2019 [in films]
For the last three years, I’ve managed to watch more films than I did the year before. In 2017, I saw 181 films. In 2018, it was 182. In 2019, I watched 184 films in all, not counting rewatches and works in progress. I know this because I’m a big old nerd and I keep track of what I see in not one but two places: a spreadsheet I keep for my own records, and my tracking online over at Letterboxd (go ahead and give me a follow!). I do it for the fun of it, because when you watch as many films as I do (which actually pales in…
Review: Cunningham
Merce Cunningham died in 2009 at the age of 90, and in his decades-long career as a dancer and choreographer, he redefined American modern dance as we know it. Fond of reminding his dancers, audiences and the media that he wasn’t designing the movements but rather allowing them to be revealed, Cunningham broke the mold of what the performing arts understood dance to be, from the way his work unfolded to the way he ran his eponymous dance company. Alla Kovgan’s captivating new documentary—fittingly titled Cunningham—explores the artist’s work, life and lasting legacy in a film that blends the past and the present in beautifully inventive ways. In order to…
Review: Bombshell—The Hedy Lamarr Story
This is a repost of a review that also appears at Third Coast Review. Even if you’re not a fan of classic Hollywood cinema (and why the heck aren’t you?), you know the name Hedy Lamarr. According to IMDb, Lamarr has only 35 film credits, but among them are the likes of Boom Town (alongside Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable) and Cecil B. DeMille’s Sampson and Delilah. Though she was never nominated for an Oscar, so iconic was the Austrian-born actress that other starlets working at the time followed her trend-setting ways, copying her hair, her fashion choices, even her ability to generate a headline. Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story,…
Review: Faces Places
Full disclosure: this is a cross-post with Third Coast Review, where my review also appears. If you’re a film nerd like me, you follow the various film festivals during the first half of the year (Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca, Cannes) with one ear to the cinematic ground, just waiting to hear what everyone’s going to be talking about come awards season. If you’re a film nerd like me, you heard all kinds of buzz out of Cannes about something called Faces Places (Visages Villages), by someone named Agnès (said: Ahn-yes) Varda, an octogenarian filmmaker well known by everyone who knows anything about international cinema. If you’re a (lacking) film nerd like…
Review: STEP
Founded in 2008, the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women is a charter school with a goal of seeing all its graduates succeed in college. Its educators and administrators set high standards and expect greatness from the girls in their charge. Academics are paramount, and failure is not an option. For the students at BLSYW, though, it’s more than just a school. It’s a haven in a rough neighborhood; a support network often far more dependable than family; and a launch pad for talent, passion and futures so bright these girls’ll need shades. It’s a glimpse into those trials, tribulations and triumphs that Step delivers in one of the year’s best documentaries, as it…
Watch This: Chicago’s DOC10 Film Festival
Next week, Chicago Media Project presents DOC10, an annual film festival that presents the most compelling documentary films of the year over the course of a few days. This year, organizers have partnered with the newly-revamped Davis Theater in Lincoln Square to showcase films covering subject matter from music and film to social justice and true crime. Much as I’d love to, I can’t fit in all eleven films in four days. But I am going to catch a few, which I’m highlighting here. Join me!
