Category Archives: Documentary

#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

The Booksellers review — For lovers of the printed word

June 22, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by DW Young | 99 min | At the Carbon Arc Cinema website until July 2 This is a cerebral and very fun documentary about books and those who live through them, especially those in New York. If you choose to take the journey, you'll start at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair,…Read More

2040 review — “An exercise in fact-based dreaming”

June 7, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Damon Gameau | 91 min | On Demand Decentralized power grids with independent solar-source energy. Self driving electric cars. Diverse, multi-species grazing crops. Marine permaculture. Educating girls. These are some of the ideas Australian filmmaker Damon Gameau learns about as he looks for solutions — that already exist — to rescue the world…Read More

The Woman Who Loves Giraffes review — wildlife, social justice documentary

May 26, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Alison Reid | 83 min | on Crave, and available through June 4 as a virtual screening at Carbon Arc Cinema What's surprising about this delightful documentary is its split focus: it both celebrates Canadian giraffe expert Dr Anne Innes Dagg for her passion and accomplishments as a giraffe researcher, and takes a…Read More

The Painter and The Thief review — Documentary explores unlikely connections

May 24, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Benjamin Ree | 102 min | On Demand and Prime Video A hypnotic film, one where the making-of, behind-the-scenes extras might be as fascinating as the documentary. Barbora Kysilkova is the Czech-born painter, now living with a Norwegian fellow in Oslo. Two of her photo-realistic works are lifted from an exhibition, and when…Read More

Beastie Boys Story review — They don’t front on that

April 29, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Spike Jonze | Written by Jonze, Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond | 119 min | Apple TV A rangy and rambling documentary staged by Jonze, a longtime fan/friend of the Beastie Boys, shot at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn earlier this month. It's a mix of storytelling and docu-footage, with the two surviving…Read More