Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World (BBC)Written and directed by Adam CurtisAvailable on YouTube Just to be clear, this documentary seemingly has nothing to do with Kylie’s 2001 hit ‘Can't Get You Out of My Head’ despite sharing the title. You could find a connection somewhere in … Continue reading The One Review: Can’t Get You Out of My Head (2021 Adam Curtis)
Good documentaries are hard to come by but they are there if you look for them! Netflix have several mainstream and topical documentary series in their catalogue, and many from this year have been worth the remote control button press. The Last Dance about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls is a riveting sports documentary. … Continue reading Film in 2020: Five Must-See Documentaries
Many filmmakers have made their name by making stylised documentaries - Micheal Moore, Werner Herzog, Adam Curtis, Amy Berg, Joshua Oppenheimer, Nick Broomfield, Alex Gibney and Errol Morris are all big names that come to mind. Indeed, style derives from the individuals and can often take away from the content of their documentaries. But I … Continue reading The Focus of Film: 8 Documentaries with a Cause
I was very privileged to have experienced the CinefestOZ Film Festival down in the beautiful Margaret River region in South West Australia recently. It is a neatly-styled, homegrown festival with a community feel and a strong focus on Indigenous film-making. It mainly showcases Australian films, but with a tinge of international influence from the likes … Continue reading Review Special: 2019 CinefestOz Film Festival, Western Australia
Faces Places (2017) Directed by Agnès Varda and JR. Written by Agnès Varda (in French with subtitles) If you don’t know who Agnès Varda is, then I would recommend you check out some of her movies. She turned 90 this year and has been making provocative and artistic films since the early 1950s. She was … Continue reading Documentary Review Special: Faces Places (2017 Agnès Varda and JR)
Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016, Hypnotic Pictures & Picture Palace Pictures) Directed by Bill Morrison; Produced by Bill Morrison and Madeleine Molyneaux As an archaeologist and a film enthusiast, I have always wanted to explore this topic more – the genuine and artful presentation of the fruits of archaeological discovery on film. There is only … Continue reading The Two Reviews – Documentary Special: Dawson City: Frozen Time and The Newspaperman
This is the second part of our discussion of the year in film (the first part is here). In this post, we discuss our choices of best film, worst film, documentaries, TV shows, best moment in a film and also a selection from our home country (Scotland, Ireland and Australia). As with part 1, we … Continue reading Momentary Cinema’s Review of the Year 2017 in Film – Part 2
*Please Note: depending on where the reviewer watched them, some of these films were only subject to release in 2017 despite having premiered at film festivals in 2016. Reviews by JJ McDermott Paterson (2016, directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani) A delightfully unexceptional film typical of Jarmusch's minimalist autuership. Set in … Continue reading JJ, Robin and Alan’s Round-up of the Year in Film…So Far
Burden of Dreams (1982 Les Blank) 'If I abandon this project, I would be a man without dreams and I don't want to live like that' - Werner Herzog I did speak at length about Herzog and his films last week but regardless, a list of documentaries concerning the making of films could not conscientiously … Continue reading Dreams and Madness: 6 Great Documentaries about Making Film
In 1980, Munich-born filmmaker Werner Herzog ate parts of his own shoe. Why then, you may ask, may one proclaim this man as a visionary genius? Surely he is crazy in the coconut!! Well, see the shoe thing was actually part of a promise he made to the documentarian Errol Morris a few years earlier … Continue reading Werner Herzog: The Mind of a Visionary Genius
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