Sully

Movies, Documentary, Drama

Sully

No Comments 2 January 2017

Sully has been nominated by many critics as a top film of the year.  I knew why many critics loved the film.  Sully rejects landing a plane that lost both engines safely on the Hudson River and saving the lives of all 155 passengers makes him a hero. He insists that he was just doing his job. He also insists that he was not doing the alone. There was his co-pilot, the crew, the emergency response team of NYC.

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Miles Ahead

Movies, Documentary, Drama

Miles Ahead

No Comments 21 July 2016

A couple of months ago, I watched the documentary on Jimi Hendrix Hear my Train Coming. Starting in his teenage years, Jimi was only interested in two things: his guitar and women with music clearly in first place. The film draws much on live performances where the genius of Hendrix becomes very clear. At the end of the film, we learn that the estate of Jimi Hendrix “commissioned” the documentary. Only then did it become clear that we are watching a sanitized version of Hendrix’s life. The man died from a drug overdose. But in an effort make Jimi appear as likable and charming as possible and increase for his estate sales from his music his death is portrayed more as an accident of someone how dabbled a bit in drugs. Miles Ahead takes a very different approach.

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Vor der Morgenröte (Before the Red Sun rises again)

Movies, Documentary

Vor der Morgenröte (Before the Red Sun rises again)

No Comments 6 June 2016

Stefan Zweig is one of my favorite German writers. I already reviewed on these pages the film Secret Burning based on his novel and his Chess novel. Both are fantastic. This film is about the life of Zweig. I knew how Zweig’s life ended but I had no idea of his years in Exile. Zweig was a Jew and he—unlike so many others who ended up in concentration camps—had the good sense to leave Austria and Germany shortly after the Nazis took power. The film covers his exile years. Its method is to pick out 5 episodes in a ten year period. Vor der Morgenröteis as poetic as Zweig’s work and it is a major accomplishment. The performance of Josef Hader as Zweig is stunning.

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Purple Rain

Movies, Documentary, Drama

Purple Rain

No Comments 1 June 2016

Prince’s premature death prompted me to see Purple Rain for the first time. The film feels a bit like Flashdance. Incidentally, Jennifer Beals, the star of Flashdance was asked to play lead female role but declined. The plot is apparently based on Prince’s life but the main story is Prince’s talent. No plot can compete with his musical genius. The movie’s ending, where Prince shows off his musical talent, is worth seeing.

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Amy

Movies, Documentary

Amy

No Comments 22 May 2016

Since every person now has a smartphone, documentaries of people living today will much easier to do because so much film material will be available on each person. Compared to the documentary on Bob Marley that I covered earlier, a lot of film material was available on Amy Winehouse. Relatively cheap digital video cameras were around when she turned 14 and she and her friend started to interview each other like teenagers do. Documentaries on popular musicians are generally wonderful because we love to hear the music again that accompanied our own lives. Amy is a rewarding film to watch.

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Marley

Movies, Documentary

Marley

No Comments 21 April 2016

Like so many other people around the world, I love Bob Marley’s music. A few years ago a documentary was made about his life made.

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Twinsters

Movies, Documentary

Twinsters

No Comments 7 February 2016

In 2004, I reported this story, “TWINS REUNITE AFTER 20 YEARS about twins who were separated at birth and found about each much later. The story repeated itself in 2013. This time the girls are not living in the same city about half way around the world.

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