Doccumentaries

[timwakefield 68]

YEAH

I enjoyed this.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

Finally saw "Waiting for Superman." Really good.

[Iphonenkinder 558]

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood RebelA newish doc about the career and influence of Roger Corman. It's very, very good, and has lots of interviews from big names (Nicholson, Scorcese, Demme) who got their start in the Corman universe. I have a special fascination with people who have long, creative, productive careers. You want to know how to make it as a producer? This movie gives a good outline: work harder than anyone else, count every penny, and get it done. I loved this doc.

[Sick Boy 0]

[LongLiveYorke 38]

Restrepo was very very good.

Really want to see this one.

I saw Exit Through the Gift Shop and Inside Job recently, too. Inside Job was good, but all very familiar. ETtGS was incredible, just a great story that's too bizarre to not be true and gripping from start to finish. I don't know how it didn't win. Probably political.

I just saw this a few days ago. It was excellent. I missed a bit of the beginning (I saw it on TV) and was quite skeptical at first. I thought it would be a documentary glorifying graffiti. But, yeah, it's quite brilliant. It raises so many intelligent questions and addresses them in fascinating ways. I don't really care if it's "fake" or not (though, I don't think it is). It was just an excellent way to make a point and raise a conversation.

[brvheart 1,752]

Really want to see this one.

It really is very very good.

[timwakefield 68]

I just saw this a few days ago. It was excellent. I missed a bit of the beginning (I saw it on TV) and was quite skeptical at first. I thought it would be a documentary glorifying graffiti. But, yeah, it's quite brilliant. It raises so many intelligent questions and addresses them in fascinating ways. I don't really care if it's "fake" or not (though, I don't think it is). It was just an excellent way to make a point and raise a conversation.

I think a very large part of what makes it so fascinating and borderline brilliant is the ambiguity of whether or not Banksy created Mr. Brainwash, and whether or not Mr. Brainwash is sincere. His art is so bad -- so painfully, blatantly, and overtly dull and practically plagiarized that it's hard to believe it's not an act. I mean, his name is Mr. Brainwash, and he (and Banksy??) basically brainwashed people into paying him ludicrous sums for his art, by simply pretending that the art is legit by playing up the fact that Banksy is ostensibly attached to it, or is his mentor or whatever. One of my favorite parts is when they ask Banksy (and some art critics I believe) what they think of Brainwash's art, and they all struggle not to be too insulting. A lot of his art is just so...stupid! And he sold so fucking much of it! The whole thing seems like exactly the type of joke Banksy would pull, and then make a movie out of. COME ON! It's like some shit a first-year design student would do in photoshop for a class assignment. Mr. Brainwash has to know, and it has to have been planned. It's just too perfectly ridiculous to be real. And yet, stranger things have happened. I just love the lingering ambiguity. It's impossible to be 100% certain one way or the other.

[brvheart 1,752]

If someone free-hand drew either of those pictures, I would be impressed at the quality.

[timwakefield 68]

If someone free-hand drew either of those pictures, I would be impressed at the quality.

I think I would too. Mr. Brainwash didn't draw them though - they were silkscreened and he didn't even do that, his assistants did it. That alone isn't a slam at him - conceptualizing a piece and overseeing the production of it is a perfectly legitimate way for an artist to create work. But he then literally rolled by in a rolling chair and splattered a few drops of paint on them (he may have taken a couple minutes on the Ali, but the Elvis-type-ones we literally see him spending 5 seconds per print adding droplets of paint to the lower portions while rolling by in a chair). That alone doesn't make him illegitimate, but it was ridiculous.

[brvheart 1,752]

I've seen the movie, and I understand what you're saying. What I'm saying is that I don't think it's ridiculous that someone would buy either of those. There is certainly a market for it. The point in the movie, and from you, is that Mr. Brainwash is possibly a fraud, and more importantly, rich people are idiots. Furthermore, the prices they were paying were big enough that everyone can walk right up to them and point in their faces while laughing.I'm fine with that conclusion, but I would still be happy with that Ali on my wall. In fact, I should just try to recreate it, because I think it's cool. Not $30,000 cool, but $50 cool.

[timwakefield 68]

Not $30,000 cool, but $50 cool.

Exactly, and that's the coup that Mr. Brainwash (and Banksy?) conducted. Getting people to pay tens of thousands of dollars for something worth about $50 or $100. It's not that his work is inherently ugly, it's just that it's not "deep." It's great craft, but it's terrible art. Of course the prices people were paying for actual Banksys is also pretty hilarious, considering that he usually paints them in alleys for free, and that taking his paintings out of the alley and slapping them on a canvas in a gallery completely changes their meaning for, in my opinion, the worse. Of course I'm not blaming Banksy for that.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

Hey LLL, you elitist pigdog.. what the **** is wrong with glorifying graffiti, hmm? I think street art is by far the most significant visual art movement in the last 30 years.I think the Mr Brainwash stuff is worth 30K even moreso because it's so ridiculous. If it's some neo-Dadist practical joke, that's where it's value will come from in the future. Frankly, it could be underpriced.

[brvheart 1,752]

It's not that his work is inherently ugly, it's just that it's not "deep." It's great craft, but it's terrible art.

Art is so subjective that I think this is a really poor argument. If I just started showing you art, some stuff from ebay for $19.99 and some from Picasso or any number of other famous artists, there is no doubt in my mind that you would be 50/50 on the value of every single painting.

I think the Mr Brainwash stuff is worth 30K even moreso because it's so ridiculous. If it's some neo-Dadist practical joke, that's where it's value will come from in the future. Frankly, it could be underpriced.

This is a super solid point, and I totally agree with it. The value will definitely come from the movie/joke in the future. On antiques Road Show 100 years from now, Mr. Brainwash stuff will get everyone in the room excited.

[DJ Vu 176]

Have you guys heard of Bully?It's "a documentary on peer-to-peer bullying in schools across America."It got an R rating for profanity. I guess because the MPAA doesn't want a movie that is actually important for teenagers to see to be seen by teenagers? Not that an R rating actually stops teenagers from seeing the movie, so it's probably a controversy that is much ado about nothing, but it still seems pretty clueless.

[frautotenkinder 1,025]

The toothless dog that is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have narrowed their doc list. The only one I want to see is This is Not a Film. The rest I'll take a pass. My favorite of the year (Beauty is Embarrassing) isn't on this list, and from this point on, the Best Doc category is dead to me.

 

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 85th Academy Awards®. One hundred twenty-six pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:

“Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” Never Sorry LLC

“Bully,” The Bully Project LLC

“Chasing Ice,” Exposure

“Detropia,” Loki Films

“Ethel,” Moxie Firecracker Films

“5 Broken Cameras,” Guy DVD Films

“The Gatekeepers,” Les Films du Poisson, Dror Moreh Productions, Cinephil

“The House I Live In,” Charlotte Street Films, LLC

“How to Survive a Plague,” How to Survive a Plague LLC

“The Imposter,” Imposter Pictures Ltd.

“The Invisible War,” Chain Camera Pictures

“Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” Jigsaw Productions in association with

Wider Film Projects and Below the Radar Films

“Searching for Sugar Man,” Red Box Films

“This Is Not a Film,” Wide Management

“The Waiting Room,” Open’hood, Inc.

The Documentary Branch viewed the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist. The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

Hey LLL, you elitist pigdog.. what the **** is wrong with glorifying graffiti, hmm?

 

 

When this thread got bumped, I was reading through the posts in this thread, and I saw LLY's post again and it pissed me off again, and I quoted it, getting ready to make this same exact point again, till I saw that I'd already made it a year ago. You're still a pig dog though.

[GWCGWC 83]

Searching for Sugar Man looks like it would be worth seeing.

[brvheart 1,752]

Anyone have a download link for Just, Melvin: Just Evil? It sounds hot as balls.

 

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

I'm 40 minutes in, and I'm physically ill. This is the most disturbing movie I've ever seen, even more than Deliver us from evil.

[brvheart 1,752]

I'm 40 minutes in, and I'm physically ill. This is the most disturbing movie I've ever seen, even more than Deliver us from evil.

 

Just wait. It gets worse.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

That was incredibly disturbing. Christ, I feel physically drained after watching that. I'm going to need a prosaic prescription to get over that.

[timwakefield 68]

Here's a really excellent documentary. It's called, simply, 9/11, and it's about how Bush and the Jews were really behind the plot to hahaha just kidding. Seriously, it's an amazing documentary. These 2 French filmmakers were shooting a documentary for months in a firehouse in lower Manhattan, quite near the Twin Towers, about a rookie firefighter. And they were filming on September 11. It's truly amazing.

 

It aired on CBS in 2002, and I think that's what this youtube video is taken from (it's also available on dvd). So Robert DeNiro is there at the beginning and end in this one (but not on the dvd), and interestingly it was shown without any commercials and with all the swearing kept intact. I'm not sure what the deal is with the foreign subtitles, but obviously they weren't part of the CBS airing. Apparently 39 million people watched it on CBS, which is awesome because it's incredible and deserves to be seen. I believe it has the only footage taken inside either of the towers that day. One of the filmmakers was in there with the firefighters for a good long while, and it's really extraordinary to see.

 

Also it starts out with about 20 minutes showing what the film was going to be, and following the firefighters and one rookie in particular for a few months leading up to 9/11, so you get to know them. Yeah. Watch it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjzQTETv6-w