Given that Stories We Tell is a competently made documentary about a woman who spent the mid-century flaunting conventional mores and it is depicted from a rather unique point-of-view, her daughter, Sarah Polley, conceived out-of-wedlock, it is no surprise that critics would, at least initially, shower it with effusive praise. Of course, it is inevitable that a film so praised would meet somewhat harsher viewings from those who see it in the shadow of the initial hype and so it was that, unfortunately for this movie, thus there grew a gap between its perceived quality and what the many voters for the Academy felt was needed to deserve an Oscar nomination.
And not without merit. Though I saw only the latter half I could notice, especially in light of the post-screening discussion, the film’s flaws. Two stand out: its use of far too many interviewees and its slow pace. Both are linked.
Because there are two plotlines, the life of the mother and the daughter’s journey of discovery to learn about that life, including her own conception via an affair, and her reactions to its revelations, it is hard to justify, as some in class may have pointed out, more than two, maybe four, characters: Principally the mother and daughter and mother’s husband and lover. Beyond that all characters and interviewees are there to provide only additionally perspectives and information about her mother’s life.
Unfortunately, the documentary burdens us with not only the perspectives of the immediate family but those of friends as well, even when the point was already hammered in. For example, when we hear the brother tell us he overheard a phone conversation between his mother and someone else that she “was pregnant and was not sure about who the father was” a little over half a year before her daughter’s birth we don’t need a further interview with a friend of the mother about a conversation she had with said brother. It’s superfluous and drags the story.
This means the movie drags where it should just move on to the next scene. To make the point further, the movie could’ve easily ended with her telling the husband, the man who raised her, about her parentage and then skipping over to the man’s letter. There was much that could’ve been cut and trimmed. It seemed as if Sarah Polley wanted to tell so much about the story she had no idea what needed to be cut.
Therefore we have a deeply personal documentary of no small quality, especially for a debut, but not enough to merit an Oscar nomination. Still, it was a decent debut.
Stories We Tell. Dir. Sarah Polley. Prod. Lee, Anita; Basmajian, Silva. National Film Board of Canada. Roadside Attractions. 2012. DVD
Monday, October 31, 2016
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Undefeated (2011)
Undefeated is a documentary filmed around a single high school football season and it uses the lives of 4 characters, Coach Bill McCourtney, and players O.C. Brown, Chavis Daniels, and Montrail “Money” Brown, to tell a story about race, class, and family. The race theme pops out almost immediately as the coach is white and the players are all black and, if the class theme didn’t hit you before, it certainly hits you by the time Brown arrives in an all-white neighborhood to receive tutoring and, upon seeing people jogging, remarks that in his neighborhood, “You don’t see people running unless they’re running from the police.”
At first glance one would think it would be the theme of race that would receive the heavy focus but it is rarely remarked upon, save for a a single scene when the local newspaper publishes a story about Brown’s tutoring and receives angry letters pointing out that “it is always a football player” who receives help, alluding, perhaps, to the movie The Blind Side. Indeed, it is class and family that receive the bulk of the focus with the discussions of the players’ need to get into a good college in order to move up the social scale and the players family lives. As well as the coaches.
Indeed, it is the theme family, especially fatherhood, that shows how much Bill McCourtney has in common with the black players. His father split when he was very little and, as he put it, “I know how it feels” and much of the movie is about him trying to be a good father figure and role model to the players, a task he seems to pull off. He coaches them not just on how to play football but also the importance of discipline and hard-work, a task that usually falls to the father in the family. He even shares some cologne with one of the kids. And it is family, that also gives us his reason to quit coaching high school football, as he realizes he needs to look to his own kids first.
Undefeated uses each of these themes to tell a marvelous story and, while it is one that has in our age been told a million times, the themes of fatherhood and family will always be relevant.
Undefeated. Dir. Daniel Lindsay and T. J. Martin. Weinstein Company, 2011. DVD.
At first glance one would think it would be the theme of race that would receive the heavy focus but it is rarely remarked upon, save for a a single scene when the local newspaper publishes a story about Brown’s tutoring and receives angry letters pointing out that “it is always a football player” who receives help, alluding, perhaps, to the movie The Blind Side. Indeed, it is class and family that receive the bulk of the focus with the discussions of the players’ need to get into a good college in order to move up the social scale and the players family lives. As well as the coaches.
Indeed, it is the theme family, especially fatherhood, that shows how much Bill McCourtney has in common with the black players. His father split when he was very little and, as he put it, “I know how it feels” and much of the movie is about him trying to be a good father figure and role model to the players, a task he seems to pull off. He coaches them not just on how to play football but also the importance of discipline and hard-work, a task that usually falls to the father in the family. He even shares some cologne with one of the kids. And it is family, that also gives us his reason to quit coaching high school football, as he realizes he needs to look to his own kids first.
Undefeated uses each of these themes to tell a marvelous story and, while it is one that has in our age been told a million times, the themes of fatherhood and family will always be relevant.
Undefeated. Dir. Daniel Lindsay and T. J. Martin. Weinstein Company, 2011. DVD.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Finder's Keepers (2015)
By William K. Johnson
Finder’s Keepers is about a leg but that is obviously not all of it. The leg tale is wild and funny yarn that the movie uses, by way of a character study of the two men at the core of the tale, to explore deeper issues of family, fame, substance abuse, class, and a myriad of other issues. In John Wood we have a man who begins his story as a perpetually-unemployed drug addict who lost the leg as a result of failing to pay the rent for the shed while Shannon Whisnant is a somewhat successful flea shop salesman in a seemingly happy marriage.
By the end of the movie, both those will be reversed. Whisnant will be struggling in business, developing a possible painkiller addiction due to leg pain, and looking at a possible divorce while John Wood will be clean with a stable job and a happy marriage. The tale of the leg is really how this switch came about, with the leg as a possible catalyst. Both men need the leg for their self-esteem, John needs it because of issues with his father’s death and Shannon needs it to feed his desire for fame. Both also have a lot of pride invested in it.
It is how they move past, or fail to move past, their own issues that becomes the ultimate focus of Finders Keepers. Mr. Wood, by the end, has learned to move past the accident and come to grips with his guilt over it while Mr. Whisnant is still obsessed with fame and fortune. Also, Wood has learned to take responsibility for his own actions while Whisnant, who calls the grill “cursed,” has not, which is probably part of the reason why they are where they are at the end.
Finder's Keepers. Dir. Carberry, Bryan; Tweel, Clay. Perf. Wood, John; Whisnant, Shannon. Firefly Theater & Films, 2015.
Finder’s Keepers is about a leg but that is obviously not all of it. The leg tale is wild and funny yarn that the movie uses, by way of a character study of the two men at the core of the tale, to explore deeper issues of family, fame, substance abuse, class, and a myriad of other issues. In John Wood we have a man who begins his story as a perpetually-unemployed drug addict who lost the leg as a result of failing to pay the rent for the shed while Shannon Whisnant is a somewhat successful flea shop salesman in a seemingly happy marriage.
By the end of the movie, both those will be reversed. Whisnant will be struggling in business, developing a possible painkiller addiction due to leg pain, and looking at a possible divorce while John Wood will be clean with a stable job and a happy marriage. The tale of the leg is really how this switch came about, with the leg as a possible catalyst. Both men need the leg for their self-esteem, John needs it because of issues with his father’s death and Shannon needs it to feed his desire for fame. Both also have a lot of pride invested in it.
It is how they move past, or fail to move past, their own issues that becomes the ultimate focus of Finders Keepers. Mr. Wood, by the end, has learned to move past the accident and come to grips with his guilt over it while Mr. Whisnant is still obsessed with fame and fortune. Also, Wood has learned to take responsibility for his own actions while Whisnant, who calls the grill “cursed,” has not, which is probably part of the reason why they are where they are at the end.
Finder's Keepers. Dir. Carberry, Bryan; Tweel, Clay. Perf. Wood, John; Whisnant, Shannon. Firefly Theater & Films, 2015.
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Overnighters (2014)
For me, as a Christian, it was probably the nature of a church scandal and how it showed the impact of a scandal a church without actually showing much of it. Let me explain. The documentary doesn't show us the reactions of the people who attend the church to the revelations about Pastor Reinke. For the most part, they are kept out of the picture. It puts us in their shoes.
It lets the revelations about his extra-marital affairs with other men hang there along with the fact that he has been permitting men to stay at his church, and sometimes at his house. Some of whom had not only criminal records but were sex offenders. As a result we look back on his entire endeavor with his church with different eyes. Our reactions are probably not too different from those in his church and his own family.
For most of the film we think he is just a kind-hearted pastor trying to help his neighbor, as Jesus instructed, albeit one with a few flaws. But his adultery casts a doubt on all of it. Was it ever really about helping the poor, we ask. Probably. But we do wonder. Just as it would’ve been the case had he been helping women and gotten one (or more) of them pregnant.
The movie is one I would recommend to fellow Christians. It shows the humanity of pastors, who are often expected to be held up, with the fact that they are also sinners often forgotten.
Overnighters. Dir. Jesse Moss. Jay Reinke. Drafthouse Films, 2014. DVD
It lets the revelations about his extra-marital affairs with other men hang there along with the fact that he has been permitting men to stay at his church, and sometimes at his house. Some of whom had not only criminal records but were sex offenders. As a result we look back on his entire endeavor with his church with different eyes. Our reactions are probably not too different from those in his church and his own family.
For most of the film we think he is just a kind-hearted pastor trying to help his neighbor, as Jesus instructed, albeit one with a few flaws. But his adultery casts a doubt on all of it. Was it ever really about helping the poor, we ask. Probably. But we do wonder. Just as it would’ve been the case had he been helping women and gotten one (or more) of them pregnant.
The movie is one I would recommend to fellow Christians. It shows the humanity of pastors, who are often expected to be held up, with the fact that they are also sinners often forgotten.
Overnighters. Dir. Jesse Moss. Jay Reinke. Drafthouse Films, 2014. DVD
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Kit's Film Thoughts
By Kit
It is true that Searching for Sugar Man is helped a lot by its subject, who is a fascinating man. But it should be said that even the wrong hands can render a fascinating subject irredeemably dull and that is not the case with Searching for Sugar Man. For example, anyone could tell the story of a man cheated out of fame and give us a list of his sorrows by doing a simple A&E biographical documentary but Malik Bendjelloul goes a different route, by telling us first of Rodriguez’s impact on South Africa then proceeding on the search for who this man was before, finally, giving us the man himself.
We are told the story not through the eyes of Rodriguez but through the eyes of South African whites, with whom he achieved massive popularity without his knowledge. Therefore, the movie can explore and raise questions about the nature of fame, success, rumors, and the power of music without doing so in a deliberate and obvious manner (except, maybe, the power of music part. That part is pretty obvious).
This makes it, at least to me, rather interesting. We are seeing fame through the eyes of the fans and, like the South African whites, are asking ourselves throughout the film “does he know about his fame?” and “Is he even alive?” So when we discover that he is indeed still alive, and we learn about his life since then, we, like his South Africans, want him to realize how much he was appreciated and loved by the fans whom he never knew existed. Which is why the concert scenes in South Africa are so amazing.
It is a fantastic documentary. It tells its story and it tells it well. It pulls us in and then delivers.
Searching For Sugar Man. Dir. Malik Bendjelloul. Prod. Chin, Simon. Canfield Pictures, 2012.
It is true that Searching for Sugar Man is helped a lot by its subject, who is a fascinating man. But it should be said that even the wrong hands can render a fascinating subject irredeemably dull and that is not the case with Searching for Sugar Man. For example, anyone could tell the story of a man cheated out of fame and give us a list of his sorrows by doing a simple A&E biographical documentary but Malik Bendjelloul goes a different route, by telling us first of Rodriguez’s impact on South Africa then proceeding on the search for who this man was before, finally, giving us the man himself.
We are told the story not through the eyes of Rodriguez but through the eyes of South African whites, with whom he achieved massive popularity without his knowledge. Therefore, the movie can explore and raise questions about the nature of fame, success, rumors, and the power of music without doing so in a deliberate and obvious manner (except, maybe, the power of music part. That part is pretty obvious).
This makes it, at least to me, rather interesting. We are seeing fame through the eyes of the fans and, like the South African whites, are asking ourselves throughout the film “does he know about his fame?” and “Is he even alive?” So when we discover that he is indeed still alive, and we learn about his life since then, we, like his South Africans, want him to realize how much he was appreciated and loved by the fans whom he never knew existed. Which is why the concert scenes in South Africa are so amazing.
It is a fantastic documentary. It tells its story and it tells it well. It pulls us in and then delivers.
Searching For Sugar Man. Dir. Malik Bendjelloul. Prod. Chin, Simon. Canfield Pictures, 2012.
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