It happens almost every year.

This is deeply disappointing but unfortunately not surprising at all. The two best documentaries I’ve seen this year have just been screwed out of a shot at an Oscar nomination.

“Anvil! The Story of Anvil” and Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” were not picked as one of 15 films deemed eligible by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to be nominated for an Oscar.

Also left off the list was Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim’s “It Might Get Loud” starring Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White and the high-profile doc “The September Issue.” WTF?

These movies join a long and distinguished list of classic documentaries that got screwed by the Academy such as “The King of Kong,” Werner Herzog’s “Grizzly Man,” Kurt Kuenne’s “Dear Zachary,” “Hoop Dreams” (which was nominated for Best Editing),  “Crumb,” and “American Movie.”

“Soundtrack for a Revolution,” which features the Roots, the Blind Boys of Alabama, John Legend, and Wyclef Jean, however, was nominated. This is the first time I’m hearing about this movie.

By the way, “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” wasn’t released before the Oscar deadline, so it’s ineligible for the documentary category this year. Some insiders say it has a chance at the Best Picture category (which is now expanded to 10 nominees).

Here are the lucky nominees. The three most high-profile docs are in italics:

• The Beaches of Agnes
• Burma VJ
• The Cove
• Every Little Step
• Facing Ali
• Food, Inc.
• Garbage Dreams
• Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and The Pentagon Papers
• Mugabe and the White African
• Sergio
• Soundtrack for a Revolution
• Under Our Skin
• Valentino The Last Emperor
• Which Way Home

What are some of the other high-profile worst Oscar documentary snubs in history?

Tags: 2009, anvil, capitalism: a love story, documentary, included, ineligible, left, Michael, moore, not, off, oscar, screwed, shortlist, snubbed

Is “The Fourth Kind” real? Is the documentary footage shown in the film real or staged? In the wake of “Paranormal Activity,” is reality horror the new craze?

The new thriller “The Fourth Kind,” which opens with star Milla Jovovich speaking directly to the audience about the movie’s authenticity, has raised some suspicions about the credibility of its claims and supposedly “real” footage. While the jury’s still out 100 percent, it’s safe to assume that the footage used and the alien abduction story upon which the film is based are a total crock. Simply put, it’s fake.

In 2006, the Anchorage Daily News did a story on the disappearances in Nome, Alaska (the town in which the film takes place) and provided the FBI’s conclusions about them. What were those conclusions? That the winter climate and alcoholism were to blame for the disappearances of 24 people over 40 years.

Additionally, All Business‘ article on the matter states that there isn’t even any evidence to support the movie’s main character ever existed at all. The movie uses what it terms “aliases” throughout.

To further propagate the film’s cheap reliance on its dishonest tactic, Universal has released a featurette with “paranormal researcher” Marie D. Jones (embedded below), asserting that the footage used displays genuine signs of alien abductions. Sure, but that’s because that information is only available inside the brains of paranormal researchers! It’s not something that could be found independent of their guidance and replicated in a film.

With films like this and “Paranormal Activity” being widely distributed, the horror pseudo-documentaries might very well become fashionable (or, at least, profitable) again. Let’s hope there’s a change of pace and the next ones to assuredly come out are substantially more convincing.

Tags: alien abduction, documentary, fake, faked, false, fiction, fourth kind, REAL, STORY, THE FOURTH KIND, TRUE

Will Ferrell may have made a career out of playing caricatured man-child characters who don’t want to grow up, but the kind of sweetly stunted misfits who live in the real world (where you have to pay rent, get a job, and grow old) don’t quite look like Ferrell.

In the Humboldt Park area of Chicago, they look like the twenty- and thirtysomethings that populate a non-sports-league-affiliated adult kickball group where the players run to first base while trying not to spill their beer.

The stars of director Ben Steger’s new documentary “Left Field” (playing at the Kansas International Film Festival on Thursday and Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence on Saturday) are recovering drug addicts, musicians, artists, bartenders, bike mechanics, bowling alley engineers, and other barflies who never grew up to appreciate the 40-hour work week.

By glimpsing the life stories of a select number of kickballers, Steger posits that there might be more to their tight-knit community than merely suspended adolescence. Are they philosophical journeymen (and women) searching for more out of adulthood than the constricting template of getting married and raising a family? Or are they simply putting off the cold, hard slap in the face that comes with middle age?

When KC Haywood and Sarah Hart first moved from New Mexico, they were worried about meeting people in the big urban sprawl of Chicago. A friend told them to come by and check out the hard-partying kickball league she had formed. Soon the couple had their own team—the Fighting Cocks—and were crowned king and queen of the annual Kickball Prom in 2006.

There is a certain fascination in watching pure, idealistic notions get tripped up in execution, so the loosely-paced movie finds more footing as rivals and teammates start to develop their own viewpoints of what the league should be about. Good old-fashioned American competitiveness begins to trump the ironic detachment of non-athletic punk-rock adults playing a child’s game, and the league begins to mirror the dilemma of the little underground band that just got discovered by a mainstream audience.

As it attracts more teams into another season, Steger expands the film’s reach and offers up more people from all sides of the league. The conflict gives the film a bit more shape, but it also forces the original cast of characters somewhat into the background.

If this all sounds like a good idea for a short film, that’s because it was originally intended as one. But just as “Left Field” starts to feel like its spinning its wheels, a completely random tragedy strikes the group, and it’s how they react that propels the film into its elevating final act.

What may be the most telling takeaway from “Left Field” is the humanity that’s brewing just under the surface of its subjects. In interviews, the kickballers do much to celebrate their own non-conformity, but its how they come together as adults that gives the film its biggest victory.

“Left Field” shows Thursday, September 24 at 5:20pm at the Kansas International Film Festival (Glenwood Arts Theater, 9575 Metcalf) and is screening for free on Saturday, September 26th at 2:00pm at the Spencer Museum of Art (1301 Mississippi St.) in Lawrence, KS.

Tags: 2009, adult, Chicago, documentary, film, kickball, league, left field, movie, review, steger

“Capitalism: A Love Story,” Michael Moore’s new documentary, out Oct. 2, 2009.

Just got this press release from Overture Films:

(Beverly Hills, CA) July 8, 2009— “Capitalism: A Love Story” is the newly unveiled title of Oscar-winner Michael Moore’s latest documentary feature. Overture Films will release the film domestically on October 2, 2009, and Paramount Vantage will handle international distribution. As previously announced, Moore will return to the issue that began his career: the disastrous impact that corporate dominance and out-of-control profit motives have on the lives of Americans and citizens of the world.

On why he chose to make a ‘love story,’ Moore stated that it was time for him to make a ‘relationship movie.’ “It will be the perfect date movie,” said Moore. “It’s got it all — lust, passion, romance, and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day. It’s a forbidden love, one that dare not speak its name. Heck, let’s just say it: It’s Capitalism.”

Here’s a link to the teaser that ran a couple weekends ago and caused quite a commotion in theaters.

This should be interesting, I think. I wonder if it will be a complete takedown of the idea of capitalism or if it will just go after what it has become in this country. If it’s the former, Moore runs the risk of taking what could be a mass-media audience for the movie and limiting to a much smaller, niche audience (even smaller thann his niche already is). As mentioned in an earlier release about the film, “Capitalism: A Love Story” will explore the root causes of the global economic meltdown and take a comical look at the corporate and political shenanigans that culminated in what Moore has described as “the biggest robbery in the history of this country” – the massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions.

Tags: 2009, capitalism, capitalism: a love story, date, documentary, film, for, Michael, moore, movie, new, release, title, unveils

Just got this press release:

Oscar-winning filmmaker to explore ‘the wonders of capitalism’

(Beverly Hills, CA) May 21, 2009— Overture Films and Paramount Vantage have announced that Oscar-winner Michael Moore’s new documentary feature will be released domestically on October 2, 2009. The as-yet-untitled film will explore the root causes of the global economic meltdown and take a comical look at the corporate and political shenanigans that culminated in what Moore has described as “the biggest robbery in the history of this country” – the massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions.

On this, the 20-year anniversary of his masterpiece “Roger & Me,” Moore returns to the issue that began his career: the disastrous impact that corporate dominance and out-of-control profit motives have on the lives of Americans and citizens of the world. But this time the culprit is much bigger than General Motors, and the crime scene far wider than Flint, Michigan.

Says Moore: “The wealthy, at some point, decided they didn’t have enough wealth. They wanted more — a lot more. So they systematically set about to fleece the American people out of their hard-earned money. Now, why would they do this? That is what I seek to discover in this movie.”

Moore’s new documentary, his first since 2007’s widely-praised “Sicko,” was first announced by Overture and Paramount Vantage International in May 2008 at the Cannes Film Festival and production began shortly afterward.

Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett, Overture’s CEO and COO respectively, previously worked with Moore when they oversaw the release of Bowling for Columbine at MGM/United Artists.

“Everyone can relate to this subject matter and all have been affected,” said McGurk and Rosett. “We think there should be plenty of people interested in hearing Michael’s take on how exactly we got here and what we can do to move forward.”

John Lesher, President of Paramount Film Group, added, “Michael is a master at capturing the most timely and critical issues shaping our world today. His unique, thought-provoking method of filmmaking is sure to bring dynamic insights into the state of the global economy that will have mass appeal to audiences worldwide.”

The release date is a year and a day after the United States Senate voted to hand Wall Street a $700 billion bailout.

Tags: 2009, capitalism, documentary, Michael, michael moore, moore, new, october, overture, paramount, untitled

Sometime in the 1970s, rock n’ roll became big business. (If I had to place it, I’d say around the time A&M Records pushed Frampton Comes Alive to quadrillion-platinum status.) But before the corporate world really knew how to create artificial buzz and market rock music, it was the territory of dreamers, stoners, hippies, and outsiders who all had vaguely the same socio-political view.

Filmmakers Joe Heyen and Anthony Ladesich have captured that last gasp with a sweet cloud of nostalgic smoke in the documentary “Cowtown Ballroom … Sweet Jesus!” The film, which chronicles the short life of a grassroots rock venue in Kansas City, Mo. that attracted some of the country’s best talent, isn’t merely about what happened when the hippies took over the giant ballroom on 31st and Gillham from 1971 to 1974. Instead, the venue itself was kind of a local lightning rod for the changes that were sweeping the country at the time.

There’s that old saying that everything happens on the coasts first and then slowly trickles to the Midwest. What’s interesting about “Cowtown Ballroom” is that it views the small group of music fans and ill-advised entrepreneurs who opened the independent club as just as important as one would view, say, the hippies of Haight-Ashbury in 1967. Being a Kansas City native, it’s quite an eye-opener to see hastily thrown together events happening in Volker Park with thousands of kids in attendance.

In 1927, the club was known as the El Torreon Ballroom and during its run hosted jazz legends like Count Basie, Jay McShann, and Cab Calloway. It was the only integrated club in town—a place where black musicians performed regularly for white audiences. B.B. King, who would play for a mostly white audience at the Cowtown some 45 years later, recollects being young and stoned out of his mind listening to the sweet music coming out of Kansas City until the wee hours of the morning. But that’s another story—one briefly touched on just enough to give us some historical context.

The movie is more about the scene than it is any one building, and apparently it was an exciting time in Kansas City too. Cowtown founder Stan Plesser ran a coffeeshop called the Vanguard in the late 1960s and came in contact with Kansas City transplants Danny Cox and Brewer & Shipley (who had a hit with the pot-smoking anthem “One Toke Over the Line”). He formed Good Karma Productions to manage the acts and once the Cowtown Ballroom was in full swing, Good Karma was signing and supporting local artists like the Springfield, Mo.-based Ozark Mountain Daredevils as well.

The Cowtown Ballroom’s highlight reel also includes the production of one of the first ever concert series broadcast live on the radio. Stories about the “Live at Cowtown” recordings, as related by the engineers who were behind them, reveal a charming naiveté—they may not have known what they were doing, but that wasn’t going to stop them. By all accounts, though, the quality of the recordings was great.

The production value for “Cowtown Ballroom … Sweet Jesus!” is top notch, featuring none of the amateurish lighting, motion graphics, or cinematography that mars other low-budget documentaries. Ladesich’s editing is spot-on too, and covers a lot of ground, cramming in a crap-ton of music and vintage photographs in a short amount of time (about 80 minutes). Visually and sonically, “Cowtown” manages to capture much of the era’s freewheeling atmosphere—a wonder considering the filmmakers never found the supposed treasure trove of old sound recordings that led them down this path to begin with.

It’s hard telling a sweeping story without one or two main characters to really latch onto, and even harder when there isn’t one central conflict or defining moment. Still, thanks in part to the huge breadth of interviews that were conducted for this movie, director Heyen and editor Ladesich score their biggest win by making a bygone era—when music and ideas changed culture and mattered more than money—“come alive” again.

(Apologies for the bad Frampton pun.)

“Cowtown Ballroom … Sweet Jesus” has a two-week engagement at the Tivoli Cinemas in Westport Manor Square starting Friday, May 22.

Tags: Anthony Ladesich, brewer, Cowtown Ballroom, documentary, el, jazz, Joe Heyen, kansas city, movie, rock, shipley, Sweet Jesus, torreon

“Best Worst Movie” is the documentary about the phenomenon of “Troll 2,” widely regarded as the worst movie ever made. Eric caught up with director Michael Paul Stephenson, star George Hardy, and Zack Carlson from Austin, Texas’ Alamo Drafthouse at the world premiere of “Best Worst Movie” at SXSW 2009. This in-depth interview was recorded directly after the premiere, just as George Hardy and Zack Carlson had seen the film for the first time. “Best Worst Movie” is currently making the rounds at film festivals across the country, and there are plenty of clips from both “Best Worst Movie” and the cult classic that spawned it, “Troll 2,” in this video. Learn more about “Troll 2” director Claudio Fragasso and his feelings about how “Troll 2” has been received and hear about a trip to mysterious “Troll 2” star Margo Prey’s house in this interview as well. Nilbog fanatics unite! “Best Worst Movie” is currently playing at film festivals everywhere.

Read Eric’s original journal entry about “Best Worst Movie” from SXSW 2009 here.

Tags: 2, 2009, Alamo, austin, best, Best Worst Movie, clips, documentary, drafthouse, george, hardy, interview, Michael, movie, paul, premiere, Stephenson, SXSW, Texas, troll, Troll 2, Worst

2/12 UPDATE post with more video here– Phoenix on Letterman, rap performance

OK, I don’t know if the little amount of text I’m actually going to write for this blog justifies its own entry, but this is just too bizarre.

You read the headline correctly. Casey Affleck is directing a documentary that follows Joaquin Phoenix’s self-imposed retirement from acting to pursue a career as a rapper. Today in Las Vegas, Phoenix is making his debut performance as a rap singer. Affleck’s cameras sart rolling today. Sean “Diddy” Combs will reportedly produce the documentary.

What I can’t tell is if this is a joke or not. It could be the most elaborate put-on in the short history of the mockumentary genre. If Phoenix played a rapper like Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat, everybody would recognize him and know it’s a joke. But if the actor plays himself pretending to want to be a rapper, everyone is forced to believe it and the illusion can then be successfully mined for laughs. It could be an Andy Kaufman-style hoax; one that Phoenix has been working on since he announced his retirement back in October.

Even in this video where he announces his retirement, it kinda looks like Affleck and Phoenix are acting for the camera. The interviewer doesn’t even believe him. Could be a set-up for the movie!

Andy Kaufman’s wrestling antics were all pre-planned hoaxes. See him on “Letterman” above.

It has to be a hoax for the sake of a funny movie, because otherwise why would Affleck think that this is anything worth filming? If it is for real, and it’s a disaster (and Affleck is counting on this for his movie), then he’s going to mine Phoenix’s misery, and that wouldn’t be cool for two friends. (Casey is married to Joaquin’s sister Summer Phoenix.)

Then, there is the other possibility: Joaquin Phoenix, the man who earned an Oscar nomination playing Johnny Cash (and singing his songs in the movie), is a bad-ass, talented rap artist. It’s just that nobody knows it yet. Wow. Really?

UPDATE: Here is video of Phoenix’s performance in Vegas, which seems to confirm my suspicions. You heard it here. I called it first! Not sure what they were thinking; it’s too hard to get away with hoaxes like this if you’re also using your celebrity. That’s why Sacha Baron Cohen is in disguise. Kaufman did it, I suppose, but his stuff was slightly more in character for what people expected of him than Phoenix rapping. Also, media was not nearly as advanced and immediate in the 80s.

Tags: album, career, casey Affleck, chronicling, direct, documentary, hoax, Joaquin Phoenix, mockumentary, music, rap, rapper, release, singer, to

Well, the short list for Oscar Documentary nominations has been released. Last year, the committee snubbed the best doc of the 2007, “The King of Kong.” This year, one of the biggest non-fiction films of the year, “Young@Heart,” was declared ineligible for a nomination because it was shown on TV first. Also, Alex Gibney’s “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson” and Larry Charles’ “Religulous,” starring Bill Maher, is notably absent from this list.

It’s always something with those guys.

Anyway, here’s the list of eligible films. “Man on Wire,”  (above) one of my favorite movies of the year so far, is probably considered a frontrunner. And, even though his highly-acclaimed “Grizzly Man” was snubbed in 2005, Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World” (also pictured) should also make it in. Also notable: the esteemed Errol Morris’ “Standard Operating Procedure,” which came and went so fast this Spring, I didn’t even get a chance to see it.

These 15 films will be voted on in order to narrow the field down to five Oscar nominations in the Documentary category. Last year’s winner was Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark Side,” which was viewed as somewhat of an upset over Michael Moore’s “Sicko.”

“At the Death House Door”
“The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)”
“Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh”
“Encounters at the End of the World”
“Fuel”
“The Garden”
“Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts”
“I.O.U.S.A.”
“In a Dream”
“Made in America”
“Man on Wire”
“Pray the Devil Back to Hell”
“Standard Operating Procedure”
“They Killed Sister Dorothy”
“Trouble the Water”

Tags: 2008, announced, documentary, encounters, for, gonzo, list, man, nominations, oscar, released, Short, shortlist, standard, wire

Martin Scorsese already has one definitive rock concert film under his belt, and with his new Rolling Stones documentary “Shine A Light,” which chronicles the legendary band’s two-night stand at New York’s Beacon Theater, he delivers another.

“Shine A Light” actually provides the perfect bookend to 1978’s “The Last Waltz”—a movie that featured The Band performing at the top of their game with a bevy of guest musicians (including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan) after an almost ten-year career. “Shine A Light,” on the other hand, spotlights the timeless nature of the Rolling Stones’ music and performance, and also succeeds as a poignant rumination on growing old. If you looked up the word “stamina” in the dictionary, there should be a still shot of the Stones from this movie to illustrate it.

What Scorsese was so successful with in “The Last Waltz” was capturing those small onstage moments between performers—the knowing looks, a flash of a smile, one musician giving another a cue—that make each night special. Thank God he persuaded Stones frontman Mick Jagger not to shoot their enormous record-breaking show on the beach at Rio de Janeiro in 2006. By bringing the nearly untouchable band to a smaller-sized venue, he brings the all-important connection between audience and band to the forefront.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that Jagger doesn’t still strut the stage like a royal peacock with his head held high, presiding over his subjects. It just means that the 18 cameras Scorsese and his award-winning team of cinematographers employed to cover every angle of the event have captured tons of little personal moments and blown them up to IMAX-size proportions. When Jagger comes to the front of the stage early in the film, a man pulls out his cell phone to snap a more intimate stage photo than anyone from a Stones concert has gotten in a long time and the camera frames the shot so beautifully from behind the fan, you can just picture the joy on his face and almost see Jagger’s image in the tiny screen.

Drummer Charlie Watts, who is shown in vintage interview footage still unsure of what his place in the band is, still looks like he’s in on some joke we’re not privy to. Either that or he’s still marveling at his lead singer’s voracious energy night in and night out with that sly grin of his. Guitarist Keith Richards has enough ramshackle charm for the whole band, and when he’s not sloppily banging away at his instrument, he’s leaning down to place a guitar pick right in the palm of a fan’s hand. And guitarist Ron Wood comes across as the band’s reliable workhorse, pulling off tight, energetic blues licks throughout the set.

“Shine A Light” is a perfect snapshot in time. The cultural significance of the band cannot truly be measured, so it isn’t surprising to learn that one of the shows was a 60th birthday bash and charity fundraiser for President Bill Clinton. Scorsese doesn’t try to obscure this fact—rather, he lets the band’s polite meet-and-greet with the famous Clinton clan frame the evening. It’s just another day for the world’s biggest rock band, who will go on to sing about smoking pot and having sex with young girls. Unfortunately, this also means that the crowd in attendance was no normal group of working-class Stones fans. Tickets for the Clinton crowd reportedly cost at least $5,000.

To remedy that situation, the group posted on a Stones Internet message board asking for trendy, sexy, hip-looking fans to be paid seventy-five dollars to be in the front section. Finding this out later in a New Yorker article made sense because I kept thinking during the movie that there were a lot of hot young women in that crowd, and many of them were suspiciously in the front row. Oh, the artifice of documentaries! Regardless, it’s a good cinematic choice—nobody wants to see Jagger swinging his hips in front of Grandma, even if he is age-appropriate (he was 63 at the time of filming).

Like “The Last Waltz,” there are several special guests in “Shine A Light.” Current rock god Jack White’s fanboy glee at sharing vocal and guitar duties with Jagger on “Loving Cup” barely outmatches his palpable nervousness at sharing the stage with his idols. Buddy Guy trades blues licks with Wood and Richards on an old Muddy waters tune called Champagne & Reefer,” and Christina Aguilera (who looks great and keeps the “American Idol”-style vocal gymnastics to a minimum) duets with Jagger on “Live With Me,” from 1969’s seminal “Let it Bleed” album.

The set list is a rather unusual one for a band with more than one double greatest hits collection, but it works well because it feels fresh—the band is truly in the moment. Less than half of the 19 songs featured are big hits, and five of them are from 1978’s “Some Girls” record. The band’s “A Bigger Bang” tour that year found them pulling out all kinds of obscurities they hadn’t played live in a long while, and many of those are in “Shine A Light,” including “She Was Hot” from 1983’s “Undercover” and “Far Away Eyes” from “Some Girls.”

Scorsese returns to the theme of aging by presenting interview after interview through five different decades during the live set’s in-between song breaks. It’s a lighthearted look at people who’ve been asking the band when they’d hang it up almost since their inception. Richards says in one interview that he doesn’t know why they keep going, but Scorsese answers the question more directly when he cuts back to more ferocious concert footage.

Seeing the movie in IMAX is a fantastic experience. The soundtrack is alive—it’s mixed to accentuate whatever close-up is being shown at the time, and Scorsese’s crack camera team has captured every possible angle to put you right there in the 2,800-seat theater. “Shine A Light” is a testament to the rejuvenating power of rock n’ roll and further prove that it will never die.

Tags: Beacon Theater, Buddy Guy, Christina Aguilera, documentary, Jack White, Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger, rolling stones, Shine A Light movie review