Category Archives: Documentary

Navalny

Navalny                5 stars

If you are going to see one documentary from 2022, Navalny by Daniel Roher must be the one to choose. Alexei Navalny is the Russian dissident who challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling out the brutal nature of the government and the lies he tells the people of Russia. The film follows Navalny and investigative journalist Christo Grozev starting from the attempted assassination of Navalny until he is arrested and put in prison upon his return to Russia. The film plays like a thriller as we see him suddenly fall ill on a flight to Moscow forcing the plane to land in Omsk to seek medical attention for him. There he is kept by the authorities, however his colleagues fearing the worst find a way to fly him to Berlin, Germany where it is determined he was poisoned, a sure sign that the Kremlin was involved. While in Berlin and on the path to recovery, Navalny and Grozev undertake an investigation using telephone records and flight records to find possible candidates for assassins with Kremlin ties. The rest is fascinating to watch as the truth is uncovered and the crime is broadcast around the world revealing the monstrous practices of Putin. All of this happened well before the invasion of Ukraine, thus we now know just how corrupt Putin is and what he thinks of the common people. The film also includes moments with Navalny’s family so we see what he is risking with his political moves. The film serves as an effective reminder of how bad things can be when living under an authoritative dictatorship. This is the film that won Best Documentary at the Academy Awards this year. If you are interested in documentaries that tell provocative stories as they happen, you should really see it.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour           4 ½ stars

Concert films are one type of film that I very rarely see, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to see Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in the theater. Since I can’t remember seeing any specific concert film before I can say that this was the best concert film I have ever seen. But seriously it is an experience you shouldn’t miss if you have the chance. The film is taken from a single performance, Taylor Swift’s final stop of the Eras Tour in Los Angeles. The show is extravagant to the maximum, lasting over two and a half hours with amazing sets, a myriad of costume changes and accompanied by a dance troupe with Taylor at the center of it all. She performs songs from throughout her seventeen year career broken down by periods of inspiration that she calls her eras. How she has the energy and stamina to go so long including well staged choreography is beyond my comprehension. The film is heavily edited with closeups of her and many shots of the adoring fans in the audience. So call me a Swifty now. I loved it.

God Save Texas

God Save Texas: The Price of Oil. 4 stars

God Save Texas is a series of episodics produced by Richard Linklater with three of them showing at Sundance. All are directed by native Texans and reflect some subject about conditions in Texas that affect the entire country. The Price of Oil was directed by Alex Stapleton who is from the Houston area and is Black. The focus of the episode is on the black population of Texas, their contribution to development of the oil industry, and the marginalization they have suffered for its profits. The doc goes back to the 1830’s when Texas won its independence but followed the practice of slavery. It shows how blacks were left out of the history of the state. With the discovery of oil in the early twentieth century, blacks did not receive their share of employment in the oil industry, but have suffered from the environmental dangers of having the refineries placed next to their neighborhoods. The director made it personal by showing how some of her own relatives were impacted by these practices. The episode was largely made during the pandemic. I recommend seeing the series. It was inspired by the book God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright.

Love Machina

Love Machina 4 stars

How would you like to transfer the consciousness of a loved one into a robot so that they could continue to exist and be with you after they passed away? It sounds unimaginable but that is the aim of futurists Martina and Bina Rothblatt. Marina has been conducting this project since 2006 so that his beloved wife can continue to love as a machine. The robot consists of only a head and can listen and speak with the help of AI and it is named Bina48. Martina has been gathering data that defines Bina’s thoughts and digitizing them. The result at this point is regarded as a simulation but it is quite remarkable what has been accomplished so far. It seems like the stuff of science fiction, and would seem to be something we couldn’t have dreamed of only a few years ago. The movie presents other great advancements that have been made in technology recently and shows the hope that we have for the future. It gives a very positive picture of what the future holds.

Agent of Happiness

Agent of Happiness 4 stars

One of the more unusual government functions I have heard of is the measurement of happiness. In Agent of Happiness the filmmakers follow a pair of government agents through the mountains and villages of Bhutan as they survey the population with a series of questions to find out the state of happiness of their citizens. Its purpose is to help guide the government in the future development of the country. The film focuses mainly on one agent named Amber who is about 40 years old and actually has his own story to tell. The survey asks questions about people’s possessions like refrigerators, TV’s and farm animals, but also how they rate their own happiness. Like any of us, the people have misfortunes they talk of like deaths in the family, abusive mates, alcoholism and even living as a transgender person. But they also reveal the hopes they have for the future. Amber’s own story is about caring for his aging mother and of a girl friend that he wishes he could marry. Unfortunately, Amber is not a Bhutanese citizen being of Nepalese descent, thus he cannot leave the country. And that is enough to deny him of his dream of a wife and settling down. Thus behind all the beauty of this land and the optimism lies the stories of pain and loss and how like people everywhere, they find a way to carry on.

Never Look Away

Never Look Away                             4 stars

The documentary Never Look Away tells of the extraordinary life of CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth who spent 16 years going to war-torn countries to record the conflicts on film and bring the reality of war to our screens back home. The documentary is directed by first time director Lucy Lawless who is widely known from her TV character, Xena on the show Xena: Warrior Princess which she played for six seasons. Lawless, a native of New Zealand jumped at the chance to direct this film as Margaret Moth was a fellow New Zealander and Lawless was highly motivated to have this story told. Through interviews with old boy friends, colleagues at CNN and family members we learn how dedicated and fearless Moth was in entering such warzones as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon and various African conflicts. She believed it was critical that people should know just how terrible it is for the local people living in warzones. Footage from the conflicts is shared showing how perilous the locations were. For some especially significant locations 3 dimensional dioramas were created to the bring the impact of the events to life. The documentary is an impressive achievement for Lawless. She appeared at the theater for Q and A where she said the movie was finished just in time to make it to Sundance.