Documentaries

In The Court of the King Crimson
(Fripp didn't mention Greg Lake once)

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Irwin and Fran (2013)

The Fake Sheikh (2023) Watched a good biographical documentary miniseries re Mazher Mahmood, the cutthroat investigative journalist who was widely popular in the Brit "News of the World" tabloid newspaper. For a number of years he had oodles of sensational prurient stories that resulted in ruined careers and convictions, along with journalistic awards for himself. He finally got taken to task...

Available on Amazon Prime.

Brutal to watch. If bombing hospitals & maternity wards is not a war crime, I don’t know what is.

Every member of the foreign press left Mariupol except this guy & his photographer. Twenty days in they managed to leave with their precious video & sound footage.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

Re-watch of this very grim documentary. This guy murders his wife & throws his two little girls into the oil tanks at his workplace. All to start a new life with a younger thinner version of his wife.

Piece of work.

Moderately interesting.

AppleTVPlus is such a clunky website. Been looking for “My Stuff” for several days now.

Should be in up next on your watch tab.

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Letterboxd

#JusticeForHamilton

Don’t know what this means.

Currently watching this miniseries. It's pretty good but extremely upsetting.

Right, I did see this.

Never heard of this documentary. Will look for it here.

Cinéma vérité. Youngest daughter films her somewhat dysfunctional family in NYC. If one can look past the filthy state of the house (I couldn’t) it’s a fascinating project. I watched it twice in a row.

A good documentary on Harrison Ford, his acting career and his Indiana Jones movies.

Capturing the Killer Nurse

Watched the documentary after seeing The Good Nurse with Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne. Recommended.

'Preciate the tip. Watched it last night, and enjoyed it. I was a Ford fan from the beginning. He had a stand-out, if small part in The Conversation (1974), which is one of my favorite movies. The SW and IJ movies made him a mega star, but I enjoyed him in other pictures as well, e.g. Witness (1985) and Presumed Innocent (1990), among others.

He's had a great, long career, and he's not done yet!

He's able to continue working because he's in good shape as he works out regularly and diets on fish and vegetables. Definitely a top notch actor.

A Disturbance in the Force -

This is a pretty good talking heads documentary that explains how, ahem...how the hell the Star Wars Holiday Special happened. Thanks to the commentary of the surviving production staff, those who were around while they were making it and famous Star Wars fans who were lucky (or unlucky) enough to see it like Patton Oswalt, Paul Scheer, Weird Al Yankovic and Kevin Smith, you get a comprehensive answer. There are also interview recordings of those who are no longer with us like Carrie Fisher (R.I.P.) and who would rather not talk about it such as George Lucas (of course; I mean, he claimed he would destroy every copy if he could) and Harrison Ford.

I like how the documentary explains that the special is very much a product of the variety-show obsessed '70s TV landscape, which is especially interesting to me since I don't know much about what TV was like at that time. Howard Cosell, of all people, had his own variety show, for instance. It is also illuminating and not surprising that not only were most of the people who worked on it unfamiliar with Star Wars or science fiction in general, the production was plagued with problems like budget overruns, staff shakeups, you name it. As for the commentary about the most outrageous moments, it's funny even though their cringiness and unintentional comedy speak for themselves. I mean, what really is there to say about the moment when the wookie grandfather watches VR porn? I also appreciate that it mentions all the times other Star Wars programming references it and how it has influenced other holiday specials like the Guardians of the Galaxy one. Don't expect great filmmaking from this - again, it uses a standard talking heads format that it does not deviate from much - but whether or not you have seen the special (I have not, for what it's worth), you're bound to become even more fascinated by it as well as even more of a Star Wars fan than you were before. Oh, and it was nice to see Gilbert Gottfried (R.I.P.) and to see him be funny one more time.

United Artists (who wouldn't buckle and cave in to be approved by MPAA)

Wham! -

This documentary succeeds at telling the Wham! story and at showing the power of friendship. Besides some new commentary from Andrew Ridgely here and there, most of the interviews and conversations are from the band's heyday. It is a work of art how director Chris Smith and crew weave old and new together to tell the band's entire story and without using a narrator. The quality of the footage is also a testament to how far we've come with film restoration. The clips from their tour in China, for instance, look like they could have been filmed this year.

I like that the documentary starts from the very beginning with a friendly gesture many of us would hesitate to do: volunteer to show the new kid around. Andrew did this for George, the result being a friendship as unbreakable as Ferris Bueller and Cameron's and maybe just as similar. The way it explores Andrew's outgoing, daring nature as opposed to George's shy and insecure one is revealing, especially considering how different their stage personas were. I was also moved by how it explores that George Michael would not have been possible without Andrew, not only by how he gave George wings, but also that Wham! ended mainly because Andrew wanted him to keep flying. That George came out to him so early in the band's lifespan was surprising and I was moved that Andrew was just as frustrated as George was that he had to hide it and intrigued by how many Wham! songs reference his struggle. I also liked seeing how much work goes into making what too many dismiss as boy band pop as well as how evil the recording industry can be (the pair barely saw any money and had to live at home even after their big breakthrough, for instance). It ends up being a tribute to all the good friends out there for how it shows that being one can make dreams come true. It also proves that Ridgely deserves a lot more respect than just being labeled as "that other guy in Wham!"

Loved this on hulu.