The Wolfpack grabs your attention right out of the gate. Its premise is the type that leaves you scratching your head in confusion and looking on in wonder. How could you have an apartment in New York City and never venture outside? What could scare a father so much that he would…
In 2008, James Marsh’s Man on Wire, a recounting of Philippe Petit’s 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers, was one of the most talked about documentaries. At first glance, the film was merely a historical account of Petit’s quest and success, but it ended up being so much more. It…
There was a time when the western genre was king. It created stars in John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, and then America just kind of got over it. Maybe it’s like Toy Story 2 asserts, that the emergence of space travel heralded the end of the cowboy. But this was a genre that made up so much of our cinematic history. Other genres have gone through similar ebbs and flows, perhaps the…
Coming out of Sundance, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl had a crazy amount of momentum. It took home both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards and Fox Searchlight put a record-setting $12 million bid in for global distribution rights (the film would end up going for less through…
I don’t care how charming Jason Schwartzman may be, he cannot be your entire film.
There have been plenty of films built almost entirely on the backs of their lead characters. However, it should never be the practice to have that be the film’s only clear reason for existing. Hell, even Ferris Bueller’s Day Off had the good grace to have some semblance of…
I used to be utterly terrified of Freddy Krueger. I had never seen Nightmare on Elm Street (and to this day, I still haven’t) but I vividly remember the poster that hung in my local video store; that clawed hand creeping over the head of teenager. I can…
For all the good that the internet provides us, it brings a whole lot of crap along with it. While most of us take the internet for its informational qualities, Googling every little thing that we may not know, one of its founding principles is that of connection. The internet is about bringing…
The Iditarod is not only a challenging word to spell but a wholly incredible race. An over 1,000-mile long dog sled race across treacherous and freezing landscapes, where the racer has to rely only on himself, his dogs, and the kindness of strangers. While the clothing and equipment may improve, the value system and the beguiling simplicity of the race’s description remains constant. Lance…
I’m going to go out a limb here and say that most of us don’t know a thing about Viking culture. Our understanding of the Vikings, at least pre-History’s Vikings, consisted of bearded guys with horned helmets. They like boats and violence, or something like that. Vikings are a…
The crime documentary has been something of a standby in pop culture for a long time. NBC’s Dateline is basically just a series of journalistically dense crime documentaries and the Investigation Discovery channel is a dispensary of fear as it recounts its multitude of violence-laced…