Everything else is just made up
Review of The Central Park Five written by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon Rating ***** This film should be required viewing for anyone who works in the justice system. This story is a textbook example of how wrongful convictions occur. There are common elements with every wrongful conviction. They most often involve males [...]
Review of The House I Live In Written & directed by Eugene Jarecki Rating **** 1/2 It used to be that I would hear about a film or documentary and try in vain to find a venue where I could see or rent that particular film. This is changing with on demand video streaming. I [...]
Regular visitors to this blog know that I have a dumbest commercials list. But just as there are plenty of bad commercials, there are also some really good ones. This one from Kraft is a classic. It’s funny. It’s original. This is one of those commercials people talk about afterwards — Have you seen that [...]
Few commercials are so bad that they make you cringe every time you see it, but this one from Herbal Essences fits that bill. First off, the whole fake orgasm bit isn’t creative, funny, or original. The entire commercial seems to be a rip off of the movie When Harry met Sally. Then there is [...]
Review of HBO’s Phil Spector written and directed by David Mamet Rating *** So David Mamet decides he wants to tell the story of Phil Spector and the murder, or suicide, or accidental death of Lana Clarkson. David believes that Phil is innocent. He lays out a convincing argument for his case. He enlists the help [...]
Review of Farmageddon written and directed by Kristin Canty Rating **** This film tells the story of how the USDA is using its power and resources to harm small farmers. This is a topic I have written about before. Mostly I have written about the harmful effects of the industrialization of food. It’s a topic covered [...]
Review of Five Broken Cameras written and directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi Rating ***** I’ve seen a lot of documentaries from the slickly produced films like The Imposter to homemade movies like Catfish. And the best ones all have one thing in common – they tell compelling stories. This film is one of the five [...]
Review of Zero Dark Thirty written by Mark Boal and directed by Kathryn Bigelow Rating ***** In a previous post, I said that the film The Impossible was my pick for best picture of 2012. Since that picture wasn’t one of the nominated pictures, this film would be my second pick. As much as I [...]
Review of The Impossible Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona Written by Sergio Sanchez Story by Maria Belon Rating ***** It’s not often when a title can so succinctly sum up what a story is about. The title of this film refers to many impossibilities: the fact that the entire family survived, the fact that they were [...]
Review of Craigslist Joe directed by Joseph Garner Rating **** A lot of people come up with great ideas for stories. But few actually take the next step and actually put in the work to tell that story. Joseph Garner and cinematographer Kevin Flint put in the work. The result is this entertaining look at [...]
It’s been a busy year for me. I haven’t been able to see as many films as I would have liked. I haven’t been able to read as many books as I would have liked. And it looks like going forward in 2013 I’m going to have even less time as I work on my [...]
Review of The Imposter directed by Bart Layton Rating ***** This is the best documentary I’ve seen this year. It’s a fascinating story told in a unique style. This is a story that would be impossible to believe if it weren’t true. A down on his luck Frenchman, whose entire life seems to have centered [...]
Review of Lincoln written by Tony Kushner and directed by Steven Spielberg Rating *** 1/2 I’m giving this film a three-and-a-half rating out of five. And for those who follow this blog, they might know that at year’s end when I put together the best of Everything Nonfiction list, only reviews of four stars or [...]
Robert, why? I’m a huge fan of yours. I had such high hopes that finally a skilled director might make an aviation film that was realistic, believable, as well as entertaining. You did such a good job with the crash scene in Cast Away. So how could you make a film with so many cringe [...]
Argo (book) – Written by Tony Mendez and Matt Baglio Rating **** 1/2 Argo (Film) – Written by Chris Terrio, Directed by Ben Affleck Rating **** 1/2 The last book versus film review I did was Moneyball. I liked both but criticised the filmmakers for fabricating parts of the story. The same is true in [...]
