Category Archives: Releases

Coming to PBS’s American Experience tomorrow, Tuesday, January 19: BONNIE & CLYDE

John Maggio’s tale of the notorious outlaw couple makes its debut on the long-running public television strand.

During a crime spree that ran between 1931-1934, Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow, and their Barrow Gang captured the attention of the country with wild true crime stories of armed robberies making headline after headline. As recounted in Maggio’s biographical film, the pair emerged in the midst of the Great Depression, a time of desperation that saw the public embrace them as romantic anti-heroes and revel in their ability to defy the law, despite being behind the murders of several police officers and robbery victims. The gangsters’ inadvertent role in propagating this outsider image, however, ultimately proved their undoing, as the film reveals. They might have successfully continued to carry on their illicit activities were it not for the emergence of a series of photos the gang took in 1933 – playfully staged shots of themselves showing off their guns and acting out imagery familiar from true crime pulp magazines – that were discovered in their abandoned hideout. Once released to the press, these proto-selfies became a pre-digital viral sensation, made them instantly recognizable, and started the countdown to their inevitable, bloody showdown with the authorities made famous for more modern audiences through Arthur Penn’s Faye Dunaway/Warren Beatty classic. Maggio, sticking close to the American Experience formula, blends talking heads representing distant family members and historians with some intriguing archival footage to tell a conventional, but still compelling, story of the enduring appeal and fascination with the criminal couple.

Coming to VOD today, Friday, January 15: ALL THINGS MUST PASS

Colin Hanks’ love letter to a lost record store empire made its debut at SXSW last year. Other fest screenings included Seattle, AFI Docs, Sacramento, and Greenwich. It now comes to VOD on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and other platforms.

I previously wrote about the doc upon its theatrical release here.

Coming to VOD today, Friday, January 15: ASPIE SEEKS LOVE

Julie Sokolow’s look at an outsider’s attempts to find a match debuted at Cinequest last year. Other screenings have included New Orleans, Florida, Fargo, Kansas City, and Northside. The doc now comes to iTunes.

For decades, David has attempted to combat his loneliness by posting quirky personal ads seeking “Dating and/or Friendship” on telephone poles around Pittsburgh, flyers that incorporate pop culture references, staged photos of himself, and other techniques he thinks might catch the eye of the woman of his dreams. As signaled by the title of Sokolow’s affectionate portrait, David has Asperger’s, but he was only diagnosed within the last decade or so. Seeking to make sense of love and dating, the awkwardly charming writer allows the camera to follow him as he seeks out a partner. The result is a sensitive, but often humorous, portrait of modern dating through his unique perspective, one that also sheds light on the challenges of love and loneliness for us all.

Now available on Netflix: MEET THE PATELS

Geeta V Patel and Ravi V Patel’s exploration of dating from an Indian-American perspective debuted at Hot Docs in 2014. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, Los Angeles, Traverse City, Hamptons, Citizen Jane, San Diego Asian, Dubai, Bentonville, Seattle, and Sydney, among many others. The doc was released on iTunes and various other VOD platforms last month, and now comes to Netflix.

I previously wrote about the film here.

New to DVD this week: IN THE BASEMENT

Ulrich Seidl’s exploration of what happens in Austrians’ inner sanctums made its bow at Venice in 2014. Other fest berths included CPH:DOX, London, Montreal, Zurich, Thessaloniki Doc, Hong Kong, BAFICI, Docs Against Gravity, Melbourne, Sydney, and Sidewalk.

Seidl offers a survey of both the innocuous – smoking teens, model train enthusiasts – and the extreme – SM dungeons, Nazi memorabilia – in the basements of his fellow countrymen and women. Artfully, precisely filmed, often in wide, static shots, these spaces are presented as tableaux, inviting the viewer to gaze upon that which is often kept private. While Seidl includes some deliberately staged sequences – notably, the older woman who fusses over creepy lifelike dolls – the majority of the proceedings seem to be authentic, and carry unusual power precisely because they are presented so matter-of-factly. At the same time, interviews with participants are sometimes more affecting than the images are perhaps meant to be, with a former victim of domestic abuse turned masochist notably disturbing, and a prostitute’s skinny john’s humblebrags about his ejaculations disarmingly funny.

New to DVD this week: NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE

Andrea Kalin’s portrait of GYN surgeons who moonlight as a rock band has screened extensively since 2013. Fest engagements have included the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival, Awareness Film Festival, Cinequest, and Australia’s Big Picture Film Festival.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, January 12: HOW TO SMELL A ROSE: A VISIT WITH RICKY LEACOCK IN NORMANDY

Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht’s portrait of the pioneering documentary filmmaker made its debut at Telluride in 2014. Its extensive fest circuit included the New York Film Festival, IDFA, Hot Docs, It’s All True, Thessaloniki Doc, Cinema du Reel, San Francisco, DocAviv, Biografilm, and New Zealand, among others.

Blank’s last film documents a freeflowing meeting in 2000 with one of the originators of direct cinema, which doubles as both a biography and a documentary history lesson. Completed by Blank’s longtime creative partner and editor Leibrecht after his death in 2013, their portrait also serves as a joyful tribute to Leacock, who died in 2011, and who was something of a mentor to Blank. In the film, Leacock shares personal memories, demonstrates his French cookery, and reflects on his impressive body of work, illustrated through still captivating clips from classic nonfiction that reaches back to Robert Flaherty’s LOUISIANA STORY, which he shot in 1948. Throughout, Blank, following the lead of Leacock, provides the viewer with the wondrous, truthful feeling of “being there,” making for a buoyant appreciation of life and art.