Category Archives: Documentary

I Am Greta review — Portrait of the Swedish climate crisis activist

October 16, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Nathan Grossman | Story editing by Olof Berglind, based on an idea by Peter Modestij | 98 min | Crave Plus Greta Thunberg says she doesn't want to be one of those people who says one thing and does something else. She sees enough of that in the politicians who claim to care…Read More

Rare Bird Alert review — Birdwatching doc a lot of feathery fun

October 3, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Michael Melski | 43 min | CBC Gem Nova Scotia filmmaker Michael Melski returns to the documentary form after the creepfest The Child Remains with this look at hardcore birders across Canada and into the United States. It's an enthusiastic exploration and endorsement of birdwatching through its most eager purveyors, reminding us some of…Read More

#LDF2020 Review — iHuman

September 28, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Tonje Hessen Schei | 99 min This is a very bleak look at our possible fate given the rapid development of artificial intelligence. This documentary travels the planet, speaking to scientists and researchers on a future that could be amazing — AI could solve a lot of our problems — but, according to…Read More

#LDF2020 Review — The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel

September 26, 2020 flawintheiris

The Lunenburg Doc Fest is underway — all online, of course — and I'll be posting about what I see with the hashtag #LDF2020. Directed by Jennifer Abbott and Joel Bakan | 105 min The Corporation (2003) was an left-leaning, eye-opening documentary that explored the idea of corporations having all the rights of the individual.…Read More

#FIN2020 Doc Reviews: No Ordinary Man, There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace, Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President

September 22, 2020 flawintheiris

No Ordinary Man In their documentary investigation into the late jazz musician Billy Tipton, Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt have brought a strikingly compassionate examination of what it means to be trans. The film examines the legacy of jazz musician Billy Tipton — he was someone who hid his biological gender. The film also explores…Read More

#FIN2020 PREVIEW — Bone Cage, Bread In The Bones, Citizen of Moria, The Forbidden Reel, Little Orphans, Queen Of The Andes

September 16, 2020 flawintheiris

The event of the year for the Atlantic Canadian cinephile — the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival — brings the world to Halifax every September. This year, of course, is a little different. The entire festival is online, which is a double-edged sword for the film lover. We get access to the full program on…Read More

#TIFF2020 Reviews — Concrete Cowboy, The Disciple, Inconvenient Indian

September 15, 2020 flawintheiris

Concrete Cowboy | Directed by Ricky Staub | Written by Staub and Dan Walser, based on the book by Greg Neri | 111 min Knowing this film is based on a Young Adult novel explains a lot about a narrative that seems a lot less complex than it promises to be early on. Fourteen-year-old Cole (Caleb McLaughlin,…Read More

#TIFF2020 Review — Enemies of the State

September 11, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Sonia Kennebeck | 103 min A true-crime documentary in the vein of Andrew Jarecki's Capturing The Friedmans, Kennebeck (produced by Errol Morris) deftly and deliberately lays out the case for and against one Matt DeHart. He's a young man from a military-serving, god-fearing Indiana family who early on took an interest in computers…Read More

Creem: America’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll Magazine review

August 18, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Scott Crawford | Written by Crawford and Jaan Uhelszki | 75 min | At Carbon Arc Creem arrived a year after Rolling Stone, and immediately set itself up as a big "fuck you" to the more well-known rock mag. Everything about the publication was counter-culture and/or proto-punk, from its misfit writers and editors…Read More

You Don’t Nomi review — Showgirls doc an alternative take on bomb

June 24, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Jeffrey McHale | 92 min | On Demand I love the idea of a documentary that reassesses unloved, underappreciated, or cult films, and it's undeniable a cult has grown (if ironically) around Dutch director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Esterhaus' famously sleazy disaster, Showgirls. While it's fascinating to look back at 1995, when…Read More