Tag Archives: Documentary

City of Life and Death

20 Mar

Review: City of Life and Death

A visceral portrait of the hopeless

By TOM MEEK  |  June 2, 2011
The events surrounding the 1937 invasion of Nanking (the then capital of China) by Imperial Japan are debated by both countries. In this harrowing dramatization of the six-week siege, also known as the Rape of Nanking, Chinese director Lu Chuan attempts to provide insight and balance by representing viewpoints of the occupied as well as that of several Japanese soldiers. Shot in opulent black and white, the atrocities never cease. Captured Chinese soldiers are lined up and executed and women are systematically raped, or forced into “comfort” service until they expire. Ironically, the one savior is a Nazi businessman (John Paisley) who sets up a safe zone for survivors. The recreation of the military campaign stuns in its scope and choreography, making this the most visceral war film since Saving Private Ryan — a portrait of the hopeless in the grasp of a sadistic oppressor.

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Of All the Things

20 Mar

Review: Of All the Things

A touching portrait of a forgotten songwriter

By TOM MEEK  |  April 15, 2009

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Dennis Lambert may be the biggest hit machine you never heard of, a songwriter and producer in the ’70s and ’80s with such classics as “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “Baby Come Back,” and Starship’s now notorious “We Built This City” to his credit. After that, the New York native, who’s now 60, moved to Boca Raton and went into high-end real estate. But a call from the Philippines — where his obscure (in the US) 1972 solo album, Bags and Things, was a smash — sparked a comeback tour. Son Jody Lambert’s touching portrait reveals an artist who’s a perfectionist behind the controls but lets loose with pathos and exuberance in front of a crowd

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Dust to Glory

20 Mar
DUST TO GLORY
Dana Brown, who took over the Endless Summer surf-documentary series from his father with Step into Liquid (2003), returns to dry land with this wham-bam chronicle of the Baja 1000 dirt race. Employing helmet and hood cams, Brown delivers the jolts and the bravado in heart-pumping bursts, including two souped-up pick-ups careering off each other and a roadside RV as they blow through the main drag of a Mexican village packed with locals and spectators — at 140 mph. But Dust to Glory isn’t all breakneck machismo. As in Liquid, Brown probes the subject’s heart, uncovering its history and the bit players who hit the goat paths for the love of the race. The Baja, which began in 1967, has involved as participants or observers such luminaries as James Garner, Steve McQueen and, at the time Brown was filming, Mario Andretti. One intrepid entrant even attempts the entire 1000 miles (15 to 30 hours) on his own as opposed to the usual team of riders/drivers. Brown gets it all down with pit-stop efficiency until the final lap, when the film rambles in on vapors. (97 minutes)

BY TOM MEEK

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Waiting for Supernan

20 Mar

Review: Waiting for Superman

Guggenheim suggests the wait will be long for America’s schools

By TOM MEEK  |  September 28, 2010

If you were wondering about the state of our education system, Davis Guggenheim’s documentary won’t make you feel very optimistic. Terms like “academic sinkhole” crop up as Guggenheim chronicles the bittersweet travails of several families (in Los Angeles, New York City, and DC) readying their children for the school lottery — which will all but decide each child’s fate. Reformers appear in the form of Harlem Children’s Zone champion Geoffrey Canada and Michelle Rhee, the DC super whose brash approach has been blamed for the recent election defeat of Mayor Adrian Fenty. Guggenheim’s culprits are teacher unions, who refuse to accept performance pay, and a tangled bureaucracy; both are hideously exemplified by New York’s “Rubber Room,” where ineffectual teachers sit around, surf the web, and collect a paycheck.

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Step into Liquid

20 Mar
STEP INTO LIQUID

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT I:Dana Brown and his cinematographers go to great lengths to render each stunt with stomach-fluttering impact.

Dana Brown’s surf documentary (his father, Bruce, directed the Endless Summer films) hops from Rapa Nui to Wisconsin to capture its subject. It’s not just a thrills-and-spills highlight reel: middle-aged men hanging ten on the muddy ripples of Lake Michigan and Texans who wake-surf oil tankers get as much screen time as daredevil Taj Burrow and six-time surf champ Kelly Slater. On the inspirational side: three Irish brothers from Ohio hit the chilly brine of the homeland and then offer their skills to a clinic designed to unite Protestant and Catholic youths. Then there’s the war veteran who makes the cathartic journey back to Vietnam to donate a second board to the Danang Surf Club, 30 years later.

The film prefaces itself by saying “no special effects,” and the younger Brown and his talented team of cinematographers go to great lengths to render each stunt with stomach-fluttering impact. At 87 minutes, Step into Liquid does feel long and over-philosophized, but that doesn’t matter when a hodgepodge of pro-circuit riders and extremers head 100 miles off the coast of San Diego to ride 60-foot curls in shark-infested waters. (87 minutes)

BY TOM MEEK

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Beyond the Mat

20 Mar

R: ARCHIVE, S: MOVIES, D: 03/16/2000,

Beyond the Mat

Barry Blaustein’s affectionately biased documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the gaudy world of professional wrestling that profiles three grapplers at different stages of their careers. At the apex of superstardom is Mick “Mankind” Foley, a masked mountain of flesh and “Smackdown” headliner who struggles with the effect of the sport’s violence on his children. Legend Terry Funk is trying to remain in the ring even in his 50s; at the bottom, hovering near self-destruction, is Jake “The Snake” Roberts, who smokes crack and intimates disturbing revelations about his past. Big-name personalities like World Wrestling Federation czar Vince McMahon, the Rock, Chyna, and even political piledriver Jesse Ventura pop up. The film also follows a pair of amateur hopefuls and their not-so-classy promoter.

Blaustein, a screenwriter with mostly Eddie Murphy films to his credit, does a respectable job of getting an evenhanded lock on his subject, though he sullies the effort with gratuitous and sybaritical commentary. No matter — even if you find the nation-sweeping spectacle repugnant, Beyond the Mat is an intriguing exposé. 

— Tom Meek

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