Every Movie I?ve Ever Seen Ranked (You Won?t Believe What?s #4081!)

Sorry for the clickbaitastic headline, and as you might?ve guessed I?m not going to really rank every movie I?ve ever seen (but if you?re wondering what #4081 is ? it?s John Schlesinger?s PACIFIC HEIGHTS, pictured above, which is a solid #4081). I just wanted to call out those ever so prevalent pop culture lists that rank every Tarantino movie, or Beatles song, or Seinfeld episode from worst to best. Like these*: 

All 49 Marvel Movies Ranked, Including ?Black Panther? 

Every Best Picture Oscar Winner, Ranked: How All 90 Movies Stack Up 

Every James Bond Movie Ranked from Worst to Best (also The Best James Bond Actors, Ranked, Ranking: James Bond Theme Songs From Worst to Best, etc) 

All X-Files Episodes, Ranked Best to Worst (this one is actually from a site called ranker.com)The Complete Works: Ranking All 374 Rolling Stones Songs 

* I?m not linking to any of these, so you are are your own finding these if you want.

Now, I?m not against lists - I?ve posted plenty of them on this blog - I just don?t like it where there?s dozens and dozens of entries of whatever pop culture thing as they aren?t very useful. I mean, if you rank the Beatles? studio albums, there?s only like a dozen of them so somebody approaching their catalog might benefit from the recommendations of ?Revolver? or ?Sgt. Pepper? or whatever records are high on the list, but what good does it do anybody to know that Vulture.com thinks that ?Rocky Raccoon? from ?The While Album? is #166 out of #213? 

Now, I know some people like these lists, and find them fun enough to share and argue about, etc. but I usually skip them. The ones I do click on, I just skim them quickly and move on. I find Top 10 lists, or 20 at the most, to be more useful. 

The lists I get most annoyed by are the ones that basically say ?hey, that thing you like sucks? like these: 

12 Movies You Probably Love That Are Overrated, According To Reddit 

15 Overrated Movies Everyone Pretends To Love 

5 Recent Movies That Got Way More Praise Than They Deserved 

I particularly don?t like the word ?overrated? because to me it means: I hate this thing that everyone likes, and they?re wrong (underrated being the obvious opposite: I love this thing that everyone hates, and they?re wrong). 

Yeah, I know that the words ?overrated? and ?underrated? are ubiquitous in our culture, and aren?t going away any time soon, but I don?t use them on my blog because I find them to be meaningless.

One strong case against them is that President Trump uses the word ?overrated? a lot ? he?s used it to insult former President Barack Obama (no surprise there), Meryl Streep, Jerry Seinfeld, Megyn Kelley, the musical Hamilton, and politicians in general (again, no surprise). I don?t think he?s ever said that anything or anyone is ?underrated,? because he probably doesn?t know that word. 

Lately, I have been trying to not be on social media too much as I get really annoyed by these things, and stuff like long lists that have slideshows so they can fit in more ads, but I?m not going to get started on those. 

This concludes my rant. Stay tuned for coverage of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival that kicks off this Thursday, April 5, and for reviews of upcoming films like Wes Anderson?s * ISLE OF DOGS, and the roster of highly anticipated summer films around the corner. 

* A filmmaker who is often considered overrated.

More later?

A Sneak Peek Of The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Opening Soon In Raleigh

Today I was among a group of local media folks who were invited to check out the new Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, which is opening later this month on New Bern Avenue, in Raleigh. 

The announcement on the invite succinctly stated, ?Alamo has a rabid cult following within the film community and Raleigh locals campaigned for years for this to be the first NC location (the 29th for the Austin, TX based company).?

Being a big film fan, and film theater fan, I?ve been very aware of the Alamo?s reputation for a long time so I was really looking forward to seeing the 11-screen complex, and it didn?t disappoint. 

Check out some pictures (click on them for larger images):

A long bar with over 40 local draft beers on tap!

Movie soundtracks on vinyl! 

Big ass replicas of VHS tape covers!

Cool VHS tape tables that play VHS tapes!

The VHS tape imagery highlights the most surprising feature of this Alamo location: Video Vortex, a video store that will rent DVDs, Blu-rays, and rare VHS titles, many of which have never made the transfer to DVD. If you don?t have a VCR, or DVD or Blu ray player, they?ll rent that to you too. And here?s the kicker: the rentals are free. 

Here?s Video Vortex manager Josh Schafer showing off some of the Alamo?s enormous VHS collection:

And here?s some of the Alamo?s vast inventory of DVDs and Blu rays (the horror section to be exact):

I chatted with Alamo founder/CEO Tim League about the idea of offering free movie rentals, and he said it was an experimental concept, and that there will still be late fees as ?half the revenue of a video store is late fees.? 

League went on to say that the video store is a ?Re-imagining of it. We?ve got the retail and the bar - I'm thinking that this would be a cool place where you?d just want to hang out - you're surrounded by movies, we've got movie fans coming in and out so maybe you'd make an impulse buy or rent.? 

We also got a treat in seeing the first by invite presentation of this Alamo's 35 mm system via a vintage trailer for SECRET OF MAGIC ISLAND, which League said was one of his all-time favorite trailers.

So that was my first visit of what I bet will be many to the Raleigh's new venue/hang out spot, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Thanks to the fine people who invited me to see it, and were so nice to meet and chat with. Oh, and the food they served us was great too. Here's a picture of some of it:

As to when exactly the theater is opening, nobody specified a date but I was told that they will be up and running when AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR comes out on April 26.

More later...

ISLE OF DOGS: A Bit Mechanical But Not Without Its Charms

Opening this evening at an indie art house near me:

ISLE OF DOGS (Dir. Wes Anderson, 2018)

In more than one interview, Wes Anderson has specified that his latest stop motion animated film (his second following 2009?s THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX) was largely influenced by legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, and in a very Wes Andersony twist, those classic Rankin Bass Christmas specials like ?Rudolph the Red Nosed Reigndeer.?

It?s a suitably quirky combination for the suitably quirky writer/director/producer, and for the most part it works, but I couldn?t help from thinking that the execution of ISLE OF DOGS is a bit too mechanical to really take hold.

That?s not saying I didn?t enjoy a great deal of the film as it?s well made, has a rich voice cast, pleasing visuals, and some amusing ideas. And I know that the criticism ?too mechanical? is an odd one to make as the machinery of Anderson?s style has been detectable from the beginning of his career in BOTTLE ROCKET, but I still found too many beats to be predictable, too many times that gags felt forced, and too many moments that were supposed to be emotional (I think) that made me think ?meh.?

The narrative, which is set in Japan 20 years in the future, concerns a 12-year old named Atari Kobayashi (voiced by Koyu Rankin) who travels to Trash Island, where all of the country?s dogs have been banished because of a canine flu virus, to find his lost dog Spots.

Atari is helped in his quest by five mangy dogs: Rex (Edward Norton), King (Bob Balaban), Duke (Jeff Goldblum), Boss (Bill Murray, and Chief (Bryan Cranston). You see, an opening title tells us

Cranston?s Chief is the most dominant dog, and has the most interesting back story as he scoffs at the formerly domesticated others as he?s a stray saying things like ?You're talking like a bunch of housebroken?pets.?

Meanwhile, in subplot B, Greta Gerwig voices a pro-dog American exchange student Tracy Walker, who has a crush on Atari and leads a campaign against his evil uncle, Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura), whilst finding out from Assistant Scientist Yoko Ono (voiced by Yoko Ono ? that?s right) that a cure has been suppressed by the dog hating Mayor.

You got that? Well, it doesn?t matter as Anderson treats all these plot points so nonchalantly that they hold very little weight. I mean, that?s fine ? everyone hits their marks, melancholy music plays, and it?s all played for maximum cuteness. If you?re a hardcore Wes Anderson fan, I bet this will be like the cinematic equivalent of crack cocaine, but being a more casual fan (I?ve only RUSHMORE once!), it was a pleasant but unremarkable experience. It felt like a great production design, and cast looking for a great movie.

But whatever your stance ? don?t go see it for its cast. Sure, one of the most striking things in the trailers, posters, etc. is the sheer amount of its star power ? Cranston, Norton, Murray, Goldblum, Frances McDormand, Liev Schreiber, Harvey Keitel, Scarlett Johanssen, Tilda Swinton, Angelica Huston, and Fisher Stevens as Scrap (I so want that to be the new ?and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver?) ? but beyond Cranston, Gerwig, Norton and a few others, most of these famous folks don?t make much of a mark. I can?t remember a single moment that Murray owned, and I bet Johanssen recorded her lines in less than 10 minutes.

Although it felt a bit off to me, ISLE OF DOGS is not without its charms. The attention to detail (one of Anderson?s strengths) in the animation is superbly presented (despite how dire the landscape of Trash Island), and there?s some earned warmth between a few of the characters. I also loved how there were clouds of flailing limbs popping in and out when the dogs fought like in old cartoons.

It has come under some fire for criticisms of its appropriation of Japanese culture, but it never struck me as being anything but a respectful homage - except for the fact that Japanese-speaking characters aren't given subtitles while a opening disclaimer tells us that all of the dog?s ?barks have been rendered into English.?

So his second stab at stop motion animation isn?t as funny, poignant, or memorable as his first, THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX, but Anderson has yet again succeeded in making something that nobody can do as well: make another Wes Anderson film. It?ll more than do until the next one.

More later...

DEADPOOL 2: Very Familiar Formula, But Funny Enough

Now playing at a multiplex near everybody:

DEADPOOL 2 (Dir. David Leitch, 2018) 

Ah, Deadpool. You remember Deadpool, right? C?mon, you know him ? he?s Marvel?s most meta character whose wise-cracks, crude antics, and bloody kills carry him, and us, through another familiar round of explosive action sequences.

And that?s what we?ve got in this follow-up to his 2016 debut, which I then called ?the most hilarious Marvel movie yet.? This sequel doesn?t top the original, but it stands nicely beside it as it contains roughly the same amount of genuine laughs.

Ryan Reynolds, who also co-wrote and co-executive produced, again brings his extreme snark to the quipping anti-hero - anti-hero because he ends up killing more people than he saves ? who we first become re-acquainted with as he attempts suicide via lying a top several big barrels of fuel and flicking a cigarette in the air to fall into one of them and blow himself to bits - which he does.

Of course, this being Deadpool, we know he survives this, but before we see his fate, Reynold?s Wade Willis (Deadpool?s real name - keep up!), tells us through voice-over that six weeks earlier he was on top of the world going on globe-trotting missions, and planning to have a family with his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), but (Spoiler!) she?s killed by some goon, and Deadpool loses his mojo big time.

A James Bondian credits sequence, or joke credit sequence, as no real names are displayed only lines like ?Starring somebody who obviously didn?t want to share the spotlight,? follows which amusingly features a perfectly overwrought power anthem called ?Ashes,? sung by C?line Dion (that?s right).

After that, Deadpool sulks in misery around his friends from the first one - taxi driver Dopinder (Karan Soni), and bartender Weasel (T.J. Miller), but is given a new chance by the also returning Colossus (a CGI-ed Stefan Kapicic) to become a member of the X-Men, but as a trainee as he keeps getting reminded, mostly by, again another returning character, Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), who now has a girlfriend, Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna).

On Deadool?s first day on the job, he encounters a 14-year-old boy (Julian Dennison) named Russell who calls himself ?Firefist? and is threatening to burn down his orphanage, the Essex House for Mutant Rehabilitation, because he was abused by the Headmaster (Eddie Marsan at his ghastliest). At the stand-off, Deadpool breaks the X-Men?s rule of not killing anyone, and is captured along with Russell and taken to a prison for mutants called ?The Icebox.? 

Meanwhile, in a very TERMINATOR-esque scenario, a mercenary mutant named Cable (Josh Brolin) from the future travels to the present to avenge the death of his wife and kid who he traces as being the work of Russell/Fire Fist. After a massive, chaotic prison break setpiece, Deadpool realizes his calling is to protect the kid from Cable, and, with Weasel?s help, recruits a crew to get him out of prison.

The team, which Deadpool dubs ?X-Force? despite its derivativeness, that they assemble includes Terry Crews as Bedlam, who can manipulate electrical energy; Lewis Tam as Shatterstar, a really arrogant alien; Zazie Beetz as Domino, who says her power is being lucky; Bill Skarsgard as Zeitgeist, whose super power is spewing acidic bile; Vanisher, who?s invisible so they don?t know if he?s really there or not; and Rob Delaney as Peter, who has no powers, but saw the ad and thought it?d be fun.

A big over-the-top, and all-over-the-place sequence (which sort of reminded me of MACGRUBER) involving the X-Force assaulting a prison truck, transporting Russell, and other mutants, introduces (Spoiler?) Juggernaut, a giant ogre that was first introduced in ?X-Men? comics in the ?60s. Juggernaut, who is credited as being played by ?Himself,? goes up against Colosus in the third act which takes place at the Essex House, where Deadpool bargains with Cable for 30 seconds to talk Russell out of killing the headmaster. 

Yes, a lot of these plot points, and a lot of the jokes, can be seen coming, but the film, directed by stuntman/filmmaker David Leitch who co-directed JOHN WICK, moves fast through them with a high ratio of gags that land hilariously. Of all of the many one-liners, I think I liked ?I was fighting this caped badass, until I found out that his mom is also named Martha? the best. 

Despite its satiric trappings, Reynolds actually gets to effectively flex some dramatic chops a few times in scenes involving his lost love. Brolin puts in another strong stoic performance as Cable, coming right on the heels of his stand-out work in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, which is referenced here in a Thanos joke because of course it is.

DEADPOOL 2 is another round of more of the same. More riffing on WOLVERINE, more mockery of genre conventions (?tell me they got that in slow motion?) and the competition (?So dark. Are you sure you?re not from the DC Universe??), more self-criticism (Deadpool calls out ?lazy writing? more than once), and more ironic song cues including Dolly Parton?s ?Nine to Five? and ?The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow? from ?Annie? playing during scenes of stylish violence. There?s even another jab at GREEN LANTERN, something Reynolds will likely be making fun of for the rest of his life.

But because the movie is consistently funny throughout I can let all this familiarity slide, and I bet audiences can too.

More later...

SOLO: A Passable STAR WARS STORY With No Real Surprises

Opening tonight at every multiplex from here to a galaxy far, far away:

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

(Dir. Ron Howard, 2018) 

Now that we?re starting to get used to the idea of having a new STAR WARS movie every year, here?s the highly anticipated young Han Solo adventure which fills in the intergalactic space smuggler?s back story. 

Fans will finally get to see how Han meet Chewbacca (and give him his nickname, Chewie), how he got his treasured blaster, how he won his beloved ship, the Millenium Falcon, from Lando Calrissian; and how the hell he ran the Kessel Run, first mentioned in the original 1977 film *, in under 12 parsecs.

But the obvious question is: do fans really need to see how these things happened? Maybe they were best left as asides in movies from 40 years ago.

Anyway, Alden Ehrenreich plays the 28-year Han (we also see how he got his last name, and it?s kind of GODFATHER PART II-ish) who we first meet as a slick street thief in the lawless world of Corellia. Han and his girlfriend Qi?ra (a brunette Emilia Clarke, you know, the blonde who loves dragons from Game of Thrones) scheme to escape the drudgery of Imperial shipyard slums, but they get separated after a lightspeeder chase.

Han ends up joining the Empire to become a pilot, but because he?s Han, he gets expelled from the academy, and he meets up with a gruff as usual Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett, a criminal scoundrel with a crew who will give Han lessons in how to be a criminal scoundrel. One of the first lessons is, of course, trust no one.

Finnish basketball player Joonas Suotamo takes over from Peter Mayhew for Chewbacca whose first encounter with Han I won?t spoil, Westworld?s Thandie Newton plays Beckett?s lover/crime partner, and most importantly, a smooth as ice Donald Glover steps into Billy Dee Williams? shoes as the iconic Lando, stealing every scene he?s in.

With respect to not spoiling plot points, I?ll just say that the premise involves a heist (will all the STAR WARS STORIES be heist flicks?) in which Han and crew set about stealing some of the plutonium-like Coaxium (McGuffin!) from mines on the planet Kessel for the slimy yet dapper crime lord Dryden Voss (Paul Bettany), who appears to have Han?s love, Qi?ra, under his command.

All the things you?d expect in a STAR WARS movie are here from tons of blaster fights, scrapes with storm troopers, quipping robots (Lando?s droid, L3-37, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge fulfills that function), gripping space battles with TIE Fighters, etc. Well, everything, that is, except the Force.

For the first time, the Force isn?t part of the story. Nobody has it or speaks of it - I didn?t see any lightsabers - so this may be why Han doesn?t believe in it when we catch up with him in Episode IV.

SOLO is a fine sci-fi adventure that keeps moving so there is a fair amount of fun, but it was pretty much what I expected. Ron Howard, who took over from Phil Lord and Chris Miller (THE LEGO MOVIE, the 21 JUMP STREET films), assembles all the elements from the crisply coordinated set-pieces to the marks of the colorful ensemble with his well polished style, but I still would love to see what Lord and Miller would?ve done with it.

I was entertained plenty, but I still craved something more. There was nothing that I was surprised by - even a secret cameo in the third act didn?t mean much to me. Aldenreich is good in the title role, but I can?t say I really bought him as being the same character that Harrison Ford made so iconic. That?s probably because I?ve lived with Ford for forty years as the legendary scruffy headed nerfherder. A friend said that Aldenreich doesn?t look like Ford, but he looks like the character. I guess I can go with that, but it?s still hard to not think of Ford.

I can go with Glover?s Lando though ? maybe he?s the one who should?ve gotten his own movie.

So SOLO is a predictable package that?s a passable STAR WARS STORY. The way it leaves room for a sequel is also really expected - i.e. there's no Jabba the Hut and Greedo here so that could be featured in a follow-up that?ll serve as yet another prequel to the first film. It?s obvious that Lucasfilm is planning on filling every gap in the shared universe of these narratives, so that there will be nothing left to the imagination. 

Forget the other franchise of the same name, this is the real NEVERENDING STORY.

* Click to find out why I?ll never refer to the first STAR WARS as A NEW HOPE.

More later...

ANOMALISA: A Stop Motion Emotional Masterpiece

Now playing at a indie art theater near you (and at least one multiplex near me):

ANOMALISA (Dirs. Duke Johnson & Charlie Kaufman, 2015)

At first, Charlie Kaufman?s stop motion animated follow-up to his toweringly brilliant 2008 opus SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, is a very strange experience.

Yet after a little while, I started to forget that I was watching life-like 3D-printed puppets, and began to feel like I was watching real people ? sad, lonely, restless real people, who were much more affecting than in most dramas that actually feature real people.

But then the filmmakers, Kaufman and co-director Duke Johnson, would do something like having the protagonist?s face malfunction (and even detach like a mask), and I would be jarringly reminded what I was really viewing.

There?s also the element of that every character, men and women, except for the two leads is voiced by the same actor ? Tom Noonan, who previously appeared in a pivotal role in SYNECDOCHE, who is actually credited here as ?everyone else.? This takes a little getting used to, especially as there are times that Noonan sounds erringly like a soft-spoken Jimmy Fallon.

David Thewlis, best known for his role as Remus Lupin in the HARRY POTTER films, voices the principal protagonist, the middle-aged Michael Stone, author of the bestseller ?How May I Help You Help Them: 5 Ways To Improve Customer Service.? Thewlis? Michael, who at times sounds like a drunken Pierce Brosnan, has come to Cincinnati for a speaking engagement and after we witness him making awkward chit?chat with a cabbie, his hotel clerk, and busboy ? again, all Noonan-voiced, but also with the same non-descript faces ? he gets antsy and phones an ex named Bella, who lives in town that he hasn?t spoken to for over a decade.

Despite her shock at his call, Bella agrees to meet him for a drink at the hotel bar. The meeting doesn?t go well and Bella storms off. Later, Michael desperately and frantically finds himself running down his hotel?s hallway knocking on doors claiming he?s looking for a friend. He happens upon the room of two women, Emily and Lisa, a couple of sales reps who drove from Akron just to see Michael?s speech. Noonan voices Emily (again same face as everyone else), but Jennifer Jason Leigh, in her second stellar performance of 2015 after THE HATEFUL EIGHT, provides the slightly chubby, but pretty and nervously charming Lisa?s voice.

Michael invites them out for a drink ? by this time he?s had a half a dozen Belvedere martinis ? and the three share some laughs together. On the way back to their rooms, Michael asks Lisa if she?ll have a nightcap with him. Emily encourages Lisa to accept the offer (?he?s gorgeous?), and Lisa and Michael retire back to his room.

Michael is thoroughly taken by Lisa ? continually telling her how lovely she is, exuding a loving warmth while she talks about her day and especially as she sings an acapella rendition of Cyndi Lauper?s ?Girls Just Want To Have Fun? (she even does an Italian language version of the song). Lisa talks about learning the word ?anomaly? from Michael?s book and relating to the term, and he dubs her ?Anomalisa.?

Before you know it, we?re watching puppet porn, but, don?t worry, it?s nothing like the infamous sex scene in TEAM AMERICA. Somehow it?s about as tasteful as stop motion puppet intercourse can be.

After that, the film goes on a surreal tangent with a dream sequence in which Michael is called to an office in the hotel?s basement by the hotel manager, who tells Michael that he loves him, and that he shouldn?t be with Lisa.

Michael awakens and, in his shaken state, proposes that he wants to leave his wife and run off with Lisa. Things get screwy though when Michael has a bit of a breakdown at his keynote talk, and the film cuts to him returning to his wife, 5-year old son, and a bunch of surprise party people at his home ? all, again, voiced by Noonan with that same damn face.

ANOMALISA is based on a play Kaufman wrote for composer Carter Burwell?s ?Theater of the New Ear? series of what were called ?sound plays? that was produced with the same cast in 2005, which explains Michael?s speech/rant that calls out the President as being ?a war criminal.?

It?s great that the sex scene and the slew of f-bombs dropped make the film the first R-rated animated movie that?s ever gotten an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but I think it should?ve picked up a Best Screenplay nomination as well. Not one line of dialogue felt convoluted or off at all ? as a written work, ANOMALISA is a flawless concoction.

But it?s also a beautifully acted and aesthetically pleasing piece, in which Thewlis and Leigh?s transcendent voice contributions breathe an exuberant amount of humanity into these abstract proceedings.

Yet again, Kaufman has made a movie that nobody else would make ? or even think of making, even if he had help via co-director Johnson. Like just about every movie he?s made ? from the mindblowing movies he?s written (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND) to his directorial debut (SYNECDOCHE) ? it?s brainy brilliance with a battered heart. 

A drama about real life using the fakest of props that somehow says more about confused loneliness than any other movie in recent memory, ANOMALISA is Kaufman?s latest masterpiece. Seek it out to see the most emotion anybody?s ever put into stop motion.

More later...

Sizing Up The 2016 Oscar-Nominated Docs

The conversation about next month?s Oscars, the 88th Academy Awards (ABC, Feb. 28), may be deservedly dominated by the whole #OscarsSoWhite thing, but I?d like to bypass that mess for now to take a look at the nominees of a way less controversial category: Best Documentary Feature.

It?s one that you can easily catch up on too, as three of the five nominees are available for streaming on Netflix Instant: Matthew Heineman?s CARTEL LAND, Evgeny Afineevsky?s WINTER ON FIRE: UKRAINE?S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, and Liz Garbus? WHAT HAPPENED, NINA SIMONE?

The remaining docs, Joshua Oppenheimer?s THE LOOK OF SILENCE, and Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees?s AMY are available on Blu ray and DVD, as well as streaming services such as iTunes and Amazon Video.

As it was the first doc I watched after the nominations were announced earlier this month, I?ll start with Heineman?s CARTEL LAND, about cartel members and vigilante groups on both sides of the Mexico-US border in the Mexican drug war that?s been raging since 2006. It?s at times shocking the access Heineman had as he follows along such subjects as Tim ?Nailer? Foley of the paramilitary outfit called ?Arizona Border Recon,? and Michoac?n-based physician Dr Jos? Mireles, of the Autodefensas, who were founded in 2013.

Much of the film plays like a shaki-cam action thriller, and its startling to hear the stories of the beheadings, and mass murder of innocent citizens by the evil Knights Templar cartel, but the film lost me a bit in its last third as it gets into murkily shot interrogation/torture scenes, and a lengthy bit in which Mireles sleazily hits on a young woman also muddied my takeaway. CARTEL LAND is two thirds of a powerful doc about how power corrupts, especially in the lawless border zones. Its intrigue is great enough for me to see why it was nominated, but I really wouldn?t bet on it to win.

There?s a similar amount of blood on the ground in Afineevsky?s WINTER ON FIRE, about events that happened around the same time, but on the other side of the world in the Ukraine. Through footage and interviews, Russian-Israeli director Afineevsky tells the story of the protests in Ukraine?s Kiev in December 2013 through February 2014, that started out as peaceful student demonstrations but escalated into violence with police and paramilitary forces attacking and killing many of the protesters. It can be pretty tough going as the focus can seem as scattershot as the unwieldy crowds on display, but the film has an impactful passion to its breakdown of the proceedings, and much like CARTEL LAND, the access the filmmakers have is truly eye-opening.

The theme that people have the power to come together to make change is one that many, many docs share, but WINTER ON FIRE through its deep examination of material that I?m guilty of ignoring by not watching news reports or by not clicking on links that better informed folks than me post on Facebook stands out more than just about any other big issue doc I?ve seen in ages. It?s got tough competition in this category, but this Netflix production could well be a wild card.

What has a bigger chance at the win is Oppenheimer?s THE LOOK OF SILENCE, which is a companion piece to Oppenheimer?s previous Oscar nominee, 2012?s THE ACT OF KILLING ? both of which are co-directed by somebody credited as ?Anonymous.? The reason for that mystery credit is severely apparent when viewing either or both films as they concern the still living, and still in power perpetrators in the Indonesian killings of 1965?66. 

While THE ACT OF KILLING, streaming on Netflix Instant in both theatrical and director's cut versions, dealt with members of the death squads chillingly recounting and reenacting their killings, THE LOOK OF SILENCE involves the perspective of the survivors and the victim's families, particularly a 44-year-old optometrist named Adi Rukun, as he confronts the men responible for his brother Ramli's death in he 1965 Indonesian genocide of more than a million alleged Communists.

The reaction that these men have recalls all the Nazi-rationales - i.e. ?I was just following orders? - with, of course, nobody taking responsibility for their actions. But it goes further than that, and deeper than ACT, when Rukun gets warnings from relatives that his life may be in danger for going through with this project, but he doesn't shy away from asking one of his interviewees, who's now in the legislature: ?How do you do politics surrounded by the families of the people you've killed??

THE LOOK OF SILENCE is incendiary stuff indeed, and it has a good shot at the gold - that is, unless a certain crowd-pleasing music biodoc has the edge.

That would be AMY, Kapadia and Gay-Rees?s doc depiction of   British R&B-soul singer Amy Winehouse, which is the only documentary here that's in the top 10 grossing indie films of 2015 (it's #10 - of course). 

I raved about the film last summer (?Amy Winehouse?s Rise And Decline Makes For A Devastating Doc? 7/10/15), and would love it if it won. It's an up close and personal biodoc, with so much revealing footage of the troubled yet true songstress, that, via a strong home movie vibe, often makes us feel like we're were right there with Ms. Winehouse, whether riding with her in a car between gigs, or hanging with her in Camden flat. 

But it's the excerpts from the woman's performances, most of which have individual lyrics in handwritten fonts superimposed, that make this such a stunner and highlight what a tremendous loss Winehouse's death was to the world. So yeah, I'm pulling for this one.

Lastly, there's another music biodoc that's almost as equally deserving - Liz Garbus' WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? about legendary singer, activist, and North Carolina native Nina Simone (1933-2003). It's the only movie on the ballots that actually pays tribute to a black artist, but, yeah, it was made by a white person. Then, hey, it's the only doc in the category that was directed by a woman, so there's that.

Anyway, the footage amassed here in this doc that takes its name from a Maya Angelou quote is stellar. Clips such as Simone performing ?Little Liza Jane? at Newport in 1960, appearing on Hugh Hefner's short lived TV show Playboy's Penthouse to play Gershwin's ?I Loves You, Porgy,? and her comeback show from her self-imposed 8-year exile at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976 had me later going to YouTube to see more. 

Garbus' exploration of the volatile yet very vulnerable Simone's journey from aspiring classical pianist to '60s civil rights icon is riveting (especially considering that this was a woman who told Martin Luther King, Jr. that she was ?not non violent?), as are the tales told about her tumultuous relationship with her husband manager Andrew Stroud (surprisingly an interviewee). 

Simone's daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, sums the messiness of her mother's later years best: ?People seem to think that when she went out on stage, that was when she became Nina Simone, but my mother was Nina Simone 24/7, that?s where it became a problem.?

But when it gets down to the last ten minutes, even a cursory skim of Simone's wikipedia entry will tell you that this film glosses over a lot of juicy stuff about the lady's demise in its race to conclusion. Despite that flaw, this biodoc is strongly recommended. It would be quite the upset if it won.

At this point, I'm predicting a win for THE LOOK OF SILENCE. Things change a lot in the weeks leading up to the show, so I may change my mind for my official predictions to be posted a few days before the broadcast, but for now, it really feels like its Oppenheimer and Anonymous' year.

* Triangle area folks should take note that the Full Frame Documentary Festival?s Winter Series will be showing CARTEL LAND on February 16th at the Carolina Theatre in Durham.

More later...