Documentary
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How Documentaries Finally Got Serious About Oscar Season
More and more contenders are showing up late in the game.Filmmaker Ava DuVernay with Newt Gingrich during the making of ‘13th’ (Netflix)Just a few months ago,…
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Ava DuVernay’s 13th and the Importance of Telling True Stories
In this essay from 2016, Paola Mardo explores the importance of telling true stories as Ava DuVernay did with her phenomenal documentary, 13th.
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‘Amanda Knox’ Puts Its Subject on the Stand
The true-crime documentary serves as another kind of retrial.
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13th Review: Ava DuVernay’s Powerful and Timely New Film
Ava DuVernay’s 13th is Powerful and Timely Angry and urgent, DuVernay’s unflinching study of the mass incarceration of Black people in the US is one of…
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Morgan Spurlock’s New Movie Will Make You Hate Rats and Love All Kinds of People
Rats is a Midnight Movie combining documentary and horror. Morgan Spurlock has turned us off from food before. His breakout feature, the Oscar-nominated Super Size Me,…
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When Movies Get a Second Chance
The Oscars and the Emmys overlap in a strange way. Congratulations to Cutie and the Boxer, one of my favorite films of 2013, for winning the…
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When Remakes Can’t Escape the Original
If the movie can’t stand on its own, then should it bother? There are many remakes that stand on their own. There are the classics you…
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The Fandom Film Legacy of Trekkies
The 1997 documentary pioneered a whole nonfiction genre. For someone who has never cared about Star Trek, its fans can seem exotic. Maybe laughable in…
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This Year’s Honorary Oscar Winners Fill Critical Gaps in the Academy Awards
Congrats to Jackie Chan, Frederick Wiseman, Anne Coates, and Lynn Stalmaster! Honorary awards are often synonymous with lifetime achievement, and for the Oscars that often…