Category Archives: Film

Now on DVD: HUMANITY FROM SPACE

Duncan Copp’s overview of mankind’s development from the perspective of space debuted on PBS last month.

Copp’s visually inventive film maps out humanity’s interconnectedness on the globe, utilizing satellite data to draw ever more complex links within and between nations and continents as it relates the story of the growth of civilization and its impact on the Earth. By design, attempting to cover 12,000 years results in a project that’s less comprehensive than it is big picture, eliding the messy particulars for more broad reflections on the past, present, and potential future of the planet. The film is also, on the whole, surprisingly – perhaps naively – optimistic. Despite touching on a swelling population, diminishing natural resources, and climate change, for example, there’s a somewhat blind trust that technological innovation will sort things out. Where Copp is more successful is in using the canvas of the globe to visualize concepts related to the growth of connectivity, such as the origins and development of the power grid; and in laying out some of the innovations that led to paradigmatic shifts in the development of civilizations, such as the shift from hunting-gathering to cultivating land, and the move of the world’s population from the country to the city. With its non-stop narration and surfeit of statistics, the ultimate impression left is of a very slick, very informative lecture – more educational than artful, but featuring some noteworthy graphics.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, August 4: ANTARCTIC EDGE: 70° SOUTH

Dena Seidel’s exploration of climate change research made its debut at the Princeton Environmental Film Festival earlier this year. Other screenings included the International Wildlife and Minneapolis film fests before its theatrical release this past Spring.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS tonight, Tuesday, August 4: JFK & LBJ: A TIME FOR GREATNESS

Alastair Layzell’s re-examination of the civil rights legacy of Lyndon Baines Johnson debuted at the Annapolis Film Festival this Spring. It now makes it broadcast debut in commemoration of the 59th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Despite its title, Layzell’s film is overwhelmingly focused on Johnson, though the impact – and political opportunity – of Kennedy’s death is noted several times. Designed as a corrective of sorts to the 36th US President’s legacy, marred for many by his role in escalating the Vietnam War, the film instead focuses exclusively on Johnson’s political wherewithal to realize two instrumental pieces of civil rights legislation in the wake of Kennedy’s assassination – the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – working against expectations given his Southern background, and using his powers of political negotiation, shrewd management of public outrage not only to JFK’s murder but to televised scenes of segregationist brutality in the south, and pointed personal signals that civil rights’ time had come – such as hiring Geraldine Whittington and the first African American secretary to the President, de facto desegregating a Texan whites-only club by insisting that Whittington accompany him, and incorporating the civil rights activism phrase “we shall overcome” into a televised speech before a joint session of Congress. The film is weakened significantly by the decision to employ thoroughly unnecessary scripted re-enactments at times, but otherwise succeeds in conveying LBJ’s significance in bringing change to racial inequality in America, and reminding viewers of the ongoing struggles against renewed voting suppression efforts in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling invalidating a key part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, July 31: I AM CHRIS FARLEY

Brent Hodge and Derik Murray’s tribute to the late comedian makes its debut this weekend in limited theatrical engagements around the country prior to its broadcast debut on Spike next month.

Farley, best known for his time as a SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE cast member before breaking into films with TOMMY BOY, died of a drug overdose at the age of 33. Hodge and Murray’s film chooses to focus more positively on the trajectory of the comedian’s life and career than on his sad death – a choice that often sits awkwardly with the emotional tenor of the interviews they elicit from friends and family. Hewing closely to biopic conventions, the film trots out family members in the form of Farley’s siblings to sketch out his idyllic, loving Wisconsin upbringing and his natural showmanship, while college friends and Second City castmates trace the early development of his talents as he discovered performing, particularly through improv, which paved the way for his SNL breakthrough, and which are showcased here through intriguing albeit crude video recordings. The requisite focus on his memorable SNL characters takes up the bulk of the film, accompanied by an impressive roster of talking heads, including the typically reclusive Adam Sandler and Lorne Michaels – a testament to the enduring impact Farley had on his collaborators nearly two decades after his death. At the same time, the filmmakers’ never seem to give enough breathing room to process the seemingly still-raw grief expressed by Farley’s friends over his sad death, instead taking pains to shift the mood back to one of celebration, a tactic that ends up feeling forced, making this look back at a self-sabotaged career feel a bit too superficial and rose-colored than well-rounded.