2019 is a weird year for “Star Wars,” perhaps even a transition year. The still-untitled “Star Wars: Episode IX” hits theaters in December, but unlike Marvel and DC or most studios with a major franchise, there are no “Star Wars” movies planned into the future. Instead, Lucasfilm seems to be pivoting to Disney+ and streaming shows like “The Mandalorian” and the untitled Cassian Andor show.

Continue reading Breaking Down 3 Essential Editing Techniques In ‘Star Wars’ at The Playlist.

Ross Kauffman’s (“Born Into Brothels” and “E-Team”) haunted and harrowing new documentary about one of nature’s most majestic and deadly creatures, “Tigerland,” gets off on rocky footing. The film starts with a strange monologue from a child-narrator about the splendor of tigers and how they once dominated the lands they roamed and how they’ve since been pushed to the edge of extinction.

Continue reading ‘Tigerland’ Is A Harrowing Doc & A Deeply Personal Tribute To One Of Nature’s Last Predators [Review] at The Playlist.

War is “boredom punctuated by moments of terror,” as the old adage goes. Boredom, however, has never made for a good film, which has led to a cinematic century of war presented as an exciting, if horrifying endeavor. And while some films (“Full Metal Jacket” and “Platoon“) edged ever closer to the ghastly reality, and others (“Jarhead“) captured the tedium, none seem to embody the stark duality as “Combat Obscura” so fully.

Continue reading War Doc ‘Combat Obscura’ Is An Unflinching Microcosm Of War In Afghanistan at The Playlist.

There aren’t many ways out of poverty. The socioeconomic constraints that pin families in place don’t often let up from one generation to the next. This, though, is the antithesis to the American Dream of upward mobility. And while we are gradually coming to terms with this reality—that circumstances at home and in the community and in society will prevent a great many from achieving even relief from grinding poverty—we continue to buy into higher education as an escape, a sort of rocket ship loaded with the possibility to launch people into the middle class.

Continue reading ‘Wrestle’: A Striking Examination Of Race, Poverty & High School Sports In Alabama [Review] at The Playlist.

There is an unassuming languidness to Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s anthropologic documentary about a rural Macedonian beekeeper, “Honeyland.” It’s a quiet and passive film that’s content to luxuriate in place and revel in solitude, which, in turn, both drags the narrative’s loose pacing and instills a certain natural structure that, once embraced, becomes almost mesmerizing.

READ MORE: Best & Worst Of The 2019 Sundance Film Festival

“Honeyland,” as it begins, is a sort of documentation of a disappearing way of life.

Continue reading ‘Honeyland’ Is A Haunting Portrait Of A Dying Way Of Life [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

From 1979 until 2015 China controlled its population through its notorious one-child policy. The name, in more than one way, is a misnomer. In theory, a one-child policy simply limits the number of children a family can have to one. But the reality of the policy was far more devastating. Not only were women given forced abortions, but they were often sterilized against their will, while children were taken from families and sold to orphanages.

Continue reading Grand Jury Prize Winner ‘One Child Nation’ Uncovers A Traumatic History [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

The democratizing power of technology gives everyone the tools and platform to be heard. It has, at times, worked miracles — many claim Twitter and Facebook were integral in coordinating the Arab Spring, while the ubiquity of smartphones has allowed the documentation of human rights violations committed by dictators around the world (and in Syria in particular). But, it could be argued, these same technologies have done nothing to affirm the agency and humanity of those from marginalized and oppressed countries — their photos and videos are co-opted by international media organizations (both those friendly and hostile) who use them to create their own narratives (both those truthful and not), and Facebook and Twitter do what they do to harvest data and sell ads.

Continue reading ‘Midnight Traveler’: Refugees Reclaim Their Story In Harrowing Documentary [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

Behind every great disaster is a fascinating story. And, as our society continues to amass more ways to document our every interaction with Instagram and other social media tools, these great stories become easier and easier to tell. “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened,” a new Netflix documentary about the infamous musical festival catastrophy in the Bahamas, is a perfect example of this new era in storytelling where even the most damning interactions are intentionally filmed — because if it didn’t get shared online, did it actually happen?

Continue reading Netflix’s ‘Fyre’ Doc Is A Fascinating Study Of The Man Behind The Infamous Music Festival Disaster [Review] at The Playlist.

If you watch “Making a Murderer” looking for answers, you should know by now that you’ve come to the wrong place. The first season of Netflix’s cultural phenomenon was, on the surface, all about answers. Or the lack thereof. Or the search for them. But, over the course of the 10 episodes, which premiered in 2015, answers are few and far between. Of course, this is exactly what makes the show so appealing.

Continue reading ‘Making A Murderer Part 2’ Is Full Of Riveting Family Drama But Light On Answers [Review] at The Playlist.

It’s been a hell of a week. A divided, partisan country ripped at the seams and what was once a split has become an unnavigable chasm. The protracted and ugly Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh turned into a culture war — left vs. right, men vs. women — when a courageous woman came forward with sexual assault allegations against the nominee and instead of a thorough investigation from the FBI, the country was given a contentious set of hearings Thursday.

Continue reading Charles Ferguson’s Timely ‘Watergate’ Doc Is Routine But Vital [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

Few, if any, forms of art have changed as fast as cinema. From the beginning, it was married to the greatest boom of technology the world has ever known. From the Kinetoscope and the Lumière Brothers to the birth of studios to talkies to color to 3D and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Movies have always been changing as fast as they could be made, which, generally speaking, has left audiences rapt. But this avalanche of change — like the gloriously unhinged avalanche in “Seven Chances” — has had little regard for the norms and the people in its way.

Continue reading Buster Keaton Crashes Through Exalting Doc ‘The Great Buster: A Celebration’ [Venice Review] at The Playlist.

“This Is Congo” is not an easy documentary to watch. And anyone who knows anything about the tumultuous, war-torn country would understand that from the get-go. Still, despite expectations, it is an engaging, if unsettling, film about the decades of violence that have ravaged the central African country, the poverty and displacement that has abounded, and all the stolen promise of a land so rich in culture and resources. Which, it might be argued, is to say it is a film about the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Continue reading ‘This Is Congo’ Is A Devastating & Unsettling Portrait Of A War-Torn Nation [Review] at The Playlist.

Netflix has become the new home of the true crime documentary series, the tightly knotted, edge of your seat sort of documentary that has as many cliffhangers as it does chapters (“Making a Murderer” and “Wild Wild Country” most recently). Which is what makes the streaming service’s newest edition, “Bobby Kennedy For President” such an anomaly. Certainly, there is plenty of crime, conspiracy, and murder in the life of the lesser-known Kennedy, but the series, as directed by Dawn Porter (“Trapped,” “Spies of Mississippi”) is more of a PBS docuseries than anything else.

Continue reading Netflix’s ‘Bobby Kennedy For President’ Documentary Series Is A Portrait Of What Could Have Been [Review] at The Playlist.

There’s only one Elvis. A titanic figure, who, for America’s formative pop culture years, was the biggest and most influential star in the world — bringing rock n roll to the masses and crooning his way through dozens of Hollywood hits. He was, in many respects, the first superstar, blazing a dangerous and lonely trail to the top, where he was vulnerable and isolated. Even today he is Elvis, not Elvis Presley, a persona that grew out of personhood and into the mythology of America.

Continue reading ‘Elvis Presley: The Searcher’ Ignores The Ugly Details In An Attempt To Redeem The King’s Legacy [Review] at The Playlist.

Since August of last year, the so-called alt-right has become an unavoidable tumor on the American conscience. In the wake of the Charlottesville protests, where Heather Heyer was killed by a white supremacist who drove his car into a group of counter-protesters, coverage of, and conversation about, the alt-right has grown tenfold. Profiles of the likes of Richard Spencer and Milo Yiannopoulos appeared on front pages everywhere and, at a point, some began to argue that such journalism was normalizing these extremist ideologies.

Continue reading ‘Alt-Right: Age of Rage’ Is An Unsettling, But Familiar, Portrait Of American Extremism [SXSW Review] at The Playlist.

In the years since “Serial” and “Making a Murderer,” the limited series true-crime documentary has been booming. “O.J. Made in America” won an Oscar, “The Vietnam War” built a new narrative of America’s ugliest war, and “American Vandals” skewered the whole genre in a delightful comedic send up. But despite the deluge, people still seem to be hooked.

Continue reading Netflix Doc ‘Wild Wild Country’ Is A Wild, Unnerving Journey Into An ’80s Oregon Utopia [Review] at The Playlist.

Matt Green seems to get asked a lot what he does for work. The answer, which he repeats well over a dozen times in the new documentary “The World Before Your Feet,” is “nothing.” Not because he can’t, isn’t qualified, or is independently wealthy (though it often feels that way), but because he just doesn’t. This answer, of course, leaves people feeling incredulous. Because how else do you define Matt?

Continue reading ‘The World Before Your Feet’ Is A Delightful Stroll Through The Pleasures Of Walking [SXSW Review] at The Playlist.

For a few years now, headlines around the world have made note of the Most Medicated Generation, the millennials who have been prescribed pills for everything from behavioral issues to depression and anxiety. By some estimates, nearly 25 percent of university-aged kids are on some form of prescription drug — a sharp uptick from any previous generation. These facts and figures, of course, make a movie like “Take Your Pills” — a potent but messy documentary — inevitable.

Continue reading Netflix Doc ‘Take Your Pills’ Is A Dizzying But Thoughtful Look At The Adderall Generation [SXSW Review] at The Playlist.

Cuba, in many ways, has long been a place of lore. An isolated Caribbean island that has been systematically secluded by its ideological foe to the north, Cuba has often been cast as a victim of circumstance, a child caught in a petty argument between petulant parents. But such narratives remove agency, such stories make Cuba a place where interpretation is cast upon it without Cuba itself having much of a say. It is a colonial perspective and one that is becoming ever more fraught.

Continue reading Documentary ‘Cuban Food Stories’ Plays Like An Extended Travel Network Show [Berlin Review] at The Playlist.

Well, it’s officially February, which means Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and it’s time to catch up on the cinematic canon of erotic thrillers. In part, because there’s no better way to spice up this dreary winter month than with some truly salacious thrillers, and partly because the Quad Cinema is bringing back the best of the genre in a 20-film series to celebrate the Valentine’s Day release of Francois Ozon’s pitch-black and wildly indulgent “Double Lover.”

There are few genres that are more firmly established and more at ease with the uncouth than erotic thrillers.

Continue reading Quad Cinema Brings Erotic Thrillers From Brian De Palma, Paul Verhoeven & More Back To The Big Screen at The Playlist.

Anyone who has lost a loved one knows that in the weeks and months that follow, after the most intense spasms of grief have subsided, that the question of how exactly to remember that person remains. It’s a tremendous question that has no universal answer, that everybody and every family must find for themselves. And it’s this question that sits at the heart of “306 Hollywood,” an experimental documentary that attempts to both craft a vivid portrait of a grandmother through the treasure trove that was her house and to reconcile with what it means to lose someone you love.

Continue reading ‘306 Hollywood’ Is An Experimental, Tender Exercise In Coping [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

Inevitably, families fall apart. Not all of them out of malice or spite, but more because of time and growth. At the very core of raising a family is the idea that someday you will watch your children leave you, and this, of course, will upend the very thing you have been trying to hold together for so many years. But what happens when that upending moment comes early, when the eldest on his way out the door is only 16 years old, but the opportunity he’s granted is once in a lifetime?

Continue reading ‘Loveling’ Is A Tender Family Drama Of Great Highs & Awkward Lows [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

In the year since the cultural shift ignited by the 2016 election, there have already been a handful of films that have taken on the ongoing war in Syria and the refugee crisis it has sparked. (Two of them — “City of Ghosts” and “Last Men In Aleppo” — made our list of the best docs of 2017.) These films, which are often painful to watch, let alone to capture on film, paint a shocking picture of pain and suffering while simultaneously indicting the global community for its failure to act (or even sustain interest).

Continue reading ‘This Is Home’ Is A Harrowing Take On Refugee Life In America [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

This year, more so than even the dumpster fire that was 2016, has been the year of fact vs. fiction. A divided country has strayed away from agreeing upon facts and debating action, to being unable to even agree on what exactly constitutes a fact. An obvious proponent, of course, has been the push by many to discredit the media industry at large. It’s already served as fodder for a bevy of uncomfortable holiday meals (with plenty more to come later this month), but, to brave optimism, it’s also provided us with some truly revelatory filmmaking.

Continue reading Enjoyable ‘The Newspaperman’ Toasts Journalism Legend Ben Bradlee [Review] at The Playlist.

History, in Hollywood, can be a slow-moving beast. For instance, it was just this year that Patty Jenkins smashed box office records for a film directed by a woman with “Wonder Woman” when the film crossed the $700 million mark, an exciting feat but one sullied by the fact that it took a decade for two films directed by women to even make $600 million (in that time over 25 movies directed by men crossed the $1 billion mark).

Continue reading ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ Trailer: Ava DuVernay Serves Up A Cosmic Adventure at The Playlist.