Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 4: ORION: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING

Jeanie Finlay’s stranger-than-fiction story of a would-be resurrected pop star made its bow at Tribeca this Spring. Its festival circuit also included Hot Docs, Nashville, Bentonville, Doxa, Sheffield, Martha’s Vineyard, DOCS DF, Tallgrass, Indie Memphis, and Barcelona’s In-Edit, among others. In addition to a limited theatrical release, Sundance Selects releases the doc on VOD via cable platforms as well as iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, Sony Playstation, Xbox, and Sundance Now.

Small town Alabama boy Jimmy Ellis had aspirations for a singing career but despite his good looks and soulful voice, he couldn’t get a break – not until Elvis Presley died in 1977, that is. Inspired by a recently-published novel which played on the premise that an acclaimed musician faked his own death, Shelby Singleton, the president of Sun Records, Presley’s former label, recruited Elvis’ lookalike and soundalike Ellis to become “Orion.” Decked out in Elvis-like outfits and sporting a mask, Orion aimed to capitalize on fan theories that Elvis was still alive. Contractually obligated to wear the mask and to remain elusive about his true identity, the fame-hungry Ellis began what proved to be a frustrating career living in the shadow of a dead man. Finlay assembles the strange, and sometimes poignant, story with a generous use of archival performances and interviews, demonstrating the paradoxical cost of giving up one’s identity in the elusive pursuit of fame.

Coming to theatres and to VOD tomorrow, Friday, December 4: ALMOST THERE

Dan Rybicky and Aaron Wickenden’s surprising profile of an outsider artist had its world premiere at DOC NYC last year. Other screenings have included Nantucket, True/False, Big Sky, Cleveland, Sebastopol Doc, Sarasota, Minneapolis-St Paul, Sheffield, EBS Doc, Camden, andCork, among others. In addition to its theatrical release, it also comes to VOD via Fandor, iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, GooglePlay, Sony Playstation, X-Box, YouTube, and other platforms.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

New to VOD this week: TOP SPIN

Sara Newens and Mina T Son’s look at ping pong champions had its world premiere at DOC NYC last year. It went on to screen at Big Sky, Salem, CAAMFest, Am Doc, TIFF Kids, Nashville, IFF Boston, LA Asian Pacific, Montclair, and SF Docfest, among others. The doc became available on iTunes earlier this week.

I previously wrote about the film here.

Coming to theatres today, Wednesday, December 2: HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT

Kent Jones’ look at the meeting of cinematic minds had its world premiere at Cannes earlier this year. Fest berths followed at DOC NYC, Telluride, Deauvlle, Toronto, San Sebastian, London, Mill Valley, Tallgrass, Chicago, AFI Fest, Tallinn Black Nights, and Denver, among others.

Over the course of a week in 1962, French film critic turned filmmaker François Truffaut conducted an extensive interview with one of his cinematic idols, Alfred Hitchcock, with the stated aim to demonstrate that the so-called “Master of Suspense” was also the greatest filmmaker in the world, not just some cheap entertainer. The resultant book, published in 1966, which came to be known by the shorthand title HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT, made a compelling argument for the British director’s body of work, and has become a classic of film studies, and, as indicated by the participants in Kent Jones’ tribute here, a seminal text for some of today’s master filmmakers, from Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, and Richard Linklater, to Olivier Assayas, Arnaud Desplechin, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa. While offering just enough background on both Hitchcock and Truffaut’s lives and careers up to the point of their legendary interview, Jones generally keeps the focus, like Truffaut’s book does, on Hitchcock’s films. Not an adaptation, and thus not interested in covering each title in his oeuvre, the well-crafted documentary instead continues in the spirit of the book, offering a literate, enthusiastic appreciation of Hitchcock’s timeless classics and of his approach to filmmaking, to inspire a new generation to discover the work and to remind those already Hitch’s fans to revisit old favorites.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, December 1: AMY

Asif Kapadia’s look at the short life and career of Amy Winehouse made its bow at Cannes this year. Since then, it has screened at DOC NYC, Edinburgh, New Zealand, Vancouver, Traverse City, Sydney, East End, Munich, Karlovy Vary, Jerusalem, Poland’s New Horizons, Sarajevo, and Biografilm, among several others.

Like his masterful feature documentary debut, SENNA, Kapadia expertly crafts his portrait of the superstar performer almost entirely through archival material, including previously unseen home movies and behind-the-scenes footage. Taking on a public figure who was obsessively covered in the mainstream media, the director offers a strikingly candid alternative perspective without sugar-coating Winehouse’s struggles with addiction and difficulty handling the pressures of celebrity. The result is an intensely human, moving reconsideration of a gifted young woman who mercilessly became dismissed as a hopeless trainwreck by tabloids and a public only too willing to indulge in schadenfreude.