Category Archives: Releases

Coming to theatres today, Friday, November 25: MIFUNE: THE LAST SAMURAI

Steven Okazaki’s tribute to the prolific Japanese actor had its world premiere at Venice last year. Screenings followed at Telluride, London, Kyoto, Mill Valley, Hawaii, Denver, AFI Fest, and Taipei Golden Horse, among other events.

Toshiro Mifune receives a respectful if somewhat inert appreciation in Okazaki’s review of the actor’s career, which included a well-known collaboration with acclaimed auteur Akira Kurosawa which revitalized Japanese cinema in the postwar era. After an intriguing but too brief consideration of early Japanese film history sets the stage, the film begins its surface look at the actor’s career, largely through Keanu Reeves’ uninspired narration as well as from talking heads from admirers like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, collaborators, and family members. While some films receive more room for consideration, notably THRONE OF BLOOD, other classics like RASHOMON are given short shrift. As a whole, the doc feels too insider-baseball, likely to resonate primarily with pre-existing fans of the actor or of Kurosawa.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, November 25: BEHIND THE COVE

Keiko Yagi’s rebuttal to Louie Psihoyos’ Academy Award-winning film debuted at Montreal World last year. It has also screened in Japan.

As signaled by its title, Yagi’s film is a direct response to THE COVE, aiming to more accurately portray the Japanese side of the story, which the director, and other Japanese critics, have argued was absent or misrepresented by the earlier film. To tell her story, Yagi returns to Taiji, the town depicted in Psihoyos’ film which annually hosts the dolphin drive hunt that is so graphically shown in THE COVE, and which resulted in the scrutiny and condemnation of the international wildlife conservation community. While the filmmaker’s intent is to some extent understandable, wishing to provide a counter-narrative and defense of Japanese practices from an inside vantage point, in contrast to the earlier film’s outsider, non-Japanese perspective, the fundamental problem with Yagi’s film is that it’s frankly not at all well made unfortunately. The director is an acknowledged neophyte who barely knows how her camera works, the film lacks a clear structure, it features terrible editing and narration, and, worst of all, it couches the bulk of its defense of Taiji hunting practices in cultural differences and tradition, without ever acknowledging the key argument against the slaughter: cetacean intelligence.

New to DVD this week: WILLIE VELASQUEZ: YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE

Hector Galan’s portrait of a notable Latino voting rights champion made the rounds at community screenings this fall before debuting on PBS stations last month.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

New to DVD this week: JUST ABOUT FAMOUS

Jason Kovacsev and Matt Mamula’s look at celebrity impersonators debuted at Cleveland in 2014. It also screened at Oxford, Knoxville, and Orlando.

An expansion of an earlier short by the same name, Kovacsev and Mamula’s film explores the world of professional celebrity impersonators, from presidential portrayers of Barack Obama, George W Bush, and Bill Clinton, to performers like Elvis, Madonna, and Lady Gaga. In addition to profiling several individuals trying to eke out a living based on often tenuous resemblances to others, the film follows them to the Sunburst Convention, an annual gathering in Florida where their “talents” are provided a spotlight, with the hopes of booking additional gigs. The filmmakers bring a generally light feel to the proceedings, and somewhat admirably refrain from highlighting the desperation that’s evident in some of the performers, but the result is an unfocused and unmemorable survey that never delves deep enough to make the viewer care too much about their subjects.

Coming to CMT tonight and also now available on DVD: CHICKEN PEOPLE

Nicole Lucas Haimes look at the world of competitive poultry breeders made its bow at SXSW earlier this year. Other fests have included AFI Docs, Nashville, Sidewalk, Seattle, Indie Memphis, and Atlantic.

Haimes’ film begins at the annual Ohio National, the premier poultry show in the world, where viewers are introduced to main characters Brian Knox, Shari McCollough, and Brian Caraker. While sequences peppered throughout briefly survey additional breeders, these three carry the bulk of the film and provide its emotional heft. Knox, a racing engineer, is a good-natured perfectionist who’s been unable to figure out romantic relationships; McCollough is a mother of five and recovering alcoholic; and Caraker is a Branson MO musical theatre performer who was bullied in school. They are each sympathetic figures, revealing just enough personal details to engage an audience who might otherwise not be riveted by the details of the poultry competition or of selective chicken breeding techniques. While the film seems also to want to trade on the quirky aspects of their avocation, it never quite pushes this to the extreme that it likely could, resulting in a likeable but not altogether unforgettable subcultural portrait.

New to DVD this week: TESLA

David Grubin’s history of the forward-thinking inventor had its premiere on American Experience last month.

I previously wrote about the doc here.