Festival News
We're well into festival season, with Venice having wrapped on September 12th and Toronto (TIFF) on the 20th. Of course, dozens of films are generating major awards buzz, but it feels like the most talked-about titles this year are documentaries. Three in particular are winning praise for doing what documentaries do best: refusing to look away, even if it makes us uncomfortable.
And nobody does "uncomfortable" quite like Nathan Fielder. Details on his first feature-length documentary were kept completely under wraps until it debuted at a secret screening at Telluride. In You Can See Everything, Fielder crafts an unsettling portrait of Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced former CEO of Theranos. Fielder is well-known for his oddball HBO shows like Nathan For You and The Rehearsal, and it's anybody's guess why Holmes invited him to document the period leading up to her incarceration. Surely, she was aware of his reputation! The very fact of this film's existence is so unlikely, it's almost guaranteed to be fascinating viewing.
Another marathon documentary taking on a controversial modern CEO is Alex Gibney's Musk, which premiered to a five-minute standing ovation at Venice. With a series of unflinching films under his belt such as Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, nobody was expecting Gibney to treat the world's wealthiest man with kid gloves. And he doesn't. The nearly four-hour documentary deconstructs the myths behind Musk's ascent, and examines his unprecedented power in world affairs. It was filmed without Musk's participation; that is, if you don't count the CGI avatar which gives voice to his public statements.
Another documentary received an even longer standing ovation at Venice. For 25 straight minutes, festival-goers showed their appreciation to NAZA, from Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham (co-director of the Oscar-winning No Other Land). Secretly filmed on the rooftops in Tel Aviv, anonymized Israeli military sources provide testimony about the impact of the country's AI-powered strikes in Gaza. The film has already drawn strong reactions from Israeli officials, who have accused the filmmakers of treason. NAZA opens at IFC Center in New York on September 30.
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Recent Mini-Reviews Getting Love
I thought this was fine. Very comparable to that Akiva Schaffer Chip ‘n’ Dale Disney+ movie. Sporadically funny, but overburdened by a completely incoherent plot and rote character work. Is it naive of me to expect lucidity and character depth from a Looney Tunes film? Perhaps, but the active ambivalence this film has to its story mechanics while still spending a lot of time grinding through them meant I felt more restless than I should have. Also, just insanely ugly to look at.
PJ Masks with a Spider-Man skin. Be ready for questions about why so many of the traditionally male villains are girls now.
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