Documentaries (3 Viewers)

jbutler said:
As I said when giving a brief, very positive verdict on the film in the movies thread, I saw Weiner this weekend.


The first truly great political documentary was Primary about the 1960 Wisconsin primary fight between Humphrey and Kennedy. Then there was The War Room about Clinton's 1992 campaign. And then Street Fight about Cory Booker's 2002 campaign for Mayor of Newark. Weiner is good enough to challenge any one of those films to break into that top three and could be a contender for the best campaign documentary of all time.

Cliff's notes for anyone unaware of the basics: Anthony Weiner was a Democratic congressman representing a Brooklyn district in the House from 1999 through 2011 when he resigned following a sexting scandal. Two years later he ran for mayor of NYC. A former congressional staffer had since transitioned into documentary filmmaking and was allowed to follow his campaign which looked to be poised to be a comeback. During the campaign - and during filming - a second "scandal" broke wherein it was discovered his sexting had continued long after he had claimed he had ceased having such contact with women other than his wife, Huma Abedin, who, to add even more allure, was a senior aide to Hillary Clinton. She and Hillary were so close that Bill Clinton had officiated Anthony and Huma's wedding.

A lot of the questions that arise in the film are the kind asked in our thread here wondering how deeply flawed a person can be before he loses our respect in his professional endeavors. My tendency has long been to not care at all about what goes on in one's personal life if he or she is capable in their chosen profession and this film only solidifies my opinion. To my mind we lost one of the most promising, most effective, most charismatic liberal politicians, so of course I would lament the loss. But so many people who otherwise supported him seemed genuinely outraged by his behavior which, to me, is perplexing.

This on the heels of losing another extraordinarily gifted liberal politician - Elliot Spitzer - to a sex scandal. Of course, the facts there were quite different. Spitzer had actually slept with other women and it appears he used public funds to support his travel to do so. So the two scenarios are by no means equivalent. Weiner's is almost certainly the most minor misdemeanor compared to Spitzer's felony. But nonetheless we've lost two of this generations most promising liberal politicians to sex scandals, which I find truly pathetic. (Spitzer's also resulted in a documentary which, while good, was nothing compared to Weiner)

But back to the movie. It presents Anthony Weiner in all his hedging glory. Even after the second set of revelations, he can't seem to just be straight with his own staff. It's unclear if he was ever completely open to his wife during this period, but he admits that during the initial scandal he kept her in the dark simultaneously with the rest of the world. A lot of the coverage at the time was focused on what he was doing to Huma with his acting out and while she is not nearly as open with the filmmakers as Anthony, you end up psychoanalyzing every expression and every piece of body language in the film no matter how hard you might try not to.

It seems clear that his problem is that he doesn't know when to call it a day. When a man in a deli insults him, he refuses to let it go and ends up making things ten times worse for himself. He makes himself look like a petulant jerk on Lawrence O'Donnell. He confirms our suspicions by laughing as he watches the appearance and tries to seek Huma's input.

To his credit, Anthony never asks for our sympathy or tries to act as if he doesn't deserve our judgment even if we (well, at least I) might think he doesn't. He plows on. During an appearance on City Island he goes into a room of critics and, in response to a loaded question, turns them all around to supporters by the time he leaves. These scenes are the ones that really broke my heart. A gifted, passionate politician who has been forced from his work because he sent some women some pictures of his dick. No women alleged the pictures were unwanted by them. No women alleged he had tried to have any physical contact. No women alleged that their interaction with him was anything but positive. But because we as a society are intent on treating sex like we're all under the watchful eye of our Sunday school teacher.
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Weiner expanded (I'll wait while you finish guffawing) into additional cities this week so if you're looking for something it doesn't get much better than this.
 
Sam Dunn's A headbangers journey is worth a watch.
 
I also just watched spymasters on showtime. Very interesting show.
 

Give it a watch. Thought it was pretty good. Didnt know how he started but great stories in this one.
 
Just last week I watched "Sound City". It's narrated/produced/directed by Dave Grohl. It tells the story of a little, run down recording studio in the San Fernando Valley. They had a piece of equipment called a Neve console which did an incredible job of capturing all sound but especially drums and voices. Many big names have gone through there like Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Rick Springfield just to name a few. They tell their stories and are just so interesting.

I think Dave did a great job with this. Hopefully I've peaked your interest because I think it's worth checking out.
 
PAZ said:
Just last week I watched "Sound City". It's narrated/produced/directed by Dave Grohl. It tells the story of a little, run down recording studio in the San Fernando Valley. They had a piece of equipment called a Neve console which did an incredible job of capturing all sound but especially drums and voices. Many big names have gone through there like Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Rick Springfield just to name a few. They tell their stories and are just so interesting.

I think Dave did a great job with this. Hopefully I've peaked your interest because I think it's worth checking out.
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This one has been on my list for a while. If I'm not mistaken Dave bought the console and that's what inspired the documentary?

I have a friend with a few Chanel's of neve preamps. They sound amazing, and are quite pricey. I can't imagine how much a full console would run these days.

Do you remember how big the console was? 32 channels? Bigger? Did it have the flying faders? Should I just shut up and start watching?
 
Yes, it's at Dave's studio now. I believe it was only 28 channels and I don't recall the flying faders. It was on MTV the other night, they played it a few times early and late that evening.
 
Chicken Rob said:
Wow. Was that staged? That was awesome.
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100% staged of course but doesn't change the fact I would love to play with Daniel sometime. A lot of people make the "fake" argument about him like he's putting on an act that just plays to the cameras, I don't care one bit, he seems like he would make for a very fun game. Phil Mickelson gets the same shit in golf, some people haaaaaaate him because they think his smile and playing to the crowd is fake, I say I don't really care if he starts frowning when he gets in his car and drives away because when he was out on the course or in public he made a ton of peoples days with his waves, smiles, and jokes. I'm all for "stars" being fake if it means 99.9% of the people they encounter leave with a good experience after meeting or seeing someone they admire.


Other topic, and it may have been mentioned already, but has anyone seen Sugar Coated? Terrifying, as is most stuff about our "food", makes me feel incredibly stupid for how I eat. It's almost like I'm a smoker and people are shoving health information into my face and I just ash onto the reports while lighting another...I definitely watched Sugar Coated while eating some Papa Johns Pizza. :(

 
tommythecat said:
It's been up for a little while now, but I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Marc Maron had Flea and Trujillo on WTF to talk about Jaco and making the doc if you are interested.
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I've heard it. I'm a big WTF fan too. Thanks for the heads up though.
 
tommythecat said:
It's been up for a little while now, but I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Marc Maron had Flea and Trujillo on WTF to talk about Jaco and making the doc if you are interested.
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It may have been up but I just noticed it tonight. I just took a mid movie bathroom break, and checked in here. So far it's quite good.
 
If anyone else is a tennis player/lover, there's a documentary film called "The French (1981)", with tons of behind-the-scenes footage of (you guessed it!) the 1981 French Open. It's available on YouTube, or in DVD form from Amazon.
 
I found "The Fog of War" fascinating. It is an Errol Morris documentary on Robert McNamara - Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson. He was part of the decision making leadership during the Cuban missile crisis and the Viet Nam War.

It's chilling to hear him say that it was dumb luck that we avoided nuclear war.

 
BukNaked36 said:
I found "The Fog of War" fascinating. It is an Errol Morris documentary on Robert McNamara - Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson. He was part of the decision making leadership during the Cuban missile crisis and the Viet Nam War.

It's chilling to hear him say that it was dumb luck that we avoided nuclear war.

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Very good one. I love all of Errol Morris's stuff, but if you're particularly drawn to The Fog Of War, you might also like The Unknown Known which include Morris's interviews of Donald Rumsfeld.

It's hard to compete with the Cuban missile crisis, but it's pretty compelling nonetheless.

 
abby99 said:
FWIW, I enjoyed Kid Poker. If I had the opportunity to play with one pro at the table, I would choose DN. I'm sure I'd lose, but I'd be in stitches the entire time.
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I watched it last week and thought it was ok. B- or C in my book. It was amazing they review the poker boom but Moneymaker isn't mentioned. Was cool to learn more of Daniel's bio though.
 
I consider myself very open minded And accepting, but I just watched Animism, a 53 min doc on Netflix. I'm finding it hard to relate to these people.
 
If you're into old rock, "Twenty Feet from Stardom", about the back-up singers of the 50's on.

Addition: Though if you look at IMDB and read the comments, apparently Darlene Love claimed credits that were totally false.

Who knew Cher sang back-up on Doo Wa Diddy Diddy? :eek:
 
Last edited:
Just reconnected with a college friend on Facebook. Turns out he was a producer on Jodorowsky's Dune.

He did another documentary called 24 by 36:


Looking forward to tracking this down.
 
I'm not much into music docs, but I do love a good true crime story. The one on the Central Park Five from a few years back is a pretty good one. I think you have to pay to watch on YouTube, but it's worth the few bucks.



Do any of you know about the Hillborough disaster from English soccer? in 1989, almost a hundred people died in a soccer stadium. There are quite a few documentaries about it, but surprisingly, the ESPN 30-for-30 is the best I've seen. Again, a few dollars on YouTube. Well worth the $3.

 

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