The Revisionaries (Scott Thurman, 2012)

A bit unfocused, The Revisionaries  nevertheless offers an insightful look into the issue of textbook revisionism in Texas (and beyond, as T...

Head Games (Steve James, 2012)

Steve James' weakest feature almost doesn't even feel like a James film at first, presenting a straightforward call to increased saf...

Samsara (Ron Fricke, 2012)

Ron Fricke's latest tone poem, Samsara , takes its name from a concept shared among Indian religions pertaining to life, death and rebir...

Beauty Is Embarrassing (Neil Berkeley, 2012)

Wayne White is too fascinating a character for the staid documentary techniques of Beauty Is Embarrassing . In fact, I found myself wishing ...

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Spike Lee, 2006)

I have not seen Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke  in five years, and in that time I had not only forgotten what a superb documentary it...

Side By Side (Christopher Kenneally, 2012)

Side By Side  is, thankfully, not merely a mere account of aesthetic differences between film and digital. Instead, it asks serious question...

Free Radicals: A Story of Experimental Film (Pip Chodorov, 2012)

The article of Free Radicals ' title gives away its main strength and weakness: this is a  story of experimental film, not the  story. F...

Runaway Slave (Pritchett Cotten, 2012)

I tried my best to actually address Runaway Slave , a loathsome new piece of sub-Michael Moore agitprop, rather than simply foam at the mout...

Paul Williams Still Alive (Stephen Kessler, 2012)

I love Paul Williams. I love his songwriting, and I adore him as a record producer/Antichrist in Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradis...

Pink Ribbons, Inc. (Léa Pool, 2012)

Forgot to link to this last week as I was caught up in my Top 100. Pink Ribbons Inc. , a repetitive Big Issue documentary, nevertheless does...

Re:Generation Music Project (Amir Ben-Lev, 2012)

I never know where to stand on DJs, so I was glad to watch Re:Generation Music Project , an effort to prove the artistic validity of this so...

The Filth and the Fury (Julien Temple, 2000)

The Filth and the Fury  opens with an old BBC weather report announcing incoming rain. The metaphor works two-fold, as a literal announcemen...

The Beat Hotel (Alan Govenar, 2012)

I know so little about the Beat Generation. All I was taught in school were excerpts of On the Road  and a shambles of a class reading of ...

Last Days Here (Don Argott & Demian Fenton, 2012)

The same pitch that drew me to Last Days Here , that it was a rawer version of 2009's excellent documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil , ...

Undefeated (Daniel Lindsay & T.J. Martin, 2012)

Undefeated  doesn't reinvent the sports documentary, but it does add depth to the genre with an unyielding focus on the people over the ...

El Sicario, Room 164 (Gianfranco Rosi, 2011)

In an age where "FAKE!" greets even the most honest video, the almost-too-consistent dramatic ups and downs of this extended talki...

Capsule Reviews: Weekend, Tuesday After Christmas, Into the Abyss, Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011) Occasionally a bit precious in its cinematography (one too many woozy shots and obvious visual cues), Andrew Ha...

The Interrupters (Steve James, 2011)

Too many shots of curbside shrines litter Steve James' new documentary, The Interrupters . Too many goddamn shots of goddamn patches of ...

Project Nim (James Marsh, 2011)

James Marsh, director of 2008's spellbinding, playful documentary Man on Wire , initially presents Project Nim , the story of a mid'...

Page One: Inside the New York Times (Andrew Rossi, 2011)

Forget the title: Page One: Inside the New York Times  quickly establishes a protagonist, and it is not the hallowed (and expensively redeco...