The Harvey Milk biopic,
Milk, opens this week with Sean Penn portraying the country's first openly gay man to be elected to public office. Long before Milk, however, there was another movie made about Harvey Milk: the riveting and Oscar-winning documentary
The Times of Harvey Milk.
Certainly the dramatized versions of peoples' lives can be more entertaining than a straight documentary about them, but with biopics I sometimes find myself distracted by wondering whether particular parts of the movie are real or fudged a little.
Remember when the documentary about the two friends who decide to travel from
Seattle to Boston at 10 MPH by using a segway? Well fast forward a year and a half later, and the movie
10 mph is not only complete, but it's available for your viewing pleasure, for free, on YouTube. Not only is it entertaining to watch a guy with a stand-up scooter go across the country, but the best part is watching the craziness that ensues along the way.
Do you ever wonder what politicians — especially presidential candidates — were like as kids? I do. So I'm fascinated by this trailer for the documentary
Frontrunners, which follows the student election at a prestigious New York public high school (a place where kids have to apply to get in and of those that apply only three percent are accepted).
With words filled with sentiment and pride,
Valentino stated, “Unfortunately, I’m very emotional and sensitive. I’m a human being and I’ve always loved my work."
After filming for two years, Valentino revealed his 90-minute documentary,
Valentino: The Last Emperor, at the
Venice Film Festival.
Back at
Sundance, the documentary
The Black List, Vol. 1 was
getting glowing praise from all those who were lucky enough to make it into a screening. HBO had already nabbed the rights to show the film, and tonight, it makes its broadcast premiere.
The documentary
Trouble the Water was the winner of
the Grand Jury Prize at the
2008 Sundance Film Festival, and the buzz around this movie has continued to build from there. The film centers around Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her boyfriend who were trapped in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. Roberts videotaped the the entire ordeal, which was, as you might imagine, horrifying.
Did you grow up in a place with a
Showbiz Pizza? I missed this phenomenon (mine was a Chuck-E-Cheese's kind of town), but my boyfriend was raised on Showbiz and its animatronic band, the Rock-afire Explosion. Made up of a singing gorilla, a bass-playing bear, and
many other lovable if slightly creepy characters, the band would sing rock and country hits of the '80s and earlier (plus, of course, "Happy Birthday" to the many kids who celebrated there).
Here's your first glance at
Beautiful Losers – a documentary about a loose-knit group of young American artists and creative types who started out in the early 1990s.
Influenced by popular underground youth subcultures, like skateboarding, graffiti, street fashion and independent music, artists like Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Harmony Korine, Shepard Fairey, Mark Gonzales, Spike Jonze and Ed Templeton started to create art that reflected their lifestyles.
It's out in the US this month, with no release set yet for the UK, but I had to share it with you as I think it looks fascinating.
When I saw the documentary
American Teen at
Sundance this year, I was totally wowed, and I knew I was watching something special. It's truly one of the most insightful documentaries on American life to come out in years. The film is in select theaters now, and I highly recommend you check it out.
Hunter S. Thompson isn't always associated with terms like "brilliant writer" or "inventor of gonzo journalism" or even "patriot." By the time his famous work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was adapted for film in 1998, he was becoming a caricature and a symbol of a bygone era.
