Huffy Flounce

I'm watching Bridge of Spies. Seems like a workmanlike historical drama.

The Seven Five. About the corrupt cop Michael Dowd. Riveting stuff.

And very soon I'm sure there will be an avalanche of voices mocking my documentary viewing habits. So be it I guess.

Some of my all-time favorite movies are documentaries. Gates of Heaven, Titicut Follies, Crumb, F for Fake, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, Let There Be Light, The Last Waltz, and Sherman's March are the bomb, yo. Dave Chappelle's Block Party, Hoop Dreams, Man on Wire, Zoo, Prodigal Sons, Catfish, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, My Kid Could Paint That, King of Kong, The Cove, Grizzly Man, and Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist are all pretty decent.

Some of the above are very different from one another in their approaches. I like that. I think "documentary" as a concept can be a pretty elastic thing. It can lead obviously, it can lead subtly, or it can do its best not to lead. It can consciously misrepresent or underrepresent. It can unconsciously misrepresent or underrepresent. It can tell small lies in hopes of telling a bigger truth. It can just point the camera wherever and hope the truth reveals itself. I like giving myself over to a documentary and seeing where it takes me.

I like some documentary series, too. My favorite is probably Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film, but I also have some lingering childhood affection for Ken Burns's Civil War. (It's best for me to watch it in small doses, these days.) It's interesting to watch the Riefenstahl and Capra propaganda stuff back-to-back, but I don't know if I could say that I actually "like" either. Same goes for things like Night and Fog and Shoah. I could, on the other hand, say I like The World at War. The Brits did something worthwhile with that one. I like the care that went into it, and I like the presentation. It has a Carl Davis score. I like his work. He scored Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film. (He also did tons of topnotch work for silents in need of scores.)

Sometimes I find documentaries that approach subjects I'm really interested in but that don't necessarily approach those subjects exactly as I'd like them to. In the Realms of the Unreal and The Devil and Daniel Johnston are examples of this, maybe. In both cases, I wanted a little less reverence and a little more digging. Still, I guess I like both overall.

I keep meaning to watch The Act of Killing, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, The Imposter, Blackfish, Exit through the Gift Shop, Night Will Fall, and Jodorowsky's Dune, but life keeps getting in the way.

Space Tycoon wrote:And very soon I'm sure there will be an avalanche of voices mocking my documentary viewing habits. So be it I guess.

Not at all. I spent last night watching a documentary about the battle of Jutland.

I guess I was just being needlessly defensive. Or Canadian, as others might put it.

Jadorowsky's Dune was interesting, just to imagine the jaw-dropping spectacle(or trainwreck, or both) we may have gotten. The 75 is definitely worth it. Mike Dowd was a true scumbag.

I always thought Lynch's Dune was kinda funky!

Space Tycoon wrote:And very soon I'm sure there will be an avalanche of voices mocking my documentary viewing habits. So be it I guess.

I love documentaries. Mea Maxima Culpa remains to this day the most disturbing film I've ever seen.

Love a good documentary. Tim's Vermeer was an excellent I saw in the past year.

Right now, though, trying out Man in the High Castle. may have to find the book.

I'll leave it to you to back me up on High Castle's greatness.

Mal said it's dull. Fingers on buzzers...... who is right?

Please. My record for selecting quality, long lasting TV shows is impeccable.

Long-lasting, maybe. Quality, though?

Dalty, you should give it a shot, by all means. If you get hooked, you get hooked. It just did nothing for me.

Maybe having read the book wore off a lot of the novelty for me, so you might actually be in a better position to like it if you haven't been exposed to the story before.

Ronin

Still amazing! "What colour is the boat house at Hereford?"

Dalty wrote:Mal said it's dull. Fingers on buzzers...... who is right?

It's ... slow to develop. But four episodes in, I'm still curious, mainly for one character who may be a double agent or just playing both sides, and for a victim I want to see become a badass. We'll see how it goes.

Not that anyone here is foaming at the mouth to see it, but "Love and Friendship" was a lot of fun. If you have a significant other who's an Austen fan, don't dread it.

Snatch.

Brick Top is my favourite.

I was obsessed with that movie in my late teens. It's just so damn quotable!

"Too tight? You could land a jumbo-fucking-jet in there!"

"I don't care if he's Muhammad 'I'm hard' Bruce Lee - you can't change fighters!"

"Why do they call him the Bullet Dodger?" - "Because he dodges bullets, Avi."

"Yes, London. You know, fish, chips, cup o' tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary fuckin' Poppins - London!"

"The Case against 8," a doc about the fight against the gay marriage ban in Cali. Interesting people involved in the litigation.

neglet wrote:Not that anyone here is foaming at the mouth to see it, but "Love and Friendship" was a lot of fun. If you have a significant other who's an Austen fan, don't dread it.

Mark Kermode RAVED about that movie last week. I'll have to see if it's playing anywhere up here.

Something special for Mal:

I remember that!

Crimson Tide. Has a vaguely Top-Gun feel to it at times. For obvious reasons.

We need more submarine movies!