Terrence Malick makes second-to-none the most visually stunning films in Hollywood. Perhaps this is the only sentiment which can safely be expressed in respect of Malick films without a crushing wave of dissent. Whether or not they are any good is a whole different kettle of fish.
The title of director Bess Kargman's documentary First Position refers to the first pose or posture of ballet. Kargman's film follows a group of young ballet dancers all competing in the Youth America Grand Prix. The importance of this international dance competition cannot be underestimated within ballet as this is where the top percentile of ballet dancers will be seen, earn scholarships and/or a contract by the leading ballet organisations around the world.
Focus Features have announced that filmmaker Asif Kapadia will direct a documentary on the late soul singer Amy Winehouse. The Hackney-born Kapadia was previously responsible for 2010's magnificent Senna biopic, which chronicled the untimely but seemingly inevitable demise of Formula One wunderkind, Ayrton Senna.
The Shining is a masterpiece, not only because of its immaculate handling of atmosphere and tension, but because it takes a simple haunted house story and makes something of such density and complexity that every viewer will walk away with a different interpretation. It has been 33 years and viewers still cannot agree on what the black & white photograph means in the final shot. The Shining is the kind of movie film debate was built on. It demands to be discussed, picked apart, argued over. Room 237 is about that need to discuss, to pick apart, to argue.
"He doesn't write for pussies and he doesn't write for women…he writes for men, because he's a man."
The life of the legendary photographer Don McCullin is, in director Jacqui Morris’ words, “the stuff of Hollywood”. It is then no surprise that over the years McCullin had been approached many times by filmmakers eager to turn his story into a documentary film, before he eventually agreed.
One death is a tragedy, and a million deaths is a statistic. If that is true, states narrator Dylan Mohan Gray in his directorial debut Fire In The Blood, then this is a story about statistics - the shocking, and shockingly recent, statistics regarding the unjust provision of AIDs medication around the world, and the incomprehensible number of deaths that could have been prevented in Africa were it not for the questionable values of the profit-driven West.
The teaser trailer for Morgan Spurlock's 1D3D documentary has arrived, bringing with it hysterical teenagers, generic pop songs and more than a little incredulity.
Two years ago Senna, which profiled the Brazilian F1 champion, far exceeded box office expectations when it captured the imagination of people with absolutely no interest in racing. McCullin similarly profiles an extraordinary talent who is not as well-known to the general public as he should be and the film deserves to reach as big an audience.
Following a number of thematically similar documentaries (see: Deliver Us From Evil, Hand of God), Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God delves into the root of the Church sex abuse scandal to the first known public protests in the US. Director Alex Gibney not only exposes the sickening abuse of power seen in the priesthood but also reveals the twisted and utterly astounding ways in which the highest echelons of the Vatican protect and abet its criminals.
