Documentary, Movies

Whiteley

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The most fundamental reason one paints is in order to see. –Brett Whiteley I had never heard of the painter Bret Whiteley. A new documentary is a fantastic portrait of a superb talent who was born in 1939 and died much too young at the age of 53 in a motel room. Once [Read More]
Documentary, Drama, Movies

Sully

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Sully has been nominated by many critics as a top film of the year. I knew why many critics loved the film. Sully rejects landing a plane that lost both engines safely on the Hudson River and saving the lives of all 155 passengers makes him a hero. He insists that he was [Read More]
Documentary, Drama, Movies

Miles Ahead

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A couple of months ago, I watched the documentary on Jimi Hendrix Hear my Train Coming. Starting in his teenage years, Jimi was only interested in two things: his guitar and women with music clearly in first place. The film draws much on live performances where the genius of Hendrix becomes very clear. At [Read More]
Documentary, Drama, Movies

Purple Rain

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Prince’s premature death prompted me to see Purple Rain for the first time. The film feels a bit like Flashdance. Incidentally, Jennifer Beals, the star of Flashdance was asked to play lead female role but declined. The plot is apparently based on Prince’s life but the main story is Prince’s talent. No plot [Read More]
Documentary, Movies

Amy

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Since every person now has a smartphone, documentaries of people living today will much easier to do because so much film material will be available on each person. Compared to the documentary on Bob Marley that I covered earlier, a lot of film material was available on Amy Winehouse. Relatively cheap digital video [Read More]
Documentary, Movies

Marley

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Like so many other people around the world, I love Bob Marley’s music. A few years ago a documentary was made about his life made. Just finished watching it. If you like Marley’s music, you have to see it. I knew a few pieces of his biography but had no idea of the depth of his [Read More]
Documentary, Drama, Movies

The Big Short

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Michael Lewis is an amazing writer. I say this even though I have never read a book by him. I watched two films based on his books. The first one was Moneyball. I loved it ability to tell the story how major league baseball was transformed by a few statistic geniuses. Lewis, I recently found [Read More]
Documentary, Movies, Music, The Rest

Buena Vista Social Club

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An alternative title for this music documentary could be, “Grandpa and Grandma rock!” For music lovers this documentary by the German filmmaker Wim Wenders is a charmer. Ry Gooder, an American guitar player, visited Cuba in the 1970s. He fell in love with Cuban music and wanted to do something with Cuban [Read More]