The Green Wave Movie Review
Title: The Green Wave Director: Ali Samadi Ahadi A striking and powerful documentary overview of the populist protests that rocked Iran in June 2009 and helped spark the so-called Arab…
Craigslist Joe Movie Review
Title: Craigslist Joe Director: Joseph Garner A generally agreeable but perhaps hopelessly meandering documentary snapshot of one young guy’s attempt to hit the road for 31 days and live off…
Walk Away Renee Movie Review
Title: Walk Away Renee Director: Jonathan Caouette In 2004 Jonathan Caouette made a film, “Tarnation,” about his tumultuous upbringing with his maternal grandparents and fractured, on-and-off-again relationship with his disturbed…
Big Boys Gone Bananas!* Movie Review
Title: Big Boys Gone Bananas!* Director: Fredrik Gertten In 2009, Swedish documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten’s “Bananas!*” was just one of more than a dozen nonfiction competition entries in the Los…
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry Movie Review
Title: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry Director: Alison Klayman A compelling documentary that explodes proper and stuffy notions of what a foreign intellectual dissident looks and sounds like, “Ai Weiwei: Never…
Searching for Sugar Man Movie Review
Title: Searching for Sugar Man Director: Malik Bendjelloul Winner of jury and audience prizes at both the Sundance and Los Angeles Film Festivals, Malik Bendjelloul’s “Searching for Sugar Man” is…
Exclusive: Director Alison Klayman Talks Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
The runner-up for Time Magazine’s 2011 “Person of the Year,” Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei was named by “ArtReview” as the most powerful artist in the world. Weiwei rose to international…
DVD Review: Comic-Con Episode IV, Adventure Time and Chicago in Chicago
Smartly timed to coincide on DVD with this year’s just-wrapped convention, the laboriously titled “Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope” shines a nonfiction spotlight on the crazed, annual fanboy gathering…
China Heavyweight Movie Review
Title: China Heavyweight Director: Yung Chang Award-winning filmmaker Yung Chang drew praise for 2007’s “Up the Yangtze,” which focused on the many socioeconomically disadvantaged people impacted by the building of…