Tag: documentary

• Favorite Films of 2023

  As with last year’s list, I decided to skip the usual pressure to make a top 10 by the end of the year without having seen a bunch of the eligible movies. Instead I took my time, waiting to watch titles as they hit streaming or Blu-ray so I’d have a better shot at a…

  Mar 6, 2024

  # Back to the Future, best of, Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, documentary, film, lists, movies, review, Saturday Night Live, Spider-Man

• Favorite Films of 2021

  In 2021 I only saw three movies in theaters, which is two more than I saw in 2020. A personal historic low, it probably goes without saying. But ultimately I’m just grateful to be able to watch great movies, whether at the theater, on a streaming service, or with a library Blu-ray. To that end,…

  Jan 9, 2022

  # best of, documentary, film, Lin-Manuel Miranda, lists, movies, review, The Beatles

• Are You Paying Attention? On ‘The Social Dilemma’ and ‘My Octopus Teacher’

  I don’t have to go looking for synchronicity because it always finds me. This time it was on Netflix. The other day I watched Netflix’s new docu-drama The Social Dilemma (trailer) based on the recommendation from a friend and a lively text thread about its implications. The film’s thesis is that social networks are engineered…

  Oct 8, 2020

  # attention, documentary, film, IPC, life, movies, My Octopus Teacher, nature, Netflix, octopus, review, social media, synchronicity, technology

• Perfect Bid

  Remember Terry Kniess, the guy who made the perfect bid on the Showcase Showdown of The Price is Right? Someone made a documentary about the guy behind that bid, and it’s surprisingly thrilling. Ted Slauson is a math whiz and The Price is Right superfan who’s attended dozens of tapings of the show and even…

  Jan 18, 2019

  # documentary, film, movies, review, television, The Price is Right

• Obit

  Obit is an eloquent, observant, and superbly crafted documentary by Vanessa Gould on the New York Times obituary writers and the people they cover. One of the writers says writing obits isn’t sad because they are writing mostly about a person’s life rather than their death. I can see why that would be the case,…

  Aug 24, 2017

  # documentary, film, movies, New York Times, newspapers, review, Roger Ebert

• Citizenfour

  The hotel’s fire alarm testing in Citizenfour = the nighttime controlled explosions in Force Majeure. I wonder how well this documentary would work with someone who knew nothing of Edward Snowden, who wasn’t aware of the NSA leak when it happened and its subsequent firestorm. Without knowing that context ahead of time and carrying it…

  Nov 1, 2015

  # Citizenfour, documentary, Edward Snowden, film, movies, NSA, review

• Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop

  Watching Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop made me realize something I’ve suspected for a long time: I don’t ever want to be famous. There’s a scene in this documentary about the “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television” stage tour Conan created immediately after his inauspicious exit from The Tonight Show in 2010 where Conan does a meet-and-greet after…

  Feb 19, 2012

  # celebrity, Conan O’Brien, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, documentary, film, movies, review, television, Whitney Houston