documentary – Page 29 – The Movie Gourmet

Cinequest: THE GREAT SASUKE

March 12, 2016 by movie gourmet

Mikiko Sasaki’s ever surprising The Great Sasuke starts out with the most essential element of a documentary – a compelling subject. Here it’s a Japanese pro wrestler who achieved stardom after bringing a Lucha Libre mask (and a wife) from his training days in Mexico. Between 1992 and 2006, The Great Sasuke won championships and filled large Tokyo arenas. He especially thrilled audiences with his aerial moves (that’s when he climbs up on the turnbuckles and jumps off on to the hapless opponent). But all that combat has taken a toll on his body, and now he is headquartered in his obscure hometown 300 miles north of Tokyo, performing in front of a couple hundred on folding chairs or floor mats. So far we have the familiar story of an athlete aging out of fame and success, but two aspects of The Great Sasuke make this story much more interesting.

First, this guy NEVER takes off his mask. We see him striding down the sidewalk in a business suit, briefcase in hand – fully masked. And we see him eating breakfast with his kids, vacuuming the floor, driving, brushing his teeth – all in his mask. He’s even developed a technique for changing between his everyday mask and his performance mask – all in a way that doesn’t let anyone glimpse his face. (At the Cinequest screening, director Sasaki said that The Great Sasuke’s wife insisted that she would not be married to a guy who didn’t take the mask off in the bedroom, and The Great Sasuke’s kids have seen his face, too.)

Second, he’s a quirky guy who plunges himself in to offbeat (and doomed) schemes to set up business enterprises and even run for political office. He is completely sincere and just couldn’t work any harder, but he won’t listen to anyone tell him that his plans are completely half-baked. He may be a force of nature, but it’s pretty hard to sway voters when you’re campaigning on street corners in a wrestling mask. It all adds up to a good movie experience.

Cinequest: THE BRAINWASHING OF MY DAD

March 1, 2016 by movie gourmet

Ever notice how people who watch a lot of Fox News or listen to talk radio become bitter angry and, most telling, fact-resistant? In the documentary The Brainwashing of My Dad, filmmaker Jan Senko as she explores how right-wing media impacts the mood and personality of its consumers as well as their political outlook. Senko uses her own father Frank as a case study.

We see Frank Senko become continually mad and, well, mean. And we hear testimony about many, many others with the identical experience. Experts explain the existence of a biological addiction to anger.

Senko traces the history of right-wing media from the mid-1960s, with the contributions of Lewis Powell, Richard Nixon, Rush Limbaugh, Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch. Senko even gets right-wing wordsmith Frank Luntz on camera to explain the power of buzz words. If you don’t know this story (Hillary was right about the “vast, right-wing conspiracy”) , Senko spins the tale very comprehensively. If you do know the material (and my day job is in politics), it is methodical.

This topic is usually Senko’s focus on mood and personality is original and The Brainwashing of My Dad contributes an important addition to the conversation. One last thing about the brainwashing of Senko’s dad – it may not be irreversible…

The U.S. Premiere of The Brainwashing of My Dad will be March 5 at Cinequest, with additional screening on March 6 and 9.

Cinequest: GORDON GETTY: THERE WILL BE MUSIC

March 1, 2016March 1, 2016 by movie gourmet

San Francisco billionaire Gordon Getty was born into great wealth, so he was never going to be a Regular Guy. And few aspire to become composers of classical music, as Getty has. He is profiled in the documentary Gordon Getty: There Will Be Music.

Getty sees himself as more 19th Century than 20th (tellingly, not even mentioning the 21st). It’s an apt description of someone who bases musical compositions on the works of Poe and Dickinson. Affable and genuine,Getty is easy to spend time with. We get a fun glimpse into the Getty family history – and learn that Gordon was already out of college when he read that his dad was the richest American. “I knew he was rich, but…”

Getty is conscious that his uberwealth brings major advantages to his vocation as well as detracting from his credibility. Naively, he thinks that they balance out. But one thing is or sure – Getty is no dilettante. He is a serious composer, who has devoted himself to his craft.

The most interesting aspects of Gordon Getty: There Will Be Music are Getty’s music and the insight into his process as a composer. Getty’s passion in pronounced, but it’s a quiet passion. The pace of the film reflects its subject and his music, which is not pulsating. Classical music fans will enjoy this film than those who are not.

Plays Cinequest on March 6, 11 and 12.

Cinequest: DAN AND MARGOT

February 29, 2016 by movie gourmet

Margot is a vibrant and salty 27-year-old Canadian woman. She suffered a schizophrenic break when she was away at college. Now she’s medicated, and fighting to resume her life. Margot is the subject of the documentary Dan and Margot, and I’ll leave you to find out who Dan is or is not.

How do we think of schizophrenia? We often visualize the feral-looking guy ranting to himself outside the 7-11. But how about those who are just slipping into a schizophrenic break or those medicated – with the disorder under control? In this very personal look examination of one person’s illness, Margot and her friends and family share how the disorder can sneak up on not only the individual, but their support system, as well.

Filmmakers Chloe Sosa-Sims and Jake Chirico parachute themselves and their camera into Margot’s life and take advantage of the access without sensationalizing her life. Dan and Margot is a solid and thought-provoking movie.

[Note: there is a little animation in Dan and Margot, but most is live action and almost all of that is Margot herself. The trailer is more representative of the film than is the still image above.]

Cinequest: CHUCK NORRIS VS. COMMUNISM

February 29, 2016February 29, 2016 by movie gourmet

During the Communist regime of the repugnant Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romanians could only experience two hours of television per day and all of that was boring Ceaușescu propaganda. They were starving for culture, of any type and any quality, and a ring of smugglers responded to the demand with bootleg VHS tapes of American movies. The rewarding documentary Chuck Norris Vs. Communism tells this story.

Now this isn’t about high cinema from America and the rest of the world inspiring the current crop of Romanian auteurs – although that did happen. This is about ordinary Romanians feasting on even the crappiest American movies, especially the never-ending cascade of action movies (Chuck Norris movies were among the favorites).

The authorities, usually obsessively repressive, turned a blind eye top the VHS smuggling because they totally missed the subversive impact the movies that were not overtly political. But the ordinary Romanians saw abundantly stocked American supermarkets and measured that against their own deprivation.

One guy organized this VHS smuggling ring. Amazingly, one woman narrated a Romanian voiceover for all these movies – hundreds of them. It was a shady business for him and a moonlighting gig for her – but now they are cultural heroes in Romania. We meet these two briefly in Chuck Norris Vs. Communism. And we hear the testimony of Romanians touched by cinema – even trashy cinema.

What is banal in some cultures can have a significant impact on others. Chuck Norris Vs. Communism makes that point engagingly, in a story you won’t see anywhere else. Plays Cinequest on March 4, 6 and 12.

Stream/VOD of the Week: DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL LAMPOON

February 23, 2016 by movie gourmet

DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: The Story of the National Lampoon takes us through an engaging and comprehensive history of the groundbreaking and seminal satirical magazine. For those of you who weren’t there, the National Lampoon – ever irreverent, raunchy and tasteless – was at the vanguard of the counter-culture in the early 1970s. Once reaching the rank of #2 news stand seller among all US magazines, it may be the most popularly accepted subversive art ever in the US (along with the wry Mad magazine during the Cold War).

In a few short years, the Lampoon rose from nowhere (well, actually from the Harvard Lampoon) to a humor empire with the magazine, records, a radio show and a traveling revue. And, yes, the title DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD does encapsulate the arc of the Lampoon’s story.

Documentarian Douglas Tirola tells the story so successfully because he persuaded almost all the surviving key participants to talk. We meet co-founder Henry Beard, publisher Matty Simmons, Art Director Michael Gross and other Lampoon staff including P.J. O’Rourke and Christopher Buckley. You’ll recognize the first editor, Tony Hendra, from his performance as the harried band manager in This Is Spinal Tap. We see clips of two Lampoon originals who haven’t survived, co-founder Doug Kenney and resident iconoclast Michael O’Donoghue.

The National Lampoon’s live performance revue featured John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle Murray, Gilda Radner and Harold Ramis. When Lorne Michaels hired the whole crew for Saturday Night Live, the hit television show instantly surpassed the magazine in cultural penetration. “The Lampoon lost its exceptionalism”, says one observer.

But the Lampoon made its mark on the movies by launching the entire genre of raunchy comedies with Animal House and spawning the careers of filmmakers John Landis and Harold Ramis, as well as the SNL performers. We also see a clip of Christopher Guest in an early Lampoon performance. On the other hand, I hadn’t remembered a less successful Lampoon project from its later era, Disco Beaver from Outer Space.

This is all, of course, major nostalgia for Baby Boomers. Before seeing DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD, I thought, yeah, I’ll enjoy the Blast From The Past, but will younger audience viewers dismiss this humor as quaint? After all, the Lampoon’s success came from puncturing the boundaries of taste, and it’s hard to imagine anything today that would be shockingly raunchy. But, after watching DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD, I have to say that the humor stands up today as very sharp-edged. After all, an image of a baby in a blender with Satan’s finger poised to press the “puree” button is pretty transgressive no matter when it’s published. The sole exception is the Lampoon’s over-fixation on women’s breasts, which comes off today as pathetically sophomoric – or even adolescent.

DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: The Story of the National Lampoon has also vaulted on to my list of Longest Movie Titles.

I saw DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD at the San Francisco International Film Festival. This is an important cultural story, well-told and it deserves a wide audience. You can stream it from iTunes or the Showtime VOD service (and you can catch it on the Showtime channel).

KEITH RICHARDS: UNDER THE INFLUENCE: jolly stories from a great raconteur

January 4, 2016 by movie gourmet

Keith Richards: Under the Influence is a good enough excuse to spend time with the ever genial Keith Richards. Keith is not just a rock icon and a medical marvel, he’s a great raconteur – ever genial, with an omnipresent cigarette-hacking chuckle.

Keith drops many a nugget while relating his own musical journey and much about American music of which he is a devotee:

About meeting Muddy Waters at Chess Records.
That he considers himself a better bass player than a guitar player.
How the intro licks to Street Fighting Man were recorded when only he and Charlie Watts came early to a recording session to mess around.
How his bass line with Charlie’s drumming sped up the pace to Sympathy with the Devil from a lament to really rockin’.
“I’m no longer a pop star and I don’t want to be one”.
A sharp observation that White “rock” can seem like a march, and “I prefer the ‘roll'”.
His period of not working with Mick Jagger in 1985-89 was “World War III”.
And there’s a VERY funny Johnny Cash-in-a-hotel-room story.

Here’s challenge – try to spell out Keith’s raspy chuckle. It’s something like “Huh-whey-whey-heh-heh”.

Keith Richards: Under the Influence has the feel of an infomercial for Richards’ book and newest solo album. But, no matter, it’s time well spent. Keith Richards: Under the Influence is available to stream from Netflix Instant.

A POEM IS A NAKED PERSON: Leon Russell in his prime

January 7, 2016January 3, 2016 by movie gourmet

Leon Russell in A POEM IS A NAKED PERSON

During the years 1972-4, documentarian Les Blank hung out and filmed around Leon Russell’s Oklahoma recording studio, and A Poem Is a Naked Person is the result.

This was the period when Russell produced two of my very favorite albums, Leon Live and Hank Wilson’s Back, so I especially enjoyed the music. There’s also a nice snippet of Willie Nelson (pre-beard and pigtails) singing Good Hearted Woman.

In fact, all of the Leon Russell parts (both talking and performing) are great. The problem is that Blank filmed everybody and everything in the neighborhood, including a tractor pull, the demolition of a building and a seemingly deranged and snake-obsessed artist. There’s also a lot of conversation between people who are very stoned. Getting stoned is a lot more fun than listening to stoned people talk.

The documentary’s puzzling title originates from liner notes on a Bob Dylan album.

A Poem Is a Naked Person has been a bit of a Lost Film, until recently only shown at screening where Blank was present. Now you can stream it on Amazon Instant, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT: essential for serious movie fans

December 15, 2015 by movie gourmet

The documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut is a Must See for cinéastes. In 1962, Francois Truffaut spent a week in Hollywood interviewing Alfred Hitchcock. These interviews formed the basis of Truffaut’s seminal 1966 book Hitchcock/Truffaut. At this moment, Truffaut was the hottest new thing in international cinema. He was horrified that Hitchcock was viewed in the U.S. as only a genre director and pop celebrity, but not as the master of cinema that influenced Truffaut and the rest of the French New Wave. Vertigo, now rated by many as the greatest of films, had only broken even at the box office four years before.

Filmmaker Kent Jones took the audiotapes and stills from those 1962 interview sessions and adds what Truffaut could not – illustrative clips from the Hitchcock films themselves. Because Truffaut is no longer with us, Jones also provides commentary from directors like martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Peter Bogdanovich and others. The result is an insightful celebration of Hitchcock’s body of work.

I had thought that I had a pretty fair grasp of Hitchcock, especially his love of surprise and the MacGuffin, his subversion of convention in Psycho and obsession with blonde actresses. But Hitchcock/Truffaut gave me a much richer understanding of Hitchcock’s visual sensibilities, his mastery of overhead shots, and his very limited expectations of his actors, as well as his compression and expansion of time.

Hitchcock/Truffaut will be interesting to any audience, but essential to serious movie fans.

VERY SEMI-SERIOUS: glimpsing inside The New Yorker cartoons

December 14, 2015 by movie gourmet

If you’re like me and you worship the cartoons in The New Yorker, then the documentary Very Semi-Serious is a Must See. Very Semi-Serious takes us inside The New Yorker for a glimpse inside the process of creating and selecting the cartoons, chiefly from the perspective of cartoonist and currently Cartoon Editor Bob Mankoff. You will know Mankoff from his cartoon with the caption, “How about never? Is never good for you?”.

We also meet rick star cartoonists that include Roz Chast and George Booth, along with The New Yorker Editor David Remnick and some aspiring cartoonist newcomers. We are boggled by the tens of cartoons each cartoonist pitches each week and the hundreds that Mankoff must review. Rejection is a major part of the cartoon life.

We also learn how Mankoff scientifically studies the eye movements of readers to see how/when/if we “get” the jokes. And we get to laugh again at HUNDREDS of cartoons.

I saw Very Semi-Serious in May at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and now you can see it beginning tonight on HBO. Set your DVRs.