Tag: Documentary

HONEYLAND – Review

HONEYLAND is a documentary but it seems more like a narrative film with its strong dramatic arc and touching story. There is no narration and no introductory text to tells us in this visually-stunning award-winner at Sundance, which gives us a moving tale a traditional beekeeper in North Macedonia.

HONEYLAND opens with a gorgeous shot of a middle-aged woman in traditional Eastern European garb, making her way across a windswept rocky landscape. The camera follows her as she climbs up the mountainside and inches along a ledge, while the wind whips her skirts around. She then stops to pry loose a rock, which reveals a wild honeybee hive. Calmly, slowly, she reaches in and pulls out honeycombs and bees, and puts them in her basket.

It is a graceful, contemplative action, and the landscape is dramatic, setting the tone for this stunning, immersive documentary. The woman is traditional beekeeper in rural North Macedonia, a vanishing tradition, a perhaps the last of her kind, although with the film does not let us know that directly. Instead, HONEYLAND tells its human story more like an epic, with such a strong dramatic pull that one has to remind oneself that it is documentary. There is no introductory text at the start to tell us who she is or where we are, and there is no voice-over. Instead it is just the fly-on-the-wall camera, strikingly beautiful photography, and a intimate tale of a human life. The story is filled with human sweep, moments of humor, and an unspoken message about cultural change and caring for the earth.

The woman, Hatidze, lives in a small stone hut with her elderly mother, who is bed-ridden, blind in one eye and a little deaf. The landscape around their home is strewn with crumbling stone walls, and looks like it was once a small village. Now, all the other houses are in ruin, and Hatidze and her mother have only a dog and a couple of cats for company.

Still, they seem content with their simple life in the hut lit by candles and a wood stove. Chatting and joking in a way that reveals their close relationship, and the daughter’s good-naturalness and basic decency shine through in her care for her feisty mother. Occasionally, the beekeeper travels to the nearby city of Skopje to sell her honey, where her traditionally garb, of headscarf, high-neck blouse, flowing skirt and heavy stockings, make her look like she stepped out of another time. She socializes with vendors at the market, and does a little shopping. Hatidze is no beauty but we learn through conversations with her mother she once had other ambitions for her life. Her gentle personality, devoted care for her mother, and her unfailing politeness make her shine, winning out hearts.

At first, it looks as if the documentary will continue in this quiet fashion. But then neighbors arrive, and the quiet changes to chaos. Arriving in a mobile home, a couple move in across the street, with lots of noisy children, chickens, and a herd of cattle, none of which they seem to know how to manage. The father, Hussein, may be well-meaning but he is clearly in over his head, and has a tendency to blame others around him for his mistakes, particularly the children. The beekeeper and her mother are wary at first but since the newcomers speak the same Turkic language they are hopeful. Soon the children come over, and then the parents cone to visit. Gentle, good-natured Hatidze seems to enjoy the company, particularly the children, with whom she plays sweetly.

But the neighborly warmth doesn’t last, things grow tense when Hussein starts doing things that endanger Hatidze’s bees, ignoring Hatidze’s gentle helpful advice and then her complaints. There is tension and conflict, and the story takes unexpected twists as the two families try to figure out if they can indeed be neighbors.

The human drama on the screen is remarkable, all the more so because this is real life unfolding before our eyes. In the process, our admiration grows for Hatidze’s basic character, her resilience, warmth, and even a natural nobility. HONEYLAND is a documentary that is beautifully filmed, has a moving human story and unforgettable people, as well as something important to say about the value of traditional sustainable practices.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

ONE CHILD NATION – Review

A scene from the documentary ONE CHILD NATION. Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Sundance’s grand jury prize winning documentary ONE CHILD NATION examines the impact of China’s brutally-enforced “One Child” policy, from the viewpoint of people who experienced it. This is an eye-opening documentary about a policy that shaped modern China in many ways, but told from a very personal and human perspective. Director Nanfu Wang was born under China’s One Child policy, which restricted families to one child only from 1979 to 2015, but has lived in the U.S. as an adult. Growing up, she thought little about the policy which seemed a part of ordinary everyday life – until she had a child of her own.

Returning with her infant son to visit family in China, director Wang began to peel back the layers of this pervasive policy by talking to people directly impacted by it – doctors and local officials that enforced it, and family and neighbors who experienced its devastating effects. What Wang uncovers, through personal experiences, is something much darker and deeper than we expect, far beyond an idea for family planning.

While any documentary might have taken a straight-forward historical approach to the one-child policy, Wang’s ONE CHILD NATION focuses on individual people, both those impacted by the policy and those who carried it out. That choice makes this documentary more harrowing and gut-wrenching than a conventional documentary might have been.

As Wang notes, the policy was instituted at a time when China’s large and growing population was sparking fears of famine among Chinese Communist government officials. The policy included a propaganda campaign promoting the “One Child” policy, public social pressures to reinforce that and a host of local government officials and doctors to see that it was strictly enforced. Those enforcement efforts went much further than many suspected, as Wang’s investigation reveals.

Wang takes a very warm and personal approach, starting off by noting that her family was a bit different that most Chinese ones under the One Child policy in that her parents were granted permission to have a second child, an exception sometimes given to rural families like hers. Wang talks about how as a child in China under the policy, it was a source of social embarrassment at school that she had a younger brother. The consequences for having a second child without permission were severe.

The director’s return home with her baby sparks her curiosity about the One Child policy. Wang starts out with just questions for her family about how the now-abandoned policy might have impacted them directly. Her questions reveals a lingering reluctance to discuss the topic, one tinged with fear perhaps, and also lead her to discover a long-held family secret.

She interviews a retired local official who reveals some of the harshness of the policy before her inquiry is shut down with implied threats from the official’s wife. The official describes talks with people and admits that families who violated the policy by having another child often had their houses knocked down but the interview sparks her journalistic curiosity about other consequences. She tracks down a doctor who participated in enforcing the policy, who now helps families with infertility as a form of atonement, and finds that enforcing the ban extended far beyond talks or the destruction of houses the official described.

This is shocking, bracing stuff that makes clear the reason for the reluctance to talk about it. Wang delves into what happened to pregnant women, to babies born in violation of the policy, and the rise of the international adoption industry, which has a darker side than one might expect.

Wang’s focus on person stories and first-hand experience brings home the way this policy impacted people, with more emotional impact than a drier documentary approach would. Wang also expresses her opinion that this restrictive, strictly-enforced government policy limiting families has parallels, through the common theme of government dictating decisions on child-bearing to women, to forces in the U.S. pushing to pass laws restricting access to abortion. Some viewers may disagree but Wang notes that in her opinion both are cases of outsiders intruding in making family decisions.

This deep dive into the One Child policy uncovers how it transformed Chinese society and impacted individuals, an impressive piece of investigative journalism from a personal, human perspective. This is an eye-opening revelatory documentary n

The results of Wang’s inquiry are startling. Her personal investigation takes us deep into this strictly-enforced edict which had a profound impact on the lives of all Chinese people, revealing heartbreaking, even horrifying details about this how this family planning policy was carried out and its consequences. Wang’s skillful, probing style makes us feel like we are going down a deep rabbit hole of secrets long held, connecting dots unsuspected between the one-child policy and its legacy in the present. The searing documentary gives us insights on the people who endured it and the Chinese government that enforced it. ONE CHILD NATION is a revelatory documentary no one should miss.

ONE CHILD NATION opens Friday, Aug. 23, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars

DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME – Review

David Crosby (center), jamming with Neil Young (l), Stephen Stills (r) and Tim Drummond (bass), during a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young concert at Texas Stadium, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas, August 31, 1974. Photo by Joel Bernstein. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

David Crosby has a golden voice and has had a storied career as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and the Byrds, having sung or written songs that were the soundtrack of the Woodstock generation. Even if you don’t know his name, you recognize some of his songs. You have to admire his talent but as a person, David Crosby is less admirable and more complicated, as interviewer Cameron Crowe reveals in the first-rate documentary DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME.

The title is apt, as one of the first thing that comes up when others talk about the singer/songwriter is his ego. Cameron Crowe is the producer, not the director, of this documentary but he is the perfect choice as interviewer, since he has known Crosby since his days as a rock journalist in the ’60s, and parts of Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film ALMOST FAMOUS is based on that experience. The documentary’s director is A.J. Eaton, who lets Crowe draw out Crosby, while offering us a wealth of archival footage and background material on a remarkable time, a remarkable career and a complicated man.

Like him or not, there is no denying David Crosby has had a storied career. Blessed with a beautiful singing voice and a gift for songwriting, Crosby was a member of the Byrds, then a founding member of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, who shot to fame after Woodstock. Crosby knew immediately that his voice was the perfect match for Graham Nash’s, and the two created thrilling harmonies on hit after hit, including “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Our House,” “Wooden Ships” and “Guinevere.” The addition of singer/songwriter Neil Young created the super group Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. The groups’ songs gave the ’60s and early ’70s much of its signature soundtrack, including the Kent State political lament “Ohio.”

You don’t have to remember the ’60s to enjoy this marvelous documentary. DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME takes us on a musical trip through some of the most important cultural moments of the Sixties, with concert footage featuring many of the songs, and putting the songs and the bands in perspective of the era and of Crosby’s life. It is an enjoyable and enlightening journey.

To its credit, the film does not shy away from or gloss over the central fact that, as talented as he is, David Crosby has a reputation as, well, a jerk. Yet on camera in this film, Crosby is charming, engaging and a natural storyteller. The legendary musician talks about other rock and folk music greats of the era, praising Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan, and revealing his personal dislike of The Doors’ Jim Morrison. Crosby’s eloquence and frankness make the interviews with him one of the most engrossing parts of this film.

But another thing we quickly learn about the singer/songwriter – from other interviewees – is that he is famously prickly and has legendary temper. We don’t see the temper but we do see some of the prickly, difficult personality, although maybe less than would have been the case with another interviewer. With Cameron Crowe, whom he has known so long, Crosby is relaxed. He seems honest and open, although not always with good insight on himself. However, the film offers some insights, through background on Crosby’s family and upbringing, and also covers his current musical career, touring with younger musicians and making new music, while he faces declining health and his own mortality.

While the documentary has a lot of footage of Crosby, his wife, and interviews with some fellow musicians, others are notably absent. There is a little bit of interview footage with Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, with Neil Young and Graham Nash of CSNY but none with Stephen Stills, who only appears in concert footage and archival shots. Crosby mentions a daughter from whom he is estranged, and past lovers such as Joni Mitchell, but they also are absent from interviews.

There is, however, a great deal of fabulous concert footage and archival stills that recaps Crosby’s storied career, and the ups-and-downs of his personal life. Crosby ultimately comes across as someone who is often his own worse enemy, with a capacity to alienate those closest to him, yet lucky enough to have found happiness with his beloved, supportive wife Jan. Crosby is frank about his many affairs and his drug usage, including the heroin addiction that sent him to jail, an ordeal that helped him kick that habit. His band mates, including Graham Nash, were there for him when he got out of prison, along with his now-wife Jan. Jan is still with him but his former band mates no longer speak to him. There is a story there that interviewer Cameron Crowe skirts around, trying to tease it out, yet Crosby remains enigmatic.

This is an insightful, intriguing documentary about a talented but flawed man, as well as a essential and entertaining musical journey through a pivotal era. No matter what you think of David Crosby personally, this musical journey is a long strange trip well worth taking.

DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME opens Friday, Aug. 16, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

MARIANNE AND LEONARD: WORDS OF LOVE – Review

A photo of Marianne Ihlen from MARIANNE AND LEONARD: WORDS OF LOVE. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Leonard Cohen and his one-time lover and muse Marianne Ihlen are the subject of the documentary MARIANNE AND LEONARD: WORDS OF LOVE. Leonard Cohen is a legendary figure in pop music, whose songs include “Hallelujah,” “Susanne,” and “So Long, Marianne,” the later written about his muse. However, music fans hungry for a film that offers insight on the Canadian-born poet/novelist/singer/songwriter and his artistry may feel let down by this documentary. The order of names in the documentary title is important, as the film focuses more on Marianne and her sad decline after the end of their romance, shortly after Leonard achieved a degree of fame in the folk music movement of the 1960s. However, Marianne’s story is really only told in terms of her relationship with Leonard, rather than in her own right. The film is a sad, at times gossipy, examination of the fall and decline of a muse more than it is a exploration of Leonard Cohen’s work that was inspired by her or her role as the muse he called her. While one might expect the film to give insight into Marianne’s role in Leonard’s life over their long friendship, how she inspired and supported him emotionally, the film settles for merely repeating that she was his muse.

Still the documentary does have some value. Early concert footage of Cohen is one of the highlights of the film, as well as interview footage with music legend Judy Collins,offering insights on Cohen in his early days as a performer. A little biographical background on Cohen and his family in Canada is included, although not as much as one might want.

The title includes the phrase “words of love” but the romantic love fades pretty quickly in this sad story, although Leonard continued to acknowledge Marianne’s role as his muse and early supporter, as their relationship evolved into friendship. Leonard and Marianne met on the Greek island of Hydra, when Cohen was still a novelist. Marianne Ihlen was a beautiful, young, recently-divorced Norwegian woman with a small son named Axel, and they fell in love. The couple seemed to have had an idyllic domestic life as the writer worked on his last novel. But when that book, much of it written under the influence of LSD, met with withering criticism and failure, Cohen decided a change was needed and traveled alone to New York. There he discovered – and was discovered by – the vibrant folk music scene of Bob Dylan, Judy Collins and other musical greats. Leonard did not intend to abandon Marianne and, if fact, sent for her after achieving some success as a singer/songwriter, but the spell of the island was broken. Not an artist herself, Marianne did not feel comfortable in New York, so she and her son, to whom Leonard had been a father, returned to the once-quiet artist colony on Hydra. Unfortunately, Hydra itself had changed, becoming a drug-drenched party playground for the rich and famous, such as Jackie Kennedy Onassis, in the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll ’60s.

The documentary enthusiastically spends a great deal of time detailing the ’60s party excesses on Hydra. The film traces Marianne’s tragic decline, although the more tragic story is the fate of her son, who was neglected in her heartbreak at the end of her love affair. Although Leonard continued to provide financial support, Marianne was still in love with him and felt his absence strongly.

There is often a shallow, tabloid feel to this biographical film. Director Nick Bloomfield spends a lot of time detailing Cohen’s heavy drug use and his sexual exploits, often including splashy period headlines and archival footage of the excesses of the ’60s, particularly on Hydra. The facts may be true but the sensationalist approach are probably not what Leonard Cohen fans most want in a documentary about the singer/songwriter, nor does it give a full telling of Marianne’s own personal story. Hopefully, someone will make another documentary that offers more insight on the multi-talented Leonard Cohen.

MARIANNE AND LEONARD opens, Friday, July 26, at Tivoli Theater.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

MAIDEN – Review

Left to right: Tracy Edwards and Mikaela Von Koskull, in MAIDEN.
Courtesy of Tracy Edwards and Sony Pictures Classics.

Surprisingly exciting, with the narrative drive of a fiction film, the documentary MAIDEN tells the epic tale of the first all-women yachting crew to challenge the men in an around-the-world sailing race. With the spirit of high adventure, this documentary follows a young British woman, skipper Tracy Edwards, and her scrappy international crew as they take on the all-boys’ club world of yachting in the 1989-1990 Whitbread Round the World Race. This polished documentary is filled with exciting footage of the grueling, nine-months-long sailing race, as the women shatter assumptions about what women can do, in the fiercely competitive, physically-demanding world of sail racing. The docu also features archival interviews with Edwards and her crew, their opponents in the race, news footage and interview, combined with present-day interviews of Edwards and others.

The documentary’s title MAIDEN is the name of the sailboat that the crew led by British Tracy Edward and her international crew entered in the Whitbread race. It was a clever choice for a name, referencing the all-female crew, the re-built sailing ships’ maiden voyage, and their first-ever challenge to the all-male world of sail racing. The media eagerly followed the women’s attempt to break in to that highly-sexist world, but often with a gleefully expectation of failure. That changed to astonishment, when the determined women upended that pre-conceived notion.

Young Tracy Edwards fell in love with sailing in an era when women were excluded routinely from crews. Edwards talked her way on to her first crew by offering to serve as ship’s cook, although she was a rarity even in that lowly position. Despite the opposition, she managed to learn the craft largely on her own. After being repeatedly being excluded from joining an all-male crew in the era’s hyper-male boys club of competitive sailing, the frustrated young Brit decided to form an all-women crew to compete in the 1989-1990 Whitbread around-the-world sailing race. Tracy Edwards figured there were other women out there who were skilled sailors but who also had been relegated only to the role of ship’s cook.

Boy, was she right! When she put out the call for women to join the yachting crew, highly-capable women sailors showed up from around the world. Despite a lack of funding, opposition from racing officials and fellow yachting crews, false-starts in melding a team, and a crisis shortly before the race’s start, these admirable women came together to get the job done. Through pulse-pounding sailing footage, the docu details the the Whitbread race, a grueling competition, which required the competing crews to cover 33,000 miles spanning the globe in three stages over a total of nine months.

MAIDEN is an inspiring underdog tale, a story of determination and grit against myriad enormous challenges. No one made things easy for this tough team of resourceful women. The thrilling documentary MAIDEN tells their story,in entertaining fashion, in the tradition of tales of high adventure long associated with the sea.

Director Alex Holmes skillfully builds drama in telling the story of this little-known race. The sea-going sequences are undeniably thrilling and watching these young women scramble to meet the force of the sea is exciting. The women faced daunting conditions at sea but hostility in the yachting and sports worlds as well. It is amazing to see the amount of sexism these women, who only wanted the chance to sail, faced in the late 1980s. The documentary includes jarring archival footage of sports commentators and sailing officials disparaging the women and news footage of Edwards diplomatically responding to the attacks.

The press were eager to cover the all-women team, but often with a smug expectation they would fail. The media were happy to put the photogenic Edwards on camera, but this tiny, pretty young woman was also bold and outspoken Edwards, a small woman with an iron will who would not back down.

Media flocked to cover the story, many clearly revealing their sexist bias, peppering their coverage with mocking comments about mused makeup, cat-fights, and silly musings about who would fix the engine. While it sounds odd to contemporary ears to hear Edwards refer to herself as a girl or to decline to call herself a feminist, it is clear her focus is on breaking down barriers to women in sailing and that nothing will stop her, not the sea and not the men in media, sports organizations or the other crews in the race.

But tiny but mighty Edwards and her talented crew had a steel in them that the media didn’t guess but which comes across clearly. The crew of the Maiden set out with the goal only to finish the race, keenly aware that if they did not it would negatively impact women sailors ever after, but they did much more. It wasn’t easy, as the documentary shows, and the women faced both the challenge of finding sponsors, rebuilding a dilapidated sail boat, and public ridicule and more. And then they faced the life-threatening, unpredictable challenges of the sea.

MAIDEN is a tale of determination and high adventure, showing that you can’t keep a good woman down. It opens Friday, July 19, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM – Review

Toni Morrison in TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM, a Magnolia Pictures release. ©Timothy Greenfield-Sanders / Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

This biographical documentary has an advantage most documentaries about a literary giant lack: the living artist herself. And boy is that as a bonus. The charismatic, iconic Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison helps director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders tells her remarkable story in TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM and, better yet, Morrison offers insightful commentary on her own lauded, beloved novels.

Director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ wonderful documentary TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM is a comprehensive look at a true American treasure, Toni Morrison. This intelligent and entertaining documentary covers the life, the work and the times of this giant of literature and of American culture. Morrison is certainly a worthy documentary subject:. Morrison is the author of such works as SULA, BELOVED, and THE BLUEST EYE, and recipient of a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer, the American Book Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among other honors. Her works speak particularly to the black experience and women’s experience, while at the same time being universal.

The documentary not only spotlights Morrison’s work but puts it in the context of the social shifts of the 1960s and 1970s, and beyond. Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is actually a friend of the author, which helped the director coax the usually private Morrison to agree to this project. It also gives him special access and insights on her personal and professional life, all which gives this finely crafted, stirring film a great boost.

TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM covers the author’s early life, her struggles as a divorced mother and an academic in a time when both women and blacks faced barriers and discrimination. It also follows her shift to publishing, and then her transition from editor to novelist.

Morrison speaks plainly, bluntly even, but with such personal charm and sharp humor, that the audience can’t help but fall under her spell. She offers insights on the unique neighborhood where she grew up and her family’s own history of standing up to racism, Morrison has some pointed things to say about early ’70s feminism and its relationship to black women, as well as offering praise for her colleagues at her small publishing house, and those later at the large publisher, Random House, that acquired it, the editors and others who encouraged her work as an emerging author in the way publishers once did.

Morrison was a true ground-breaker, not only in her own writing but in the way she opened the door to other black and women writers as an editor at Random House. This documentary is packed with information on her life and work, presented through archival footage and stills, interviews with notable figures such as Oprah Winfrey and Angela Davis, and commentary from numerous scholars and others, discussing the impact of her work.

Director Greenfield-Sanders crafts a strong, engrossing story but this documentary does greatly benefit from extensive interview footage of Morrison herself. This is particularly so when offering analysis of her writings, by critics or readers. How often have you read a novel that raised questions that you would like to ask the author? This documentary lets us hear the answers to some of these questions from the author directly. That is a rare treat but especially nice in this case as Morrison, a former teacher, knows exactly how to address these topics in the most thoughtful and thought-provoking manner.

Interviews with Toni Morrison are scattered throughout the film, as is archival footage of the author throughout her life. Morrison speaks about her work, her life, and her views on various topics. Hearing her commentary in her own voice gives this excellent film a singular insight into not only this author, but into a pivotal moment of American culture and history. It is a unique aspect that makes this documentary a must-see for everyone.

TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM opens Friday, July 12, at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

PAVAROTTI – Review

Pavarotti performs at the People’s Assembly in Peking, China. Photo by Vittoriano Rastelli/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images.

In PAVAROTTI, director Ron Howard spotlights opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, the most famous tenor of the past 50 years, so famous that even people who had never heard an opera knew his name.

Even if you don’t know anything about opera, you have probably heard of the Three Tenors – Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo. If you are an opera fan, you know Pavarotti as one the great voices, the best tenor of the second half the last century and beginning of this one. Ron Howard’s affectionate but honest documentary has something for both of those audiences.

Pavarotti was a rock star of an opera star, a pop culture celebrity whose fame reached beyond the rarefied world of opera, something that didn’t always please opera fans. Pavarotti not only sang on opera theater stages but performed in events promoted like rock concerts and taking place in sports stadiums, and even shared the stage with rock stars like Bono of U2.

Ironically, as the film points out, opera started as popular entertainment, and was still popular in rural Italy where Pavarotti grew up. With melodramatic, over-the-top stories, opera featured singers with voices so big they could fill theaters with sound without amplification, in the centuries before sound systems. And of course the singing had to be beautiful too. Pavarotti possessed a uniquely beautiful voice.

Director Ron Howard’s PAVAROTTI is about as well-crafted and entertaining a biographical documentary as one could ask for, hitting the highlights of the singer’s career, his strengths and failings, and telling his personal story. It is a warts-and-all documentary, that looks beneath the famous exterior but which still leaves the audience feeling like they have gained an understanding of the man and a sense of why he has was both a great artist and a beloved star.

Pavarotti had one of the best voices of the late 20th-early 21 centuries. On top of that, he had charisma by the ton, a true star in any era. .Born in the small Italian town of Modena, he grew up in the aftermath of WWII. The son of a baker who was an amateur tenor, Pavarotti was working as an elementary school teacher when he decided, encouraged by his mother, to pursue his dream and switched to opera. He became the “King of the High Cs,” then an international superstar, whose fame reached far beyond the world of opera.

Pavarotti had a golden voice and impressive technique but he had charm and a common touch along with all that talent. Pararotti not only had that voice that he called “a gift from God” but sang with great feeling, great expression, and was very much a performer who brought drama to his roles.

Footage of Pavarotti singing makes this point better than any scholar could, and the film is filled with wonderful, thrilling clips that might make a fan of anyone. Ron Howard has said he wasn’t particularly an opera fan when he started this project but the more he learned – and heard – the more he fell under Pavarotti’s spell like so many before. Howard takes us on that same journey, introducing the non-opera public to this unique man. Yet, opera fans who already know this great artist well will enjoy this journey as well.

Despite the wealth and fame, there were struggles with heartache, self-doubt and loneliness. The documentary features interviews with family and friends, including – notably – both his wives, Adua Veroni and Nicoletta Mantovani. Pavarotti’s three daughters with his first wife Adua Veroni talk about family life and moments with their famous father. Very much a people person, Pavarotti was noted for his warmth and his sense of humor and fun, which comes through particularly with his daughters.

Clips of interviews on television talk shows are shown as well as previously unseen home movie footage, helping create a well-rounded portrait. Ron Howard weaves all this material about the man and his music into a masterfully-constructed documentary, one that sweeps us up into its narrative of Pavarotti’s professional and personal life.

Much of that story is told through stirring, gorgeous performances, which generously dot the narrative. There is no narration, as none is needed – Pavarotti’s singing tells the story.

To Ron Howard’s credit, the documentary does not shy away from the scandals and controversies that were part of Pavarotti’s life but it treats those aspects fairly and factually. Mostly, it offers the audience a wealth of footage of Pavarotti singing, and uses that footage as a way to get to know the artist.

And what a glorious voice it is. The film features some of the best of his performances, with a particularly strong sampling of Pavarotti at his vocal peak, but including other strong examples of his later work. The clips illustrate Pavarotti’s power as an actor as he sang, conveying the emotion of the lyrics with remarkable depth. His stage presence and his expressive delivery have an electric vibrancy, thrilling us as we watch and listen.

Pavarotti embraced his peasant roots and set out to bring the beauty of opera to everyone around the world. The film includes interviews with Pavarotti himself and intimate moments with friends and family. Sequences with children are particularly touching.

Pavarotti’s place as a pop star as well as an opera star comes through especially in the sequences with Princess Diana, who was among his friends, and interviews with Bono talking about their unlikely collaboration. Interview footage with Placido Domingo, one of those famous “Three Tenors,” illustrates that worldwide phenomenon they became, as well as Pavarotti’s big heart in organizing the first concert, partly as a fundraiser and partly to bolster the spirits of Carreras as he recovered from cancer. Later in his career, Pavarotti turned his talents to helping others through charitable events, as he made a remarkable career commitment to charitable works.

It illustrates the singer’s open nature and generous, collaborative spirit. But when Pavarotti’s embrace of other musicians put him on stage with rock stars, there were critics among both fans and music experts. Certainly the rock stars themselves were both awed and intimidated to share the stage with such a talent.

PAVAROTTI is a marvelous documentary that strikes the perfect balance to please both opera-loving Pavarotti fans who know his work well and those who are new to opera and Pavarotti. It is an almost magical feat, but Ron Howard pulls it off. Pavarotti was not elitist and neither was his view of opera, and this entertaining, enlightening documentary delightfully captures that same joyful view of Pavarotti and his music.

PAVAROTTI opens Friday, June 21, at the HiPointe Backlot Theater.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

HAIL SATAN? – Review

Lucien Greaves delivering a speech in front of the state capitol building in Little Rock, AR in HAIL SATAN?, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

“We’re not what you think we are,” says a spokesman for the Satanic Temple near the start of the documentary HAIL SATAN? That question mark in the title is important, as neither director Penny Lane (NUTS!, OUR NIXON), nor we, are never quite sure how sincere the members of the Satanic Temple are about being a church. What we are sure of is their sincerity about championing the separation of church and state, and freedom of religion.

The question mark in the documentary’s title HAIL SATAN? is director Penny Lane’s, not the members of the Satanic Temple, who loudly and proudly use the phrase in their events. But they do not actually worship Satan, as spokesman/co-founder Lucien Greaves quickly makes clear. Rather, they call themselves a “non-theist” religion, and consider Satan to be a term that religions have applied to outsiders the scorn, to the “other,” Members are a mixed of heavy-metal music fans, goths, performance artists, Dungeons and Dragons players, along with lawyers, accountants and others with an independent streak who want to stand up for freedom and diversity.

There is a lot of weirdness and uncomfortable symbolism but also a bit of the old Merry Pranksters, the 1960s group who orchestrated clever pranks with a political message, about the Satanic Temple. A major activity of the group is to organize actions to support separation of church and state, opposing the placement of religious symbols, like the Ten Commandments monuments, on government property. They demand equal representation for their religious symbols, hold rallies with a statue of the satanic god Baphomet, and bring lawsuits to place their monument next to the Christian one. Their argument is that if Christian symbols can be there, so can theirs.

Not many Bible-belt states are thrilled to have a Satanic statue on state government grounds. HAIL SATAN? starts out amusingly entertaining, as we watch the members of the Satanic Temple confront members of the Christian Right at rallies, or go on local news programs, where reporters approach them with a mix of fascination and fear. Spokesman Lucien Greaves notes with bemusement that some people even bring holy water with them. Particularly amusing are appearances on Fox News with Megyn Kelly, who appears nearly dumbfounded by them. In an early scene in the documentary, the group is announcing their intention to petition for the placement of a Satanic monument next to the Ten Commandants monument just erected on state property when someone in the crowd shouts that the speaker is “going to hell.” “Looking forward to it,” the speaker replies. Clearly not the response the heckler was looking for.

That kind of glib humor, quick wit and deadpan delivery is typical, as the group presents their case. The members of the Satanic Temple are perfectly aware they are being provocative and, in fact, that is part of the point. It doesn’t mean they aren’t serious about being a religion.

Director Penny Lane follows the group as they set up a headquarters church in – where else? – Salem, Massachusetts, establish branch temples in several cities, and engage in actions. Several are challenges to the placement of Ten Commandment monuments on government grounds in various states. At a rally on the Florida capital steps, the media-savvy Satanists, decked out in black robes and horns, chant “Hail Rick Scott! Hail Satan!” in support of Governor Rick Scott’s decision to allow school prayer, and then apply to have one of their prayers included.

Not content to just entertain us with the group’s antics, director Lane dives deeper. The documentary gives the background on the founding of the Satanic Temple, its roots in the ’90s parental hysteria over Satanic cults in schools, precursors like the Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan, and this group’s surprisingly kindly and distinctly un-satanic basic principles of conduct. There is even a bit on Adam and Eve, told hilariously through clips from old animated films. Among the fascinating tidbits Lane uncovers is the 1950s origin of the Ten Commandments monument so many conservative Christian groups use, which began as a give-away stunt to promote the movie “The Ten Commandments,” as well as the Cold War origins of the idea of the U.S. as a Christian nation.

Although Satanic Temple members insist they are quite sincere about being a religion, we are not sure how seriously to take that, which is one of the things that makes this documentary so interesting. Despite their unconventional nature, the Satanic Temple has many of the characteristics of any church – a surprisingly un-satanic and kind creed they follow, a sense of unity and fellowship, ceremonies they conduct, a community place from which they operate. We follow the Satanists as they organize blood drives, pick up trash along the highway (with pitchforks), and organize an afterschool club, like any religion.

It all adds up to an entertaining and intriguing documentary look an uncoventional group of people who embody some basic American ideas, like freedom and individualism, to a surprising degree. HAIL SATAN? opens Friday, May 17, at the Tivoli Theater.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

ASK DR. RUTH – Review

Everyone knows Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the on-air sex therapist who speaks so frankly, but how much do you know about the personal story of this diminutive Jewish grandma who has been a darling of talk shows for decades, using her expertise as a PhD sex therapist to offer non-judgmental advice on sexual matters? Likely, not much. ASK DR. RUTH goes a way to correcting that. In the process, we again fall under the spell of this personable, lively, intelligent woman who has led an unusual life and overcome so many hardships.

Who knew Dr. Ruth, who seems so much fun, survived the Holocaust in a Swiss orphanage where as a ten-year-old she was put to work cleaning and caring for the younger children? Or that she was married several times? Or that she was an avid skier? These are among the surprises uncovered in this delightful documentary.

Director Ryan White’s illuminating, entertaining biographical film first introduces us to Dr. Ruth Westheimer in the tiny New York apartment where the nearly 90-year-old still lives, despite her financial success, before the documentary delves into her backstory. Dr. Ruth is an unlikely success story: a Holocaust survivor with a thick German accent, a prim-and-proper-looking tiny woman with a PhD in psychology who spoke on-air with bracing frankness about sex, just as America was entering the sexual revolution of the ’60s. The combination of her disarming appearance, her impeccable credentials and her plain speaking about sex made her a media celebrity and a popular favorite.

Turns out, Dr. Ruth has an unlikely personal story as well. Born in Germany near Frankfort, Karola Ruth Siegel was the beloved only child of Orthodox Jewish parents who doted on her. After the Nazis came to power, they sent her at age 10 to Switzerland by train, as part of a “kindertransport” with other Jewish children. Landing in a Swiss orphanage, the Jewish children were not welcomed and hardly had a comfortable life. The older Jewish children, including the ten-year-old, were required to work, which she did until the war ended when she was 17. With her parents vanished, she emigrated to Israel (then Palestine) where she switched her middle and first names to become Ruth K. Siegel.

The German-born, 4-foot-7 dynamo has lived in Switzerland, on a kibbutz in Israel, in Paris and in New York. After WWII interrupted her education, she went on to attend the Sorbonne and later earn a PhD from Columbia University, married three times, raised two children, and worked at Planned Parenthood. She started her career as on-air sex therapist on a late-night community radio show, Sexually Speaking. She met her last husband, the love of her life, engineer Fred Westheimer, on the ski slopes. And those are only a few of the sometimes surprising details uncovered in ASK DR. RUTH.

Director Ryan White illustrates the early phase of Dr. Ruth’s life with animated drawings based on photos of her as a girl, a cute pixie with bright eyes and a sweet smile. The animated sequences are appealing and narrated in part by excerpts from her diaries. Later phases of her life and career are illustrated with archival photos and video. Segments on her past are interspersed with footage of the present-day nonagenarian, surprisingly fit, in New York and on returns to Switzerland and Israel. The documentary also includes interviews with her children and grandchildren, old friends and colleagues, as well as a host of videos of Dr. Ruth at various events.

The documentary impresses us with Dr. Ruth’s personal story, and Dr. Ruth herself wins our affection with her energetic persona, but the film also notes that not every therapist is a fan of her on-air advice. Several note that advice based on shallow knowledge of a person gained from a call-in show can be dangerous for someone with real problems, a criticism that can be applied to all talk show therapists. However, Dr. Ruth did paved the way for the phenomenon, as she was followed by Dr. Phil and other therapists offering advice on talk shows, and she also set the trend of Dr. First Name, when early callers to her radio show struggled with pronouncing her last name.

While we learn a great deal we did not know about her, Dr. Ruth herself cautions us that she still keeps parts of her life private, and there are sides her we will never learn about, a refreshing kind of honesty in itself. Apart from a few moments of impatience, she is unfailingly good-humored, even when the documentary covers more difficult moments of her life. She keeps darker feelings under wraps, even when she visits the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel, to read in their archives about the fate of her parents.

ASK DR. RUTH is an illuminating experience, a charmer of a film as lively and entertaining as its subject, and just as surprising. ASK DR. RUTH opens Friday, May 3, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

THE BRINK – Review

Steve Bannon speaks at a campaign event for Republican voters, in THE BRINK. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

To those of us who thought Steve Bannon’s far-right political influence ended when he parted ways with the Trump administration, THE BRINK is a jarring wake-up call. As director Allison Klayman reveals through her fly-on-the-wall documentary, Bannon may have left the White House but he has moved on to advising and promoting far-right Republicans, and more worrying, working with far-right political groups in Europe, in support of an ideology he calls “populist nationalism” that appeals to white-rights anti-immigrant groups and politicians.

In THE BRINK, Bannon proudly brags about being the architect of the Trump administration’s Muslim ban, which succinctly sums up much of Bannon’s mind-set. Since his exit from the White House, Bannon has campaigned for what he calls populist nationalism, both in the U.S. and in Europe, meeting with far-right candidates. Klayman follows Bannon around from Fall 2017 through the mid-term Congressional election in the fall of 2018, in this revealing, startling look at this force for political far right. It is a chilling, alarming peek inside Bannon’s work.

Klayman’s fly-on-the-wall approach is remarkably revealing. Bannon gave Klayman remarkable access, and she seems to follow him everywhere. There is no voice-over, no expert interviews providing analysis, and the documentarian only asks a few questions. Instead, she mostly lets Bannon do all the talking, which makes what’s on screen all the more chilling as well as insightful.

THE BRINK is one of two recent documentaries about far-right political strategist Steve Bannon, who went from running the far-right Breitbart website to working in Trump’s campaign and then the White House. The other documentary is AMERICAN DHARMA, by Errol Morris, the fabled documentarian behind FOG OF WAR. Actually, Morris film gets a mention in this documentary, when Klayman follows him to Venice for a film festival screening. Interestingly, Bannon does not actual go to the screening, instead holding meetings with a stream of right-wing politicians and activists in his hotel room.

Bannon is undeniably slick, surprisingly personable, good-humored and even charming. Bannon speaks in a breezy, relaxed manner, projecting charm and an air of reasonableness, something that is both unexpected and creepy given the extreme viewpoint he is advocating. Bannon is clearly a smooth talker, but it is what he does rather than what he says is the real key to this chilling documentary.

We watch Bannon as he meets with far-right politicians, not just here but in Europe, discussing his opposition to immigration and plans to dismantle the EU. Oddly, Bannon seems more interested in winning and the mechanics of his campaign than the ideas behind it, raising questions about who he works for. While he fires up groups of struggling ordinary people who feel left behind economically, he lives in a posh DC home, travels on private jets and stays in 5-star hotels, even joking about it at one point. Bannon seems to be doing very well financially, but where the money is coming from is largely obscured. At least one of Bannon’s funders is a Chinese businessman we meet in the film but generally Bannon is coy about where the money comes from for his work and lavish lifestyle.

Bannon does a lot of flag-waving and pro-American posturing, although his work is international, and does a lot of dog-whistling to racism ideology without actually saying it. Curiously, Bannon seems indifferent to his split with Trump, still finding Trump’s presidency a useful rallying point. In the run-up to the 2018 mid-terms, Bannon produces and distributes a pro-Trump film to be shown at rallies, a piece Bannon himself calls propaganda. “What would Leni Riefenstahl do?” he wonders with a chuckle, referencing Hilter’s filmmaker. Disturbingly, a group of right-leaning voters praise the film as “not propaganda.”

Klayman’s choice to just follow Bannon closely and let him do the talking makes THE BRINK one chilling ride. Anyone concerned about the rise of the far-right, here and in Europe, should run – not walk – to see this eye-opening documentary. THE BRINK opens Friday, April 19, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars