Film & Documentary
June 10, 2022 • View in browser
What Documentaries to Catch at This Year’s Tribeca Film Festival
This year’s iteration includes titles about AOC, the making of movie sex scenes, and what’s happened to the “stars” of older documentaries. | Dan Schindel
There are biographies of musicians ranging from Sinéad O’Connor to Lil Baby, sports figures like Colin Kaepernick and Derek Jeter, and activists and politicians including Al Sharpton, Rosa Parks, and Rudy Giuliani (in the form of a musical, of all things). Dreaming Walls, a document of the torturous renovation of the Chelsea Hotel, makes its NYC debut at the festival as well. Beyond such immediately and easily pitchable titles, there are a few others one should not overlook at Tribeca.
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(BODY) HORROR
David Cronenberg Creates a World Where “Surgery is the New Sex”
Starring Léa Seydoux, Viggo Mortensen, and Kristen Stewart, Crimes of the Future is funny, serious, and sexy all at once. | Sophie Monks Kaufman
David Cronenberg understands that for voyeurs — aka cinema audiences — arousal is not stimulated by seeing sex acts so much as it is from seeing their participants’ pleasure. In Crimes of the Future, his first feature in eight years, half-closed eyes, low moans, and arched backs are as integral to his vision as shots of metal tools piercing and pulling apart flesh.
Mad God Is a Descent Into Hell, in the Best Way Possible
Made over the course of 30 years by special effects legend Phil Tippett, this stop-motion animated epic is a feast of creatively horrifying imagery. | Dan Schindel
DOCUMENTARIES THAT DIG DEEPER
A Timely Documentary Revisits the Time When Abortion Was Illegal
The Janes interviews former members of Chicago’s underground network that helped people secure abortions. | Dan Schindel
The conservative assault on reproductive rights has been waged for decades now, and a film like The Janes exists to remind pro-choice activists of the stakes in this battle, looking back at the time when abortion was illegal.
A Frightening Doc About the NYC Subway
End of the Line captures five years of failed efforts to fix the city’s disastrously bad train infrastructure. | Dan Schindel
ON MUSIC AND ART
Kelly Reichardt Probes What Keeps Artists from Doing Work
Her recent film Showing Up features Michelle Williams as a sculptor who’s constantly driven to distraction. | Sophie Monks Kaufman
In 2017, the Paris Review published a piece by Claire Dederer called “What do we do with the art of monstrous men?” With her new film Showing Up, which just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, director Kelly Reichardt asks: What if you’re not a monster, and show up for the people in your life while still trying to be creative?
The World of Music Video Is Finally Adopting Restoration Efforts
As videos shot on film get refurbished for the digital age, we’re discovering more and more fascinating artifacts in the original materials. | Andrew Northrop
