True/False Day 1: ”Mija,” ”Riotsville, USA,” ”2nd Chance”

Greetings from the 2022 True/False Film Festival! I’m in Columbia, Missouri this weekend as the festival, which focuses on documentary filmmaking, returns to in-person screenings for this year’s edition. For the first day of the festival, I was able to catch three feature documentaries, all of which coincidentally premiered virtually at the Sundance Film Festival […]

SLIFF Reviews: Documentary Features

Today I’m sharing the second half of my recap of the St. Louis International Film Festival, this time concentrating on three documentary features: “Flee,” “Alien on Stage,” and “Citizen Ashe.” You can find my reviews of those movies below, and can read my reviews of some of the narrative features that played at SLIFF here. […]

Review: “The Rescue”

In 2018, the world was held rapt by the story of 12 young soccer players and their coach, who became trapped deep in a cave in Thailand, flooded by monsoon rains. But the enthralling discovery by divers that all 13 individuals were still alive deep underground 10 days after their disappearance comes less than halfway […]

Nashville Film Festival Reviews: “Charm Circle,” “Fanny: The Right to Rock”

The Nashville Film Festival is taking place this week starting September 30 and running through October 6, and oday I have reviews of two documentaries that are playing both in person and virtually at the festival: the slice of life “Charm Circle,” making its North American premiere after winning the audience award at Sheffield Doc […]

Streaming Movie Reviews

Happy August to all who celebrate! Today I’m recapping some direct-to-streaming films that were released in July, including one of the year’s best movies (“Summer of Soul”) and Netflix’s very fun horror trilogy event, “Fear Street.” You can find my capsule reviews of those movies and others down below! “SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE […]

Review: “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain”

Director Morgan Neville has helmed some of the best documentaries in recent memory. Watching his 2018 film “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”—about children’s television personality Fred Rogers—was one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had in a movie theater. With his new film, Neville profiles the life and career of another TV icon: celebrity […]

Review: “Ruth- Justice Ginsburg In Her Own Words”

The last few years have been inundated with content about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away last fall. 2018 saw the release of the documentary “RBG,” which gave an overview of Ginsburg’s life and career with some emphasis on her recent status as a social media icon, and the 2019 narrative feature […]

Sundance Review: “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It”

Entertainer. EGOT winner. Activist. Role model. Legend. All of these words and more can be applied to Rita Moreno, the Puerto Rican performer who rose to fame in the waning years of the Hollywood studio system and continues to work consistently in film and television today. Her life and career, including her struggles to overcome […]

Sundance Review: “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street”

Last summer, “Sesame Street” was widely praised for a town hall it hosted on anti-racism as a means of explaining the protests for racial justice happening around the world in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police officers to both children and adults. “Sesame Street,” the educational children’s television program that celebrated its 50th […]

Review: “Apollo 11: Quarantine”

In 2019, director Todd Douglas Miller reimagined what a documentary could be with “Apollo 11.” The film told the story of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission during which men first walked on the moon using only stunningly restored archival footage; no modern interviews or voiceovers, no recreations. In light of the current coronavirus pandemic, which […]