A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
French and French-language Films
Roman Polanski, “The Tenant” / “Le Locataire” (1976) A very good psychological study of a young man, bullied by others and trying to make his way in a…
Australian and New Zealand Films
Anthony Lucas, “The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello” (2004) A nominee for a Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 2006, this is a visually beautiful…
Adam Curtis, “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (Episode 2: The Uses and Abuses of Vegetational Concepts)” (2011) Second episode in his documentary trilogy…
Tad Lumpkin and Harold Uhl / The Provocateur Network “The American Dream” (2010?) This is a well-made animated documentary that tries to explain how the American people…
D I Yashin, “Experiments in the Revival of Organisms” (1940) A curious short documentary from 1940 about a series of experiments on reviving dead or inanimate…
Alix Lambert, “The Mark of Caïn” (2000) Ostensibly a film about the declining custom of tattooing in Russian prisons, its history and how it serves as…
Alfred Hitchcock, “Young and Innocent” (1938) A plucky teenage girl aids a young man on the run from bumbling police who suspect him of murder by…
Errol Morris, “Tabloid” (2010) Errol Morris’s documentaries fall into two camps: a serious one (“Fog of War”) and one of portraits of eccentric individuals dominated by…
Jesper Huor and Bosse Lindquist, “WikiRebels” (2010) Made for Sveriges Television AB (SVT), this documentary traces the rise of Wikileaks, the global non-profit media organisation that…
Adam Curtis, “The Way of All Flesh” (1997) As told in this fascinating documentary, the story of Henrietta Lacks – or rather, that of her cancer…