American Nomads - When you’re in a certain frame of mind, this can be a great watch. It sort of rambles and drifts along, just like the subject. Meaning that, when you want to let your mind travel an undetermined route, maybe this is the one you’re looking for. It’s about people that wander the American West.
Among the Sex Offenders, LA Stories - Louis Theroux visits a halfway house for sex offenders. It is an intense vid, but highly amusing at the same time. Theroux watches the house manager run like a madman in circles trying to get the goods on others, before confronting him about his past. (the manager had also been convicted of terrible sex crimes, and Theroux planned to dig the knife in deep: so it angles toward that point.)
A good watch. Probably one of his finest efforts.
Grey Gardens - Kind of sad, kind of funny, definitely crazy. Relatives of Jackie O., a mom and daughter live out their days in a broken-down mansion.
Like American Nomads (couple up), this one’s a drifter that may require a certain frame of mind. The ladies are in their own strange world, so no logical paths for you to follow at any given time. When you watch Grey Gardens, you experience their strange world with them. That’s what this one’s all about, and it does its thing well.
Marwencol
Trailer:
Capturing the Friedmans, yeah. Difficult to discuss that one, isn’t it?
Can anyone strain through a few words on it? I’ve seen it, so I know it kinda leaves a person lost for comment.
This was recommended on another thread, in a roundabout way. It is The Memphis Belle - A Story Of A Flying Fortress:
Sherman’s March was mentioned by MovieMogul as being a favorite. It was probably the first documentary I’d ever seen, and I watched it again a few months back. It’s a good one, for sure.
Like nearly any documentary that goes over 1.5 hours, though, some parts are almost bound to raise questions as to whether they should’ve been removed. This one goes about 2.5, with surprisingly little that might’ve been fair to remove. The guy does come off as a bit of a whiner and a weakling, so the few bits he decides to showcase himself were unnecessary and a little annoying in my opinion.
He does a great job at moving along, though, and keeps his own nonsense to a minimum. So he might not be as wimpy as he seems. Overall, he did an excellent job.
Other than that slight warning about the maker’s personality: he takes the camera as he interacts along the way through his mission. His intent, supposedly, is to document the grounds of Sherman’s March. But he claims to be pursuing a girlfriend at the same time - so that’s what his focus sets on.
A great look at the Old South in its final days, in my opinion. A complete drifter for when you want to let your mind go for a spin. Glad I watched it again.
More info: Sherman's March (1985) - IMDb
Hunting Mad Honey - A group of guys set out on a “hunt” to find psychoactive honey. Some incredibly risky lengths taken to bring a good haul back, but sampling and re-sampling the goods during the return hike is just too tempting. Lightening the load was never so much fun!
Here are some that haven’t been mentioned so far:
Brother’s Keeper - A farming community rallies around a semi-literate man who is accused of murdering his brother.
A Great Day in Harlem - Interviews and stories about the jazz musicians who appeared in an iconic photograph shot in front of a Harlem brownstone in 1958.
Hoop Dreams - The lives of two talented high school basketball players from Chicago who hope to make the NBA.
Touching the Void - The re-enacted story of two climbers and their nearly-disastrous journey to climb a mountain in the Andes.
The two best documentaries ever were NBC’s Victory at Sea and CBS’s World War I. Fifty–sixty years later, I still get the chills when I watch them!
It’s really too bad “King of Kong” is pretty much bullshit. I’ll say it again: King of Kong is a work of fiction. It isn’t real.
Even more words about how dishonest it is
The BBS Documentary (watch and download here) is, you know, not bullshit. It’s actually good information.
That’s a really good one. Directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky who did the Paradise Lost documentaries about The West Memphis 3.
I first saw “Brother’s Keeper” on VHS, and more recently on DVD, and did listen to the commentary track. They close the movie with their opinion of what really happened; both of them said the same thing, with which I personally disagree.
I’ll say what we think if you PM me.
I read an article with Billy Mitchell, and based upon what was shown in the film, he made a good case to say the snub didn’t happen. From what I saw, elsewhere, the movie people insist it’s all as is. They could be working together, too, and only pretending to be at odds.
And funny, but when Billy made the comment in the movie, my first thought regarded concentration. Meaning that you wouldn’t want to feel responsible for tripping-up a person’s score through dividing attention. Billy understands he isn’t some random observer over Wiebe’s shoulder, and he most certainly will divide attention (or appear to be nicking tricks, etc.)
As to the score thing: yeah. Not good. If I see anyone trying to answer for that, will link in.
I still like it. If it was a serious subject, though, the shadiness would be 100% unacceptable. No doubt about it.
Good calls. I appreciate it.
Somewhere down the line, I may challenge Salesman. I loved it (big time), but there’s maybe something funny going on with it.
Yeah, guys. You’ve caused me to want to see Brother’s Keeper. I’m really looking forward to it.
Two documentaries about movies that failed and were canceled during the prodution.
Lost in La Mancha - Terry Gilliam’s terrible luck in making Don Quixote. Fascinating all the way through. Streams on Netflix!
Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? - Currently in limited release around the country. The story of how Superman Lives was going to come out in 1998, but was shut down 3 weeks before filming. They meet with Kevin Smith, the other two screenwriters, and Tim Burton, along with others. Fascinating and well worth finding or waiting for its inevitable Netflix release.
I botched the title and so did McDeath, lol. For the record, it is King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters.
Pure gold. You guys are great.
So much worthlessness out there (very sorry to say), it really sucks to find the good stuff on your own. Doesn’t it?
Please keep them coming. I’ll keep rolling out good titles over the next day or so, then go from there.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
