esrosedotblog

The space program is a thing of the past.

At least the lunar part. It got cancelled before the total missions were completed.

Today's film is a nostalgia trip but also a real view into the life of a hero.

Gene Cernan was

The Last Man on the Moon (2016)

and this is a documentary about that man's life as an astronaut.

There is more humanity than heroics in this great little film. All the tech stuff has been gone over and over. A lot of astronaut movies have been done and done again.

But this is the real deal including the divorces. the disappointment and the sorrows within the highly touted space program.

But it is not an exposé either. It is just a gentle story about a sturdy (and studly) man who has had a life that very few others can have.

Humble and yet proud.

Very nice. A great guy to spend some time with on a cool afternoon indoors.

This is a big festival award winner.

Labels: documentary, films

Not many alcoholics have a well documented story of the progression of their disease.

Amy Winehouse is the unhappy exception.

A fine singer, came to her glory and then drank it all away. That and other drugs. But the booze was the main thing.

So this film joins the sad parade of movies about failed careers and premature deaths in show business.

Her career was so well documented, we have a documentary which is hard to watch and a bit too long. The fascination of watching a train wreck seems to have gone into decisions about editing and how to present the story.

Of course, I watched it from another perspective than one who had not experienced the disease.

I had to FF because it was too hard to watch some of it but it would be unfair to downgrade the film because of it.

So it is a 3 out of Netflix5. I would not want to see it again.

Labels: documentary, films

Today's film, a documentary, takes on so much that it almost sinks.

But it is always beautiful to watch.

The Pearl Button (2015)

Patagonia. Chile. Dictatorship. Indigenous people. Scenery. Climatology.

All together in a melange which seems to start and stop in a beautiful circle.

I am glad I watched it but once is enough. I get a headache from too much travelogue especially when politics are wedged into it.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: documentary

A dying cuisine is brought to life in today's documentary film.

Deli Man (2015)

The American jewish delicatessen is no longer with us except in some prime locations.

The big cities and, as it happens, in Palm Springs. Shermans, a local tradition. They have the photos of the "stars" ate there in the olden days.

There is a lot of culture packed into the menu and the story is told in this overly long film. And told again.

It needs editing but it is till pretty good and will probably make you hungry.

When we lived in Boston there were plenty of delis but the biggest and best was Ken's on Boylston Street.

I was a hillbilly kid from Pennsylvania who had no idea. But as a freshman at MIT I ended up in a dorm with almost all New York jews.

I learned about the food thing fast.

I have never tried to emulate the cookery and that is because the cuisine has to start from scratch. It can be done with out the Kosher designation but the traditions are critical.

Simple chicken soup is not simple in a Deli. Corned beef even more so.

The breads and baked goods even the salads are a world apart. Heaven.

The film is overly long but still worth the time for anyone who has eaten or whited they had eaten in a real deli.

No. The "deli" department in Ralph's doesn't cut it.

Labels: documentary, films, food

Here it is 2016 and the anti-war activities of the 70s still resonate.

Today's film is about the ransacking of the FBI office in Media Pennsylvania.

1971 (2015)

Activists break into the Media Pennsylvania FBI office and steal documents which blatantly describe abuses by agents as directed by none other than J. Edgar Hoover.

There is nothing new here but the people involved are clear from any prosecution and therefore are free to talk for the first time about what happened.

For many, this is probably ancient history but it was during my time as a budding anti-warist.

It is well done, concise, clear. Families are shown to demonstrate the level of risk these people took.

I am enough of an old lefty to enjoy this. It is scandal porn. Nothing new for Nixon and his gang but I lived through it and I am happy to see it run out again for the next generations to see what can happen in the "land of the free".

This was the beginning of other more elaborate scandals involving the FBI and other government branches.

We know it could happen again but films like this will keep the experiences of this period green.

Labels: anti-war, documentary, films

Lambert and Stamp were rock stars who never performed before an audience.

They did try to make a film and that is when they found The Who, a struggling rock band.

They decided to film the band in the hope that success would provide a nice story for their documentary.

'Lambert And Stamp': The Story Of The Men Who Helped Make The Who (2015)

In the process, they found themselves sort of managing the situation so they could get good footage. And that involved some attention to performance details, costume, music and the like.

Before they or the band realized it they are the managers and had a runaway success on their hands.

They went on, in time, to manage other stars as well. Jimmy Hendrix for one.

Only one of the team survives and he is a charming story teller.

Members of the band are also seen.

It is a sideways doc of the band and the business which is unique and fascinating.

I would not mind seeing it again. A 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: documentary, films, music

If you never thought much about Winnipeg, Canada, today's film will change your whole perspective on things.

I think that one purpose of documentaries is to make us look at something we would normally ignore or walk by or save to another time, meaning never.

My Winnipeg (2014)

is a combination love letter and documentary. Also, I suppose, a fantasy and a wish for a time that never was.

It drips of nostalgia.

In a nice way.

A beautiful film using archive footage and new material, Guy Maddin takes us along on a trip back home, a walk through the past.

Very nice. And you do not have to be a Canadian to enjoy this trip.

A 4 out of Netflix5. I would not mind seeing it again.

Labels: canada, documentary

I was never a Star Trek fan but I sure am a fan of this guy.

In many ways, George Takei is a role model for gay men and, as it happens, for oriental men. He is a two-fer.

This is made abundantly clear in the film I saw today.

To Be Takei (2014)

From bit Asian player in movies to Star Trek to the Broadway stage, Takei has had a varied and successful career.

This film tells a lot about that and also about what moved him to come out as a gay man.

It is an inspiring film.

Look, he spent some of his early life in an internment camp in Utah or someplace awful.

He has the happiness of a person has has known real pain and has converted it into joy. A character study really.

The makers of this doc have done a very good job. Nothing is in the way of Takei. And that is as it should be. Like a good biographer disappears, so should movie makers.

A 5 out of Netflix5. I will be buying the DVD.

Labels: documentary, films, gay films, television

Watching a ballet being designed and built is a fascinating process.

Today's film goes backstage at The New York City Ballet as Justin Peck designs and directs, then opens, a new work.

Ballet 422 (2015)

About an hour to show the building of a production from paper to theater.

I have seen this kind of film before and it is always fascinating.

Peck is a particularly attractive "star". Earnest, kind and temperate, and very talented. He exudes a quiet authority.

The documentary does not seek to make anything out of what we see. There is no commentary. Just Peck at work.

I appreciated that they did not try to show his other non-work sides. The furthest they go is to show him commuting and waiting for a train. He executes pacing like a dancer.

He is a guy that I would like to get to know. Not a boy from next door but a more complicated talent who is also down to earth and a good human being.

If there is a temperament there it is directed at his work. Humble.

A 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: dance, documentary, films

There is a whole period in Rock and Roll history where everything happened on the West Coast.

A lot of hits were churned out during this period. Today's film is a documentary about the studio musicians who worked as backup for the star artists. They often made the whole thing work with their sounds an innovations.

The Wrecking Crew (2015)

The film is made by a son of one of the guys who did the heavy lifting behind the scenes for major acts.

There doesn't seem to be any anger around this at all. It is more about illuminating a side of that business that has been kept quiet because, hey, who wants to know that their favorite rock star can't lay down a decent lick?

I liked it. There were even some teary moments as always occur in one of these things. Nice feelings.

Labels: documentary, films, music

I grew up rural.

And couldn't get out fast enough.

Today's film has a lot to offer the memory bank. A lot about why I got out. Had to.

But it is nice to go back for an anonymous visit.

Rich Hill (2014)

Things do not seem to have changed except for the phones and the little gadgets.

But the feeling of ennui is palpable. The slow kids know they are going no where and even the smart kids are not sure.

On the other hand, it is quiet and serene. Simpler.

It is hard to know what to make of it all. I am glad that there is still a place like this to come home to or to be home.

There are no villains here. No social statements, well hardly any. It is a documentary. Watch. Listen. Take it in.

It sure beats going to Rich Hill to see for myself.

A Sundance Documentary Grand Prize.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: documentary, films

Today's film was a documentary about design.

Eames: The Architect and the Painter (2011)

Both Charles and Ray Eames did the work but it is Charles who got a lot of the credit.

This is a moderately interesting film that sometimes teeters on the edge of over-design or TMI. But I enjoyed it and will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

I do not worship at the church of design but I do live with a designer architect so I better watch my comments.

The Eames cannot help but be interesting as their constant self promotion almost guaranteed.

It worked. Who doesn't have or want an Eames chair or two?

Probably me. But that is another subject.

I did like the film but it could have had ten minutes lopped off at the end. There is no juice in it. They try but it is hard to reach the people behind the reputation. Perhaps that was the nature of the self promoting Eames.

Labels: documentary, film

I was not a child of the Sixties.

More of a middle ager that got nipped in the ass by it.

I liked a lot of the stuff and bought into it but basically could not stand the showboating and disguised hate of it all. Hate of country, hate of other classes. Just plain hate.

No one from that time who was into it would agree with me of course.

Nevertheless I do enjoy the memories of the times which did change me. Alter my view.

Today's film is a reminder of all that countercultural stuff. The good and the claptrap.

Ferlinghetti: The Rebirth of Wonder (2009)

This film does a very good job of separating the shit from the shinola.

The one very important thing about Ferlinghetti is that he founded and maintained a mainstay of a strong counter culture in the form of his wonderful City Lights Book Store. A SFO landmark.

I am not a poetry guy. I am more a "if you have something to say fucking say it" kind of guy. The elliptical and the metaphoric does not sing in my head.

But I enjoyed this film anyway because Ferlinghetti is a strong hero to a lot of people and if you scrape the nonsense off him he is a great poet and a great thinker. He is seminal.

I love that he is beat poet and a capitalist. An American contradiction. The gods laugh.

I would gladly see this again just to hear the poetry and see this guy swing. A 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: documentary, films, poetry

Sometimes, places are timeless. For example? Paris.

Le joli mai / The Lovely Month of May (1966)

Weirdly almost fifty years old and still fresh.

The day of the huge demonstration for peace in Algeria.

Ironically, little about the film has to do with this. It shows the utter indifference of these events to daily life.

At the time this was a huge disconnect between the people and the government. Now, it is a curiosity.

A tragic curiosity but still a strange time.

I watched it because it was reported to be an example of fine black and white documentary art. True.

It is also profoundly human. People, people, people. Wall to wall people.

Delightful.

It is pretty clear that the daily life in Paris is independent of the rest of the world.

I will give it a 3 because I would not want to watch it again but it is a wonderful experience for one show only.

Labels: documentary

Black comics have become very popular in recent years.

But that has not always been the case.

And those who got "somewhere" often did so with some bowing and scraping.

But that changed.

A lot of anger transmuted to some great acts by young comics. But all of them followed in the footsteps of the few greats who came before them.

One of those was a courageous lady who masked the truth in absurd humor.

I remember Moms Mabley from way back. That is Ed Sullivan back. And her material was always the same. The stupidity of racism. Its cruelty.

She presented as a stereotype, her teeth out, her dress a baggy heavily flowered number, a knitted hat and, good lord, a shuffle in cartoonish sneakers.

But that was a ruse. Her mouth produced some pretty harsh truths and was able to be funny doing it.

Today, a documentary on her work.

She has come back as a historical figure but still, the laughs.

Labels: comedy, documentary, films