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Trailer Review: Finding Joe (calling Nemo)

"Joe" is Joseph Campbell, the late mythologist and writer who became widely known for the PBS series, The Power of Myth, based on his work. From my viewing of the trailer, Finding Joe is a difficult film to categorize. It clearly isn't drama but it isn't quite a documentary, either. In fact, it looks like the filmic version of a self-help book; photographed to look like a Nike ad and employing Campbell's scholarship to bolster and legitimize an otherwise blatantly commercial pitch.

Finding Joe appears to be completely without substance. We see actors portraying skateboarders or schoolboys facing down various obstacles and celebrity gurus telling us, in essence, to "be all that we can be." How insulting!

Simplistic products like Finding Joe (I am loathe to call it a film) help no one because pop-wisdom is junk food, not real sustenance. However reader, if this product is your kind of fare you may save yourself the cost of admission by waiting a few months - it is sure to wind up as programming on The Learning Channel by then. - Bob Abernathy

Opening September 30, 2011, Verdict: Skip

Trailer Review: Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow - Over Your Eyes Your Lids May Grow Heavy

Hi, I'm guest reviewer Bob Abernathy filling in for Aaron for a few days. Anselm Kiefer and his artwork are the subject of a new documentary by Sophie Fiennes. The trailer features ravishing tracking shots of Kiefer's work and workspace set to the music of Gyorgy Ligeti. It's a beautiful 2 minutes. And assuming the trailer is faithful to the experience of watching the movie there are two opposing but equally valid responses on your part. The first is rapture; Kiefer invests the materials of the earth with a soulfulness and transcendent beauty that only a great artist has the power to do. The filmmakers fully understand the tension between the material and spiritual that characterizes so much of Kiefer's haunted imagery and promise to deliver a filmic version of it in their documentary.

The second possible reaction is dread; dread of finding oneself watching a movie that is mostly cinematography and classical music. Earlier this year Werner Herzog had an art house hit with his 3-D movie about prehistoric cave painting and he was careful not to impose on his subject. It is very difficult to make an art film about art - when you've got a great subject you don't dress it up with a lot of artistry. So, should you find yourself feeling sincere admiration for Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow but promising to put it on your Netflix queue one of these days instead of seeing it at the theater then consider this advice: watch the trailer and be done with it.- Bob Abernathy

Opening August 10, 2011, Verdict: Wait for the Critics; Then Skip

Trailer Review: Chasing Madoff - Crying Wolf

I've got a problem with docs about the financial crisis. They make experts explain what happened when they didn't know the ship was sinking while they were aboard, thus making them seem like good captains. But worse, it gives the false impression of them having a higher morality to others in their industry. I could get dressed up in a suit and tie and talk before a camera about real estate bubbles and sound like a trusted financial authority who could manage your portfolio. They're a form of confession wiping away the sins for the players who got us in this mess.

One of the better sound bites from the financial ruin of this country was the testimony of Harry Markopolos before congress about the Bernard Madoff scandal. Markopolos had the unpolished look of a roughed up detective threatened by crooks and seduced by femme fatales not to talk. He was someone who figured out Madoff's Ponzi scheme before anyone else and went to the SEC many times to warn them of the impending doom. No one listened. His testimony was a forceful condemnation of corruption in the regulatory system with easy to understand analogies of how deception operated.

"Chasing Madoff" is a documentary about his investigation and whistle blowing and how nobody heard him. Unlike other award winning docs like "Inside Job" that see the smoke from a safe distance, this is a first person account of seeing the match lit and watching the growing fire. I'm burnt-out on this subject, but this could be a nice bucket of cold water.

Opening August 26, 2011, Verdict: Wait for the Critics

Trailer Review: Tabloid - Truth and Lies

I like docs by Errol Morris but I don't love them. I enjoy their design and presentation more than their subject. Since his 1988 groundbreaking movie, "The Thin Blue Line," about the investigation into the lack of evidence of a man sentenced for a murder that proved so convincing it re-opened his case and got him out of prison, Morris established a style unique in non-fiction films.

It was a style with lots of interviews of real people instead of experts or pundits and about the unusual lives they've had. His documentaries have covered pet cemetery owners to former secretaries of defense giving answers directly into the camera but never hearing the questions in a method he invented called an 'interrotron'. All of them have been wrapped in minimalist scores by composers like Philip Glass, showing data with stats that make for the best powerpoint presentations ever seen.

But I find a lot of this can cover-up an uninteresting subject. "Tabloid" is classic Morris material about a woman, Joyce McKinney, who fell in love with a Mormon who broke-up with her and moved to England only to have her pursue him and their make-up or make-out rendezvous provided tabloid material for the British press. It's full of the graphic playfulness and funny sound bites of a person from the margins telling a story that we've heard about, but soon forget. The best one by Morris was "The Fog of War" where he interviewed former Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, about his lessons from the Vietnam War that was fascinating for putting a mercurial figure under the spotlight of history. The worst one I've seen was "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control" which profiled four people in unusual careers that was more strange and trivial, but many fans consider it his masterpiece. "Tabloid" looks closer in spirit to the later, but I hope being about one person may make it less capricious. "That's like putting a marshmallow in a parking meter," McKinney says at one point about male sexuality. She hasn't lost her shine in front of the camera.

Opening July 15, 2011, Verdict: Wait for the Critics

Trailer Review: General Orders No. 9 - Maps and Legends

I know Malick's "Tree of Life" is a critical hit, and it's obvious his style is influencing others. Look no further than this beguiling trailer for "General Orders No. 9," a cryptic documentary about a lost Indian trail that seems to ponder big questions on how time changes the Southern landscape.

Starting and ending with the image of a tree in the middle of an open field, the trailer progresses with a poetic voiceover asking philosophic questions of life as it shows beautiful images of objects and buildings. It doesn't tell anything except convey a mood, a cosmic outlook on the nature of things. This could be about something or nothing. The most arresting image is a series of bells being rung by hammers welded with badges of brass bees. I've watched it at least three times and can only guess it's about our loss of nature. "What should the new map look like?" the trailer asks. Obviously, a film about the choices we have to our future. I'm hooked.

Opening June 24, 2011, Verdict: Must See

Trailer Review: Page One: Inside the New York Times - Deadwood

I'm a stockholder in the New York Times and these days that feels like being a shipmate swabbing the deck on the ship of fools. I was surprised to find someone doing a documentary on the 'The Gray Lady'. It's like sneaking into a monastery to capture the last members and practice of benedictine monks before time sweeps them away.

Certainly, the threat of staying in business is one of the subjects addressed in this documentary as staff ponder their employment after announcements have been made for a round of layoffs. But it's also about how the news is gathered and made into the front pages of the paper and some of the journalists that make that happen. One of them is David Carr. Carr's beat is on technology and media and he loves to talk, so he comes across as this movie's star. With his former past as a drug addict, the current shifting realities don't seem to him that strange of a trip. He paddles through the office and purrs from his cubicle comfortably predicting on where the destiny of journalism is going.

Where is it going? There's shots of newspapers being printed and sorted by robots on a clean factory floor and it looked completely strange how all that technology is making something so handmade. A reverse engineering to the past. I can't wait for the sequel.

Opening June 24, 2011, Verdict: Must See

Trailer Review: Trollhunter - Scandinavian Safari

A woman runs through the woods and up to the camera turning her head back and warning of the danger coming our way. There's a flash in the distance and then a large troll with three heads breaks through the trees. "Something Big is Coming" yellow titles pronounce. Big and ugly more like it. Trolls. Those creatures that show up in some of the worst B-movies ever made get to star in their own fake documentary inspired by "Blair Witch Project" and "Cloverfield" but without the seriousness. There's no tense build-up to the search or reveal of these trolls. They show up right at the start in this trailer chasing the camera crew which tells me this doc is more an adventure comedy then a horror movie.

Still, it seems to show charm and originality due to its unique Norwegian location and characters. The effects look more realistic than other fantasies because of the many night time shots. I always thought trolls were knee-high creatures under bridges but there are many in this movie that are ten stories tall. You may need to get under a bridge for cover. Who knew.

Opening June 10, 2011, Verdict: Wait for the Critics

Trailer Review: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold - Documoney

Morgan Spurlock is the Evel Knievel of moviemakers. Or maybe the Lenny Bruce of documentarians. "Super Size Me," was a brilliant publicity stunt, social commentary and warning of the dangers of fast food. I couldn't look away as he ate only McDonald's burgers and fries while almost dying before my eyes. The movie was effective, because I'm scared to eat there ever since.

I also wondered where he would go after. Would he continue shaking the tree or sell-out and eat it's fruit? He's done a little of both, but "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" looks to capture the same antagonist spirit as his first film by making a documentary about product placement by the film being the placement. Essentially, this is meta-cinema. An endless loop of creation and subject feeding on itself. The trailer shows what's best about the documentary which is Spurlock himself. He's comfortable selling to marketers with a gee-whiz open mind that takes enjoyment at the corruption of influence. And that's what differentiates him from other documentarians who like to stir the pot. He's not a moralizer like Michael Moore or "Frontline" type reporters trying to reveal a better truth. Spurlock just shows it and lets the viewer decide for themselves. It's so rare to see that, and it gets him in doors that others wouldn't be able to get through. If you see it are you selling out? Try holding your breath forever.

Opening April 22, 2011, Verdict: Must See

Trailer Review: Cave of Forgotten Dreams - Found Art

Trailers can be a great way to find movies you didn't know you wanted to see, but they can also deceive you in skipping movies you maybe should. No better example than "Cave of Forgotten Dreams," which is from one of the most interesting filmmakers who is working at the top of his form right now. But this trailer is so pedestrian as to look like a TV promo for what's coming next on a dead night of cable.

Werner Herzog, a director who's done significant work since the seventies, has made some of the most daring documentaries this last decade. What's made them great, is not only the unique subject matter, but he's put himself as equal spectacle by his narration. "Grizzly Man," was Herzog trying to find out about the tragic death of a bear enthusiast who followed his passion to live with them in the remote corners of Alaska. His investigation was also a diary of Herzog's own thoughts and ideas on the limits of human nature. The best parts were listening to Herzog's German accented English explaining lost footage of the doomed naturalist and his own tortured thoughts on the futility of human ambition. It was a thrilling mystery and the darkest of comedies. He followed that with "Encounters at the End of the World," where he went to the Antarctica to interview the scientists that live there. That felt like the last humans staking out survival at the end of time. It also showed his keen interest in people's work and their devotion to specialized knowledge.

"Cave of Forgotten Dreams" is a natural extension of his themes by taking his camera and following scientists into the Chauvet Cave in France which has some of the earliest recorded paintings by man. Using a 3D camera is a smart choice to get a sense of place. The trailer oversells the 3D and the caves as if we're preparing for an amusement ride with falling rocks. Don't get fooled. The reason for going to see this is to listen to Herzog's mind wander again on the nature of existence, art and time.

Opening April 29, 2011, Verdict: Must See

Update: Forgot to include, but Mike D'Angelo in his excellent Scenic Routes series examines Herzog's narrative gifts in "Grizzly Man." Go to Link.

Trailer Review: Inside Job - Wall Street World

I'm a junkie for true stories of financial catastrophe, but since the great crisis, there's been such an overkill of analysis as to why it happened that I've declared bankruptcy on interest in the subject.

Now comes Charles Ferguson's doc on what happened. He's the one-time successful entrepreneur who turned his money into filmmaking with his first doc "No End in Sight" about the Iraq war. It's full of smart people talking about toxic assets and explaining how they knew it was coming which is nothing new. News clips of CEOs testifying before Congress saying it wasn't their fault has been repeated on cable like sports highlights. We finally get some insiders to reveal they knew things were going down.

Those are the money shots for a doc like this. Getting the rats to confess. Unfortunately, the one who wants to reveal all the secrets asks the camera be shut down. That's at the end of this trailer, and I wondered if the footage just continues with an audio track. I think I'm too burned out to want to know.

Opening October 8, 2010,Verdict: Wait for the Critics