PROCESSION: The best documentary this year is a heavy duty real life psychodrama that takes us deep into the souls
of traumatized men and is one of the most insightful and revealing films about
suffering/healing I have come across. Powerfully collaborative filmmaking led by
Robert Greene. On Netflix. Abolish the Catholic Church now.
THE NORTH WATER: Another "TV series" that was better than any movie this year.
Andrew Haigh’s follow up to the severely underrated film Lean On Pete is a
five hour masterstroke; an epic adventure of the finest mythic caliber
imaginable. Jack O’Connell is phenomenal and Haigh is without a doubt the
strongest talent in British cinema.
DUNE: Saw once on the biggest screen possible (1.43 IMAX at Citywalk) and
again at home. If "dreams are messages from the deep" Denis Villeneuve again
lets us know anything is possible with the power of imagination. A vision of
messianic prophecy resonating through spacetime.
THE BEATLES GET BACK: Mind blowing deep dive into their creative process.
Watching Paul get lost in writing music as everyone else stands around is
mesmerizing. Yoko is the epitome of cool. Reaches a hysterical crescendo when
the baby-faced chin-strapped bobby's show up. Interesting to watch in the
context of the separate albums they were making outside of the film at the time (McCartney
crafting his solo debut as John and Yoko release their freaked out experiments and Harrison's controversial Moog album).
COLLECTIVE: This is the best kind of documentary: on the ground as it happens,
no talking heads whatsoever, and serving as a record of extremely important
work. In this case, of a Romanian news team uncovering and exposing enraging corruption. And
the fire footage they suddenly hit you with near the beginning is as scary as anything I’ve ever
seen. On Hulu.
QUO VADIS, AIDA?: A UN Base in Srebrenica 1995 is the setting for this intense
true story of displacement and massacre. A slow onset of panic builds to a
harsh pinnacle of sorrow. On Hulu (for the most part I think Hulu chooses
their foreign and art films well).
LAST CHANCE U BASKETBALL: I found this 8 part documentary series on an east LA
jr college team deeply inspirational; full of individual heartfelt human stories.
Coach Mosley throws every form of logic, motivation and prayer possible at
these kids to help them push their lives in the directions they are meant to
be going. On Netflix.
ANTEBELLUM: Went in knowing absolutely nothing about this and haven't heard anything about it since. Wild original
filmmaking. Grapples with the legacy of slavery in a direct and artful way. I
thought it would have been stronger without the twist/reveal.
THE ALPINIST: Wonderful documentary about a fearlessly tapped-in psychedelic
mountain climber literally doing the impossible in his own humble way. Whether
tragically confused or deeply inspired - a soulful, thought provoking life is
revealed. Inevitability hits hard, no matter what. On Netflix.
note
I was shook when I heard Kim Ki-duk died of Covid in December of 2020.
Apparently he was in Riga, Latvia where he had moved to find financing for
his films and presumably get away from the controversy in Korea.
A few of my favorites of his:
Mobius
3 Iron
Spring Summer Fall Winter & Spring
Crocodile
Arirang
The Isle
The Bow
Pieta
One of the most far out, renegade, brilliant beyond genius visionaries
cinema has ever seen has left the stage!
