The Documentary Thread

[Tabe]

Catching up on some reviews...

Artifact - When I first read the summary of this one, something like "Jared Leto and his band in a lawsuit with their record company", I assumed the "band" in question was some kind of vanity project for Leto. See, I only know him as an actor. Apparently I've been living under a rock as Leto and his band - Thirty Seconds to Mars - have sold something like 15 million albums worldwide. Anyway, this documentary covers a turbulent time for the band, one where they are embroiled in a lawsuit with their record company, trying to get out from under a one-sided contract, and also the recording of their This is War album. While covering a lot of standard ground - evil record company, band somehow millions in debt despite sold out tours and platinum albums - this still is really good. We get a nice look into the creative process for the album itself - a subject that has always fascinated me. I've sat in on recording sessions but this is still something that is completely foreign to me. I just don't have that gene, I guess Anyway, this is good stuff, and a solid look at a predatory industry. 8/10.

The Sheik - Biographical documentary covering the career of The Iron Sheik. Given that the movie uses the name of another (very famous) wrestler as its title instead of the guy it's actually profiling, I did not have high hopes for this one. Happy to say I was wrong! This is a terrific look at the life of the Iron Sheik. It's told in a mix of present day and flashbacks in a way that works really well. You get a lot of great vintage photos - including some that DO show Iron Sheik with the Shah of Iran, his wedding, and so on. Some great early footage too. And the modern day stuff is covered too - Sheik's crazy rants on Youtube, his dust-ups at conventions, relations with his family, drug use and, yes, the murder of his daughter. It's all here. And it's well-covered. However, this is far from perfect. Iron Sheik's actual career isn't covered in any great depth - we get his early training, his WWF title win, and his drug bust with Hacksaw Duggan. That's about it. Nothing on his feud with Slaughter, his team with Nikolai, or much of anything else. So that's a disappointment. And the movie false attributes Sheik's return to prominence to his video response to Michael Richards's racist rant at a nightclub when, in fact, it was his verbal attack on B Brian Blair in a shoot interview that did it. Other than that, this is pretty excellent. Some terrific interviews too - including with The Rock. Well worth checking this out! 8/10.

I Hate Christian Laettner - The latest in ESPN's 30 For 30 series of sports documentaries. This is yet another fine entry in the series. During his college career with Duke, Laettner attracted an inordinate amount of hate from opposing fans. This movie attempts to answer the question of "why?" and succeeds admirably in that area. Lots of great stories told here by pretty much every important person in Laettner's life - and Laettner himself. All the key points of Laettner hatred are covered in depth. You'll come away with a new understanding of Laettner and, because he actually comes across pretty likeable in his interview, maybe even a new appreciation for him. This is not a perfect feature by any means - it's an ESPN production, so there's definitely some pro-Duke bias going on here. For example, they try really hard to portray Laettner as being from an average middle class family of blue collar hard workers. And they almost succeed, except they left in Laettner referencing his family's STABLE OF HORSES. Beyond nitpicks like that, this is a good one. Check it out. 8/10.

Back Issues: The Hustler Magazine Story - Documentary telling the story of infamous porn mag, Hustler, and its founder Larry Flynt. Some good stories to be told here, including an interview with the guy who tried to kill Flynt and ended up paralyzing him. The entire story of the magazine is told, from its humble beginnings to becoming a hit magazine thanks to features like nude photos of Jackie Kennedy. Also covered in great detail are some of the legal cases involving Flynt and Hustler, including the landmark parody/1st amendment case that Hustler won involving a fake interview of Jerry Falwell. Having said all that, while there's some good stories here, this just isn't that great. It's alright and mostly interesting, just not great. 5/10.

[Reed]

Say Goodbye to the President: A film looking into the death of Marilyn Monroe. I spent most of this thinking it was another flimsy conspiracy until the housekeeper who was with her that night just casually drops in that Bobby Kennedy visited her that day then admits she's tired of covering everything up. That was weird. Throw in some dodgy autopsy stuff (she's supposed to have taken 50-90 pills but they never found a trace of them) and it makes you think.  Never mind the grassy knoll, maybe this is the one Kennedy conspiracy there is something to.

 

"We killed Marilyn Monroe" probably wouldn't make for a good slogan for the democrats, admittedly.

[Craig H]

Boy, Netflix loves putting up documentaries that make you really, really, really pissed.

 

Fed Up feels like the third in a trilogy with Bully and Kids for Cash. Man did this leave me feeling, like I said, pissed. And sad too. One girl in particular is followed quite a bit throughout the documentary and to see her struggles with weight breaks my heart. To sum up, sugar is awful and our government doesn't give a shit because stepping up to those industries means losing money. It was eye opening to learn that kids should only get about 5 tsp of sugar a day and then see all the things they eat that vastly exceeds that. I try to make sure my daughter eats healthy when she's with me, but even then, I'm not doing a good job apparently. Her diet is something like:

• Toast or cereal, fruit and OJ for breakfast. That alone takes her right up to the daily limit of sugar.
• For a snack, it's whatever her school has, which could be baguette, crackers, fruit, veggies with dip, etc.
• Lunch is PB and J, fruit or veggies, a small bag of gummies, and a little less than a serving of Goldfish.
• She'll have another snack before dinner.
• Dinner is usually something healthy.

By dinner, she's WAY exceeded the daily limit for sugar, and it's not wonder why she sounds like such an addict. Same goes for a lot of kids. You also look on the packages for food and there's no daily recommended amount for sugar listed, which is explained in the documentary. It's a very shocking look at how obesity has gotten as out of control as it has, and not just for adults, but for kids. Highly recommended.

[Reed]

I liked when Michelle Obama's whole thing was "Hey, kids should eat healthy and have carrots and apples and stuff." Surely the most mild, inoffensive First Lady project in the history of mild, inoffensive First Lady projects.

 

And still got crapped on for it. So they made her stop doing it.

[Technico Support]

Killing ourselves with shitty food is a God-given American right.  Look at the garbage we celebrate at state fairs (HURRR DEEP FRIED TWINKIES BACON HURRRR).  Obama was already black and considered a Communicst Socialist black Fascist wife of an illegal black Kenyan Muslim black president as far as middle America was concerned.  She was starting 3 steps behind the blocks and fighting against something everybody loves.  It was a dumb battle to pick.

[Craig H]

I liked when Michelle Obama's whole thing was "Hey, kids should eat healthy and have carrots and apples and stuff." Surely the most mild, inoffensive First Lady project in the history of mild, inoffensive First Lady projects.

 

And still got crapped on for it. So they made her stop doing it.

 

I forgot about all of that until watching Fed Up and that reminder pissed me off too.

[Reed]

I thought it was depressing because the White House people clearly picked it for her as a project because it was the most non-controversial thing they could think of.

 

Like, no matter what your politics, we can all agree kids eat too much junk food and should try more fruit and vegetables, right?

 

But people still found away to twist it and turn into some "Don't curb my personal freedom!" nonsense.

[Craig H]

Our country is just like Pawnee, IN.

[Curt McGirt]

I'd say Terre Haute myself.

[S.K.o.S.]

Documentary festival started yesterday in Toronto.  This evening I saw The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young.  This is about an annual trail race in Tennessee.  The doc covers the 2012 event.  The whole thing is pretty... backwoods, for lack of a better term, but the race is insane.  The course is a closed circuit, allegedly exactly 20 miles but runners claim it's closer to 26, and they have to run it five times (so, around 130 miles) within a 60 hour time limit.  Runners can eat or sleep as much or as little as they want.  It didn't seem like anyone was literally running most of the time, by the way.  The application process is secret - I got the impression that the organizer pretty much has the final say on who he decides to let participate. It seemed to be about 40 people every year, and they get applications from all over the world.  There were guys from India, Belgium and France in this.  Runners don't know exactly when the race starts, they're just told it'll be sometime between midnight and noon on a certain day and they get an hour's notice on the exact start time.  Also, it's a trail run, so you're like going through streams and brambles, uphill and downhill to a ridiculous extent, and getting lost (or not being able to find checkpoints) is a concern.  In the first 25 years of the race, only 10 people actually finished the thing.  So like, you're seeing people's legs scratched to shit from whatever they had to run through, people starting their third or fourth lap and hobbling like 70-year-olds, and everyone pushing themselves to their absolute limits.  Don't want to overhype it, but I found it very enjoyable.

[RIPPA]

[S.K.o.S.]

Saw Doglegs last night, about the Japanese promotion of the same name, which started off as worked bouts in 1991 but is apparently now all shoots, though participants still cut wrestling-style promos.  DVDVR was the first place I'd heard Doglegs mentioned, but I'd never actually seen any of it until this movie.  It involves both disabled and able-bodied people, sometimes even fighting against one another.  The focus is on three people: Shintaro, who has some sort of mental disability (they didn't go out of their way to explain everyone's condition), has a long-standing rivalry against the able-bodied Kitajima, and is coming up on the end of his Doglegs career; L'amant, who has (again, I'm assuming) cerebral palsy, but also a healthy wife and child - and he fights his wife in Doglegs (!!!); and Nakajima (? might have this name wrong), who you'd think was healthy at first glance, but has cancer and clinical depression.

 

The movie was really good.  It's kind of an underdog story with a heavy dose of "what in the actual fuck".  Kitajima is announced as the man who's "been beating up the disabled for 20 years".  There's also footage from Shintaro attending a STARDOM show, and Fujita Jr. Hayato appears in the credits (he might have been in the movie too, there were a couple of times where they didn't identify people but I was thinking "that guy looks familiar, I should know who that is").

 

There's going to be a question of whether these fights are really shoots, but they're certainly presented as such.

 

They have a Kickstarter here, which has already reached its goal, but check the link anyway for a trailer and more info on the movie.  Honestly, it was good enough that I'm going to donate just to make sure I get a copy.

[Curt McGirt]

Fujita Jr. Hayato being a shootstyle wrestler and also having a mentally handicapped relative (watch the 2008 title match with Yoshitsune in M-Pro where she's in the crowd) makes that an interesting connection. Funny, I remember DVDVR mentioning Doglegs but never was there a tape reviewed and I never really knew what they were referring to. 

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

Anyone watch Montage of Heck. Pretty good, very depressing. Love all the animated bits.

[brandonr4s]

Anyone watch Montage of Heck. Pretty good, very depressing. Love all the animated bits.

 

Overall, I enjoyed it. The home videos of his early childhood were interesting. Very..."unique" to think of a young, vibrant, gregarious Kurt Cobain. The format of revealing his diary entries to progress through the years was well done and the animated segment, using his own voice recording, about losing his virginity and his first attempted suicide was top notch.

 

Seeing Krist Novoselic was just...odd. He's changed so much, but he obviously still remembers that time vividly and is still in anguish over it.

[PetrolCB]

I'm sure Krist has moved on, in his own way. But every time I see him and hear his audibly depressed but yet somewhat positive sounding demeanor, while recanting stories, I feel awful for him. He was a lot more to the band than it seems to the casual fan, he'll never get that recognition until it's too late or never at all.

Having said that, this documentary was great.

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

I'm sure Krist has moved on, in his own way. But every time I see him and hear his audibly depressed but yet somewhat positive sounding demeanor, while recanting stories, I feel awful for him. He was a lot more to the band than it seems to the casual fan, he'll never get that recognition until it's too late or never at all.

Having said that, this documentary was great.

I think I was a little disappointed.  I was kind of looking forward to a Nirvana doc, but this was a Kurt doc.  I totally understand that.  There is this magical time before Nevermind where Nirvana was just an Indie band.  I never knew that time, but it is fascinating to me.  It seems like they did som much interesting stuff at that time.  I think I'm going to read the Michael Azzerad book again.  

[Curt McGirt]

Caught the first half of this. It hurt so much to watch that I just tapped out and turned it off. I'm not even a Nirvana fan, just the shit he went through as a kid hit too close to home in some respects.

[RIPPA]

[Reed]

I'm sure Krist has moved on, in his own way. But every time I see him and hear his audibly depressed but yet somewhat positive sounding demeanor, while recanting stories, I feel awful for him. He was a lot more to the band than it seems to the casual fan, he'll never get that recognition until it's too late or never at all.

Having said that, this documentary was great.

 

Takes more than that to make you happy, though. Look at Kurt.

 

I mean, I don't know a whole lot about Krist, but he does seem to have a decent enough life now.

[Curt McGirt]

[WholeFnMachine]

[RIPPA]

[cwoy2j]

Has anyone seen Billy Corben's DAWG Fight? A really interesting documentary about Miami's underground backyard fighting world.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j04ZLmM46Ms

[MarcosLoura]

Recently I saw Ivory Tower and Jodorowsky's Dune. Very different subjects but both were thoroughly enjoyable.