Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to VOD today, Friday, June 19:
DIANA KENNEDY: NOTHING FANCY

Director:
Elizabeth Carroll

World Premiere:
SXSW 2019

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hot Docs, San Francisco, Hawaii, Vermont, Tallinn Black Nights, Sedona

About:
A portrait of the nonagenarian British author, an expert in regional Mexican cuisine.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to virtual theatrical today, Friday, June 19:
CREATING A CHARACTER: THE MONI YAKIM LEGACY

Director:
Rauzar Alexander

World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2019

About:
A legendary Juilliard acting teacher gets his time in the spotlight.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
What do Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Patti LuPone, and Alex Sharp have in common? They are but a few of the extraordinary actors who have studied under Moni Yakim at Juilliard, America’s greatest performing arts school. With interviews with Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, and Kevin Kline, this compelling portrait of the master teacher – the sole remaining founder of the school’s legendary Drama Division – takes us inside the drama classes where Moni and his wife Mina pour their love and passion into preparing the next generation of actors for the spotlight.

Coming to Apple TV+ tomorrow, Friday, June 19:
DADS

Director:
Bryce Dallas Howard

World Premiere:
Toronto 2019

About:
An exploration and celebration of fatherhood.

There are relatively few documentaries focused exclusively on fathers. While actress Bryce Dallas Howard’s feature directorial debut takes a decidedly lighter and heartwarming approach, by design, it’s far from being the celebrity vanity project that some cynical viewers might too quickly dismiss. While she certainly gets a lot of traction by featuring famous fathers – among them, her own dad, Ron Howard, as well the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Ken Jeong, Neil Patrick Harris, Will Smith, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien, and Kenan Thompson, among others – offering heartfelt reflections on fatherhood, her charming film shines when it spotlights several ordinary dads as they contend with the mundane realities of raising kids without the privilege and wealth afforded to their famed counterparts. While not a groundbreaking not particularly deep project, it remains a perfectly likeable one.

Coming to virtual theatrical tomorrow, Friday, June 19:
QUEEN OF LAPA

Directors:
Theodore Collatos and Carolina Monnerat

World Premiere:
Maryland 2019

Select Festivals:
Göteborg, RiverRun, Antenna Doc, NewFest, San Francisco IndieFest, Sidewalk, Rhode Island, Oxford, Philadelphia Latino

About:
A portrait of a legendary Brazilian sex worker activist.

Nearing sixty at the time of filming, unforgettable trans cabaret performer and activist Luana Muniz has been a sex worker since age eleven. More than two decades ago, she created a hostel in the seedy Lapa district of Rio de Janeiro to provide a safe space for other trans sex workers in a society mired by transphobia and corruption. Filmmakers Theodore Collatos and Carolina Monnerat train their camera on the outspoken, larger-than-life Luana, highlighting her no-nonsense relationships with her surrogate daughters, and capturing the atmosphere of the community they’ve created with a relaxed familiarity. The result is a refreshingly nonjudgemental immersion into Luana’s world, made all the more poignant when it’s revealed that the house mother has since passed away.

Coming to virtual theatrical tomorrow, Friday, June 19:
MY DARLING VIVIAN

Director:
Matt Riddlehoover

World Premiere:
SXSW 2020 (online)

About:
A portrait of Johnny Cash’s first wife, long misrepresented in the performer’s mythology.

Johnny Cash struggled to win over his demons of addiction with the selfless love and devotion of his true love, June Carter, following a difficult marriage to the mother of his four daughters – or so goes the Cash legend, as immortalized in the Oscar-winning biopic WALK THE LINE. Director Matt Riddlehoover’s respectful doc aims to serve as a corrective, rehabilitating the image and understanding of Vivian Liberto, Cash’s long-suffering first love and first wife. As signaled by its title, the film foregrounds the deep love between Liberto and Cash, revealed here not only through interviews with their children, but through a trove of letters showing just how besotted The Man in Black was over the Italian beauty he met in 1951 while still an Air Force cadet. At the same time, Riddlehoover details Liberto’s side of the story in the eventual demise of the relationship after he found fame – a mix of neglect compounded by Cash’s troubles with drugs and affair with June Carter, as well as the racist fallout of Liberto being mistaken for being African American by the media. In the ensuing years, Cash and Carter’s worldwide platform allowed them to revise history, which eventually led to Liberto being reframed as a harridan and often erased from the story entirely. While distractingly overscored, this thoughtful profile benefits from absolute candor from the Cash daughters and from a rich archive, helping to illuminate Vivian in all her fullness.

New to VOD this week:
MY FATHER THE SPY

Director:
Jaak Kilmi and Gints Grube

World Premiere:
Sheffield 2019

Select Festivals:
Jihlava, Riga, Cinema Verite, EBS International Doc

About:
A woman explores the impact of her father’s life as a Soviet double agent.

Ieva Lešinska-Geibere was born in Soviet Latvia during the Cold War. In 1978, at the age of 20, a rare visit to the US to visit her father irrevocably changed her life. Ieva discovered that her father, who worked for Soviet mission at the United Nations, was not only a KGB spy, but that he was planning to defect. Ieva was offered the choice of joining him, leaving her mother and life in Latvia behind to live under a new identity in the US, or of protecting herself by heading to the Soviet embassy. Now a translator and journalist, Ieva recounts this transformative time in her life, revisiting locations and speaking to former federal agents who played a role, while also trying to make sense of her fraught relationship with her parents as a result of these Cold War spy games. Filmmakers Jaak Kilmi and Gints Grube enliven an already fascinating story with the clever use of stylized photographic re-enactments, adding another layer to Lešinska-Geibere’s unusual tale of secrets and lies.

Coming to DVD/VOD today, Tuesday, June 16:
WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL

Director:
Rob Garver

World Premiere:
Telluride 2018

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Berlin, Edinburgh, Karlovy Vary, Thessaloniki Doc, Miami, Cleveland, Montclair, Seattle, Docs Against Gravity, Transilvania, New Zealand, Vancouver, Mumbai, Rio, Docaviv

About:
A portrait of controversial and influential film critic Pauline Kael.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s American Masters tomorrow, Tuesday, June 16:
MAE WEST: DIRTY BLONDE

Directors:
Sally Rosenthal and Julia Marchesi

World Premiere:
PBS broadcast (June 2020)

About:
A portrait of the trailblazing film icon.

While Mae West long ago became part of the Hollywood pantheon that makes her unforgettable, over time she’s been reduced to something of a caricature, remembered more for a catchphrase than for specific roles. Surprisingly, Sally Rosenthal and Julia Marchesi’s PBS documentary corrective is the first notable documentary about the controversial entertainment powerhouse, who ruled pre-Code Hollywood. They spruce up a conventional biography format with fantastic archival footage and numerous clips from her films, as well as commentary from historians, friends, and celebrity admirers. What emerges is an intriguing profile of a self-assured woman who insisted on controlling her own image and career, and who was particularly savvy about using controversy to her benefit. While some of the arguments presented about her films’ intersection with race and class matters are perhaps overstated, the documentary succeeds in reclaiming West’s revolutionary appeal and will inspire viewers to seek out her body of work.