Category: Documentary
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Top 10 Stories from Sundance Film Festival 2020
The Sundance Film Festival recently wrapped up. The festival, founded by Robert Redford, is intended to give exposure to new and diverse voices. Often, there are movies that debut at Sundance that we end up talking about all year. For instance, Golden Globe nominee The Farewell. As always, a lot happened over the course of…
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Star Wars Mockumentary Movie Review – Return of the Ewok
I’ll start this mini-review saying Return of the Ewok is quite sweet, if you can get your hands on a copy — even the bad one currently up on YouTube. This fun little 25-minute mockumentary features Warwick Davis as himself and Wicket the Ewok (inserted Forrest Gump-like) into various scenes of Return of the Jedi.…
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Two Must See Science Fiction Spoof Film Documentaries (plus: the most ‘inconceivable’ parody of a spoof)
It’s hard to make a decent movie spoof for a beloved franchise, and being in the science fiction genre doesn’t make things any easier. The producers have to sell a fresh plot, quality special effects, and sparkling humor, while somehow keeping the fan base happy. You have to honor — while riffing– the base material.…
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Never Surrender – A Galaxy Quest Retrospective
I just smiled my ass off for 95 minutes. And you will too, if you’ve loved Galaxy Quest since it premiered in 1999. I’ve been telling everyone in earshot for decades that Galaxy Quest is one of the best “Star Trek” movies ever made. It was kind of fun to hear this exact sentiment expressed…
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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Will Make You Feel Loved Again
I just came out from viewing A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. And this is funny: last night I watched the award-winning 2018 documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor. I like being a sort of completist. Bear this in mind: I don’t like documentaries. I can’t think of another documentary I’d watch on purpose if’s…
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Documentary Review – Won’t You Be My Neighbor
Everyone’s saying the Tom Hanks Mr. Rogers movie is great and I definitely plan to see it this Thanksgiving week. I remember loving “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” as a child, with the trolley and the cute puppet kingdom…but haven’t given the show another thought as the decades passed. Then 2018’s documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor…
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Tom Hanks and Fred (Mr) Rogers are cousins
Ancestry.com has discovered that Tom Hanks and Fred Rogers are sixth cousins. That’s made all the more relevant due to Tom Hanks playing Fred Rogers in the critically-acclaimed movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. (Bringing a whole new meaning to getting into character.) “It all just comes together, you see,” Hanks told Access Hollywood when…
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The Top Six Richard Linklater Movies to See Before Where’d You Go Bernadette
Where’d You Go, Bernadette opens this week. While it’s not Richard Linklater’s first commercial film (Bad News Bears, School of Rock), it does appear to be wholly unlike anything else he’s ever done. I’ve been following Linklater for a while and he’s one of my favorite filmmakers. Below is a list of my favorite Linklater…
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Top Five Movies about the Civil War
What makes a great American Civil War movie? The battles, the politics, the inhumanity of slavery, brother against brother, the great generals of both sides, the personal sides of war, families being torn apart, or all of the above? The movies I’ve listed contain all or most of the issues listed above, and are in…
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Movie Review – Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable
Bethany Hamilton’s Unstoppable as a documentary is hard to grade. I’m going through a ‘shark movie’ phase, and there were no toothy predators here. I expected to see Bethany’s harrowing events, feeling gripped and scared along with viewing her traumatic experience. As it was, the documentary picks up only after the attack and healing phases.…
