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Doc Talk: Oscar Winners vs. Classic Documentaries

By Christopher Campbell (Subscribe to Christopher Campbell's posts), Posted Mar 2nd 2011 10:00PM
Filed under: Documentaries, Columns, Cinematical


Doc Talk is a bi-weekly column dedicated to non-fiction cinema.

Which film is more likely to become a documentary classic, 'Inside Job' or 'Exit Through the Gift Shop'? Regardless of our preference, we can all agree Banksy's Oscar-losing fan favorite is a more timeless story and will likely be more enjoyable with repeat viewings. Charles Ferguson's Academy Award-winning look at the financial crisis will certainly remain a great piece of historical document but probably won't be revisited often for entertainment or artistic value. And sadly, like many timely docs, it could even one day be forgotten, like Lee Grant's 1986 Oscar-winning Reagonomics critique 'Down and Out in America,' which is pretty obscure only 25 years later.

Before announcing the Best Picture winner Sunday night, Steven Spielberg made a comment clearly meant to appease Team 'The Social Network' by implying that losing the award still puts a film in good company (his examples being 'Grapes of Wrath,' 'Citizen Kane,' 'The Graduate' and 'Raging Bull'). The same goes for the Best Documentary Feature award. 'Inside Job' joins the likes of 'Woodstock,' 'Hearts and Minds,' 'Bowling for Columbine' and 'Man on Wire.' 'Exit,' meanwhile, joins a group including 'In the Year of the Pig,' 'Streetwise,' 'Capturing the Friedmans' and 'Encounters at the End of the World.'
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Eat My Shorts: Oscar-Nominated Live-Action and Animated Shorts

By Christopher Campbell (Subscribe to Christopher Campbell's posts), Posted Feb 23rd 2011 7:00PM
Filed under: Features, Oscar News, Columns, Cinematical



Eat My Shorts is a bi-weekly column devoted to the showcase and discussion of short films.


Nobody likes to fill out an Oscar ballot and have to struggle with the short film categories. In the past, this section of the Academy Awards ceremony left viewers either feeling indifferent or, if they participated in a betting pool and had to force-guess their picks for the short winners, annoyed. Maybe a cartoon shown before an animated feature would be nominated and you'd at least have one recognizable title (like this year's 'Toy Story 3' forerunner 'Day and Night'), but for the most part you likely felt in the dark.

Fortunately, these days nominees for the live-action, animated and documentary shorts are available to you all, whether on the big screen at places like NYC's IFC Center or on the computer screen via iTunes. A few are even available for free on the web (we'll embed these where available down below). So you no longer have excuses for, umm, coming up short.

I recommend watching these relatively undervalued works (you've got time -- they're short!) and also checking out my rankings and predictions for each category. For the doc shorts, check out last week's Doc Talk column, For the live action and animated nominees, keep reading...
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Doc Talk: Reviewing the Oscar-Nominated Documentary Shorts and Features

By Christopher Campbell (Subscribe to Christopher Campbell's posts), Posted Feb 16th 2011 7:45PM
Filed under: Documentaries, Oscar News, Awards, Columns, Cinematical


Less than two weeks left until the Academy Awards, and we're all playing catch up with the nominees. Somehow I've still not seen all of the Best Picture contenders, but I have now watched all of the films competing for the Oscars for Best Documentary (Feature) and Best Documentary (Short Subject).

If you're behind, you can currently see the nominees in the latter category courtesy of iTunes or select cinemas like NYC's IFC Center. As for the features, AMC Theatres is again running a feature documentary nominee showcase this year, on February 20th (however, only in NYC and L.A.). If you can't make that, 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' and 'Restrepo' are easily viewable on Netflix Watch Instantly (among other formats) and 'Gasland' is also on DVD.

Unfortunately, 'Waste Land' and 'Inside Job' won't be out for home viewing until next month (March 15 and 8, respectively). Too bad, since I consider them the frontrunners for the Academy Award. Find out which title I'd rather win, though, and also see my reviews of the documentary shorts after the jump.
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Eugene Jarecki's 'Reagan' Documentary Debuts on HBO Tonight

By Christopher Campbell (Subscribe to Christopher Campbell's posts), Posted Feb 7th 2011 7:20PM
Filed under: Documentaries, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical


One of the quickest films to reach a wide audience following its Sundance premiere last month, Eugene Jarecki's 'Reagan' debuts on HBO tonight (fittingly, a day after Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday). And it's a must-see for fans of non-fiction film, fans of the 40th president, and even those critical of the man for whatever reason. Jarecki, whose last feature was the magnificently comprehensive 2005 military-industrial-complex history, 'Why We Fight,' may still surprise you with just how fair and lucid a portrait he has made about such a controversial and complicated figure.

He "was both smarter and better than the left think he was," Ron Reagan Jr. says in the film, "and less the giant than many on the right think he was." The son of Ronald and Nancy is a consistent presence throughout 'Reagan' (Michael Reagan is the only other family member to appear, briefly), and he provides some of the most personal and yet also some of the most unbiased commentary, quite beneficial to a work that means to iron out the mythology and iconography of a man typically viewed more symbolically than realistically these days.
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Doc Talk: The Best Documentaries of Sundance 2011

By Christopher Campbell (Subscribe to Christopher Campbell's posts), Posted Feb 2nd 2011 9:00PM
Filed under: Documentaries, Sundance Film Festival, Columns, Cinematical


With a stunning amount of deals made at this year's Sundance Film Festival, you're likely looking forward to a ton of great, new independent films over the course of the next year. But how many of them are documentaries? How many non-fiction films are even coming out of the fest with distribution? How many of those have either commercial or awards prospects? And overall how did this year's crop of docs compare to last year's?

First, let me address the distribution thing. Of the 35 or so Sundance pickups, less than ten were for docs. That doesn't count the two major remake deals, through which HBO will be adapting the so-so Irish boxing film 'Knuckle' for a dramatic series and Fox Searchlight will fictionalize the terrific, multifaceted 'Bengali Detective' for what's sure to be a quirkier sort of narrative feature focused more on the characters' dance contest aspirations and meant to cash-in on the studio's prior success with 'Slumdog Millionaire.'
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'The Greatest Movie Ever Sold' Sundance Review: Not the Greatest

By Christopher Campbell (Subscribe to Christopher Campbell's posts), Posted Jan 31st 2011 2:00PM
Filed under: Documentaries, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical


Morgan Spurlock's latest documentary gag, 'The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,' had a lot of people in stitches at the Sundance Film Festival. I didn't laugh as much as some, but I have to give the guy credit for continuing to bring a humorous and entertaining viewpoint to non-fiction film with his gimmicky experiments. Also, I have to give credit to corporations like POM Wonderful, Ban and Merrill for coming across as very hip brands in the doc, enough that their co-sponsorship of the film has sold me more on specific consumer products than any other recent advertisement I can think of.

The premise this time is that Spurlock wants to expose the out-of-hand practices of product placement and cross-promotional marketing, particularly in film and TV, while in turn admittedly producing one of the most whorish documentaries of all time. Through the film he goes in search of companies that will contribute to its financing as a sponsor. POM takes on the most expensive honor of paying a million bucks to have over-the-title marquee status, while other brands like the Mini Coop and Merrill contribute just enough to be used (and seen) constantly by the filmmaker on screen.
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'Beats, Rhymes & Life' Sundance Review: A Tribe Called Quest Is Controversially and Accessibly Documented

By Christopher Campbell (Subscribe to Christopher Campbell's posts), Posted Jan 30th 2011 7:00PM
Filed under: Documentaries, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical


The story of A Tribe Called Quest is a common one among music acts. Childhood friends grow up, form a group and become famous recording artists; then one of the members rises above others in terms of fame or ego, they have a falling out and the group breaks up. Oftentimes, as is the case with Tribe, the longtime pals end up estranged. As Tribe rapper Phife Dawg reminds us, it's the same thing that happened with the Supremes and the Jackson 5.

In spite of its familiar overlying narrative, though, the new documentary about the rap group, lengthily titled 'Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest,' is still an excellent look at the past, present and possible future of one of the most influential hip hop acts of all time. Directed very inquisitively and skillfully by actor-turned-filmmaker Michael Rapaport ('True Romance'), it starts out rather conventionally and builds into one of the most engaging music docs in years.
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