No other filmmaker, documentary or otherwise, makes us feel not just that we were there, but that we are there every time we watch these films. That assessment sounds cliché, but when discussing Wiseman, even terms such as verisimilitude fall short.
We all know by now that white is the Pantone Color of the Year—and that White (meaning its need to prevail) is the color of our political chaos. White has a weird history. Staring at a blank cave wall, the first humans reached for limestone and outlined what they saw…
“But, it would seem, there is no getting around explanations, we are constantly explaining and excusing ourselves; life itself, that inexplicable complex of being and feeling, demands explanations of us, those around us demand explanations, and in the end we ourselves demand explanations of ourselves, until in the end we…
Many recent documentaries about comic entertainers show the alienation, sadness, and self-perceived failure in the lives of people we think of as “funny” and investigate connections among hardship, talent, and drive. While “Being Eddie” is interesting, and Murphy is good in it, if somewhat restrained, it has little such complexity.
The terms of the struggle are renegotiated every time a law is deemed unjust by civil disobedience, and the tension ratchets up every time we are forced to acknowledge that laws without the threat of possible force are no laws at all. The law may fix the line between coercion and consent, but in a democratic republic we at least have the prospect of that line moving forward or back.
The tech bros must have stumbled onto Abraham Heschel’s book about the Sabbath.
ADHD, sleep deprivation, amphetamines and the truth of why they work.
The new initiative aspires to acquire an FM frequency one day, and these volunteers who banded together to save community radio in St. Louis are a smart, tough, resourceful crowd. I expect to report their further success one fine day.
Can truth be found gently? What about hope, and grit?
Almost anyone over the age of 40—dare it be said, even 35?—has their own indelible memory of this crafty little reading medium.