The first of three compelling yet contrasting documentary "films" I am reflecting on today is the insanely ambitious and often explosively insane Wild Wild Country, which was split into a six part mini series by Netflix, but that the creators call a 403 minute cohesive film, intended to stand as one document. It won the … Continue reading True Crime Trio #2
A brief Micro-post review and Decinemal rating of 3 recent Oscar nominated documentary features I watched. 2 of them won the Oscar and the one that didn't should have... Steven Bognar & Julia ReichartNetflix 2019 Intriguing on a political and cultural level... to a degree. I was mostly engaged, but found it cared a lot … Continue reading Documentary Feature Triple Bill
Available on Netflix since 2017, this excellent documentary from Ava DuVernay, the director of the memorable and equally impressive Selma, caught my attention for its Oscar nomination and compelling subject matter. It took me until early 2020 to watch it, based on many recommendations, but the subject matter hadn't lost any relevance or importance in … Continue reading 13th (documentary)
Way back in January 2020, not very long after rebooting The Wasteland, I wrote a post called True Crime Trio that looked at the growing interest (fuelled almost entirely by Netflix) in the obsession and phenomenon of killers and their often bizarre, sometimes not entirely straightforward, or even solved, case histories and life stories. The … Continue reading 12 of the Best… True Crime Documentaries
The phenomenon of "true crime" as entertainment is disturbing. What we are saying when we subscribe to watch these compellingly morbid shows is that, of course, we don't "enjoy" or condone the crimes themselves. But, we do increasingly expect that without the grotesque detail of primary crime scene evidence, documented visually, we can switch over … Continue reading True Crime Trio.
Documentaries, they can't be trusted, can they? There is always a purpose and a message the film-maker's have manufactured and edited to suit themselves, I find. They often leave you with more questions than answers. The best ones are open to interpretation enough to allow you in; allowing the source material to speak for itself. … Continue reading Jim & Andy
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