has fed into UFO conspiracy theories to distract from high-level and classified projects from breaking in the news. And while the initial revelations are somewhat damning, after a point, the lack of hard answers serve to infuriate instead of elucidate.

Read More about Fantastic Fest 2013: ‘Mirage Men’ a fascinating, if maddeningly vague, UFO documentary

‘The Short Game’ a slickly produced, all surface-level golfing documentary

If The Short Game is any indication, it’s hard work being a child in the 21st century. The hook of this new documentary is fairly high-concept—it follows eight of over 1500 golfers age 7 or 8 competing at a world championship in Pinehurst, North Carolina—and yet, as slick as it is, it’s hard not to feel both a bit depressed at the almost comically driven subjects and wistful for a relaxed childhood not centered around detailed workouts or tireless practicing.

Read More about ‘The Short Game’ a slickly produced, all surface-level golfing documentary

‘Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction’ – The quiet man in a quiet portrait

In keeping with the acting style of the subject of its focus, Sophie Huber’s Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction stays away from extremes in its portrait of one of America’s greatest actors. There is affection, but it is understated and not glowing, while any melancholy elements are not over-stressed.

Read More about ‘Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction’ – The quiet man in a quiet portrait

‘The Cold Winter’ is a documentary on the chill of bureaucracy

“Why are there violent demolitions in a harmonious society?” asks artist Zhang Jun as he leads the cameras of director Zheng Kuo through the derbies of the wall that once stood behind his art studio. His joke about the Chinese phrase “harmonious society” is repeated later as he points out broken objects that lay scattered across his studio floor.

Read More about ‘The Cold Winter’ is a documentary on the chill of bureaucracy

Jodorowsky’s ‘Dune’ Movie Review – Essential Viewing?

Jodorowsky’s Dune Directed by Frank Pavich USA, 2013 Alejandro Jodorowsky, Michel Seydoux, Frank Herbert, Chris Foss, H.R. Giger, Moebius, Magma, Pink Floyd, Dan O’Bannon, David Carradine, Mick Jagger, Amanda Lear, Orson Welles, and Salvador Dali. Yes, that’s quite an array of figures, isn’t it? Frank Pavich’s historically illuminating and expertly constructed documentary on one of …

Read More about Jodorowsky’s ‘Dune’ Movie Review – Essential Viewing?

‘The Last of the Unjust’ Movie Review – A harrowing cinematic document

The Last of the Unjust Written and directed by Claude Lanzmann France/Austria, 2013 Anyone who has ever experienced the full 9-hour version of Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah is likely humbled by such a powerful and riveting document, a witness statement culled from the incomprehensible and unendurable recollections of the victims and perpetrators of the unfathomable horror of the …

Read More about ‘The Last of the Unjust’ Movie Review – A harrowing cinematic document

‘Spark: A Burning Man Story’ a mostly conflict-free ad for Burning Man

Spark: A Burning Man Story Directed by Steve Brown and Jessie Deeter USA, 2013 Spark: A Burning Man Story is at its liveliest when its participants are at their most fractious. Perhaps that’s a bit ironic considering that the yearly Burning Man event in Nevada is typified by how the thousands of people who trek …

Read More about ‘Spark: A Burning Man Story’ a mostly conflict-free ad for Burning Man

‘When The Dragon Swallowed The Sun’ – an ambitious, holistic and exhausting documentary

When The Dragon Swallowed The Sun Directed by Dirk Simon With it’s rather incendiary title leaving no doubt to its makers political persuasions When The Dragon Swallowed the Sun is an ambitious, holistic and exhausting documentary on the Chinese occupation of Tibet, a controversial incursion of alleged sovereign territory which has painfully endured for the …

Read More about ‘When The Dragon Swallowed The Sun’ – an ambitious, holistic and exhausting documentary

‘The Killing of America’ Movie Review – Can Exploitation be Profound?

The Killing of America is an impassioned and emotional showcase of violence in America from the period of the early 1960s into the early 1980s. Resting on the thesis that the society quickly devolved into increasingly acts of senseless violence, the film utilizes rare and disturbing footage of both familiar and unfamiliar events. Rift with a somewhat confused ideology, the film nonetheless packs a punch and suggests where many others haven’t that access to guns are part of the problem, an issue that continues to be debated within American society to this day. Is this little more than a parade of greatest hits for snuff fans or does it reaches deeper, revealing darker truths and realities that we are unwilling or unable to face.

Read More about ‘The Killing of America’ Movie Review – Can Exploitation be Profound?

EIFF 2013: Wang Bing’s ‘Three Sisters’ is a lengthy but hugely effective observational portrait

Three Sisters Directed by Wang Bing Hong Kong/France, 2012 Wang Bing’s epic-length documentary is an intimate depiction of childhood in the context of extreme poverty, providing an observational portrait of a Chinese peasant family. In a remote mountain village in China’s Yunnan province, which borders Burma, the every-day lives of the three youngest members of …

Read More about EIFF 2013: Wang Bing’s ‘Three Sisters’ is a lengthy but hugely effective observational portrait

EEFF 2013: ‘Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer’ lays down its weaponry to reflect on an injustice

Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer Directed by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin Russia/UK, 2013 During the infamous trial proceedings for their apparent ‘hooliganism’, the Pussy Riot girls make it abundantly clear that the entire world is watching; furthermore, the world is not stupid, and is aware of the extent to which the Russian judicial system …

Read More about EEFF 2013: ‘Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer’ lays down its weaponry to reflect on an injustice

EEFF 2013: ‘The Outer Edges’ works best at a distance from its subjects

The Outer Edges Directed by Kieran Evans UK, 2013 “I’ve been known to be down here in a vest that looks like a woman’s dress,” says the first sign of human life in Kieran Evans’ documentary The Outer Edges, a hazy meditation on life beyond the busied density of Central London, focused on a parade …

Read More about EEFF 2013: ‘The Outer Edges’ works best at a distance from its subjects

EEFF 2013: ‘The Heart of Bruno Wizard’ makes a strong case for ‘heart’, if not its subject

The lyric repeated with unintended irony over the end credits of The Heart of Bruno Wizard has the eponymous rock star sing, “What does it matter in the scheme of things?” The question is applicable to this debut feature by filmmaker Elisabeth Rasmussen; conceivably a learned fan of the 70s underground punk movement that fostered such acts as Mr. Wizard’s subversive The Homosexuals, Rasmussen has turned in an admiring tribute to an admittedly charismatic though hardly royal musical figure, without explicitly detailing any sound reason as to how his documenting is truly warranted.

Read More about EEFF 2013: ‘The Heart of Bruno Wizard’ makes a strong case for ‘heart’, if not its subject

EIFF 2013: Harry Dean Stanton profiled in the terrific ‘Partly Fiction’

In keeping with the acting style of the object of its focus, Sophie Huber’s Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction stays away from extremes in its portrait of one of America’s greatest actors. There is affection, but it is understated and not glowing, while any melancholy elements are not over-stressed. The facts and opinions expressed, through Stanton and various collaborators, are simply allowed to be – free of added manipulation – in what amounts as a rather quiet documentary, excluding film clips with their own soundtracks and instances in which we get to see Stanton express his passion for performing music. Like the documentary’s most discussed film, Paris, Texas (1984), Partly Fiction is serene but also apt at emotional devastation, though as in Wim Wenders’ masterpiece, sorrow and optimism are intertwined.

Read More about EIFF 2013: Harry Dean Stanton profiled in the terrific ‘Partly Fiction’