The Green Knight (2021) | Directed by David Lowery

 4.5/5

David Lowery’s The Green Knight is a gorgeous, hypnotic film filled with striking cinematography, lush colors, and captivating visual compositions. The use of wide angle lenses throughout heightens the film’s dreamlike sensibility as it explores the paganism buried within much of European Christianity and deconstructs Western notions of chivalry, honor, and the ways these are often tied to class, gender, and privilege. All of the royal finery is grounded in muck and grime, but with an eye toward the mystical and the transcendent. The episodic structure pays homage to the source material and provides a space for many incredible performers to pass through the narrative, but it’s all anchored by Dev Patel’s turn as Gawain. His performance becomes one of learning to lose yourself to find yourself, of abandoning self-interest and self-preservation for the sake of others. It’s a moving, beautiful film that invites much reflection, pondering, and an eagerness to return to its mysteries.

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Titane (2021) | Directed by Julia Ducournau

 5/5

Julia Ducournau’s Titane is a remarkable film about human connection and the way reaching out to another person can reconnect us to our own humanity, helping us heal from trauma and loss. Of course, connection and healing don’t mean that the past is suddenly erased. Ducournau understands that consequences are still very real and uses body horror throughout the film to graphically illustrate the idea that the consequences of Alexia’s actions – the ways she has hurt and damaged and destroyed other lives – don’t magically disappear as she begins to heal and reconnect to others – as she reconnects to her own humanity. With all of the trauma and hurt and pain Ducournau’s characters have suffered, there are these constant attempts to transform the body – to make an aging body young and virile once more, for another to close herself off from feelings and become one with a machine – all physical responses deep trauma and loss. Ducournau is also interested in exploring ideas of looking and being seen – the leering men and potentially abusive father, then the very different gaze of the accepting father substitute – and the camera alters (its movement, its position, its perspective) according to who is looking and who is being seen. And to top it all off, there’s the grim humor throughout – our signal that we’re not meant to take the murder and mayhem onscreen literally (it’s all representative of the film’s deeper themes and concerns) and which helps us build our empathy toward Alexia, a protagonist who commits horrific acts of violence. Like Ducournau’s previous film, there are so many layers to keep exploring and uncovering – this is a rich film that will certainly reward many future viewings.

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A Cop Movie (2021) | Directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios

 5/5

Alonso Ruizpalacios’s A Cop Movie is an outstanding documentary utilizing multiple layers of artifice in order to uncover truths about the nature of policing in Mexico. As the film progresses, it keeps revealing itself to us, keeps complicating its initial setup, turning in on itself to become something altogether more nuanced and enthralling than you might expect. Taking the audio from two very strong interviews with police officers in Mexico City, actors recreate the sequences, lip-syncing over the audio until the scene is interrupted and we begin to follow the actors and observe their process preparing for these roles. Another shift occurs when we meet the interview subjects on camera for the first time and see them tell their story for themselves. Ruizpalacios constantly interrogates his own creative process, the ethics of making a film about the police in a country where corruption runs rampant. And yet he also explores how complicated this system is – the chain of corruption that extends all the way to the officers’ superiors and their equipment supervisors, as well as the poverty that drives individuals to join the police force in the first place. This is an exceptional work of non-fiction filmmaking, bending the form to craft a stunning masterpiece.

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The Sparks Brothers (2021) | Directed by Edgar Wright

 4.5/5

Edgar Wright’s The Sparks Brothers is an outstanding music documentary that is an absolute joy to watch. It gives a comprehensive overview of the life and career of Sparks and wisely shares enough of their music throughout so that anyone who isn’t familiar with their oeuvre doesn’t feel ostracized or unwelcome. In fact, it’s an incredibly generous film for anyone new to their music, and Wright has gathered an incredible assortment of interviews from fans, other musicians, producers, and the Mael brothers themselves to help provide context for the songs and albums. The use of archival material and found footage is phenomenal, and Wright proves to have a deft hand at structuring the material with interviews and just enough stylistic flourishes to match Sparks’ own style and personaes. It’s a fantastic, engaging, and thoroughly entertaining musical documentary.

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All Light, Everywhere (2021) | Directed by Theo Anthony

 5/5

Theo Anthony’s All Light, Everywhere is an exquisite documentary exploring the nature of modern surveillance, consistently raising questions about the ethics of its own creation. Throughout the film, as we examine the history of cameras and the recorded image, as well as the ways in which this is inextricably bound up in the history of warfare and policing and weaponry, Anthony reveals the many fraught decisions a documentary filmmaker faces in crafting a film of this nature. He constantly interrogates the notion of objectivity and shows just how difficult it can be to completely remove bias from our policing and surveillance systems, especially when we put all our faith in cameras, in recording devices, in tools designed to give us a dispassionate and unbiased record of “the truth.” But the film constantly shows us the gaps in a recording device’s ability to capture reality – whether due to the technical limitations of aerial surveillance or the designed limitations of police body cams. And by continually stepping back to show us how the documentary crew sets up a shot, edits a sequence, or removes the breath from a voiceover recording, we’re continually reminded that the images we’re left with in any frame can only tell one part of a larger story. This is a fantastic work of expressionistic non-fiction filmmaking – an exhilarating viewing experience.

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Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma (2021) | Directed by Topaz Jones, Simon Davis, Jason Sondock

 5/5

Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma, directed by Topaz Jones, Simon Davis, and Jason Sondock, is a fantastic short documentary comprised of 26 vignettes blending surrealism, archival footage, sketch comedy, direct observation, and interview to craft a stunning portrait of contemporary Black experience. The film’s interviews with activists are essential and provide the necessary grounding for a work that so intentionally toggles between absurdity and profundity, comedy and despair, terror and joy. There isn’t a wasted moment here – this is an exceptional work of creative non-fiction and packs more into its 34 minutes than many films are able to do with three times the length. It’s an incredible and invigorating film.

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Black Power: A British Story of Resistance (2021) | Directed by George Amponsah

 4.5/5

George Amponsah’s Black Power: A British Story of Resistance is another exceptionally strong documentary in this series of films outlining the struggles of Black British citizens and immigrants fighting for their rights. This installment outlines the history of and explores the groups within Britain’s Black Power movement, and looking at both the internal and external forces that eventually led to its collapse. While inspired by the United States’ Black Power movement – and even though it certainly had ties to many of the groups and leaders – the film carefully illustrates the major differences and ways that the Black British community took the Black Power philosophy and made it their own. The powerful interviews with leaders and participants in the movement detail Britain’s long history of racism and discrimination, as well as the ways in which the various groups within the Black Power movement would overlap and work together. Like all of the films in this series, the use of archival material and found footage is exceptional, as are the musical selections that underscore the narrative. And it’s especially powerful to have the film draw such a clear through line between the Black Power movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s and today’s struggle for racial justice.

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Subnormal: A British Scandal (2021) | Directed by Lyttanya Shannon

 4/5

While Lyttanya Shannon’s Subnormal: A British Scandal makes use of the standard talking head documentary format, there are touches throughout that elevate it beyond traditional documentary fare. Shannon’s narration gives the film a personal touch and helps connect her family’s experience with the wider Black British experience within a discriminatory education system. And that personal touch also extends to her attempts to find individuals willing to speak on camera about their experiences – in spite of the shame and stigmatization they might face from having been wrongly placed in schools for the “educationally subnormal.” The archival materials and found footage effectively trace the roots of this scandal within the British educational system, lays out a damning case that speaks to the deep racism and prejudice involved, and draws a clear line between the issues from decades ago and their consequences for today. It’s powerful, moving, and shows how essential it is to have strong community involvement in a child’s education – especially in societies where racism put systems in place that disadvantage children of color.

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Uprising (2021) | Directed by Steve McQueen and James Rogan

 5/5

Steve McQueen and James Rogan’s Uprising is a stellar three-part documentary that weaves together important events from 1981 to paint a portrait of the Black experience in Britain through the ‘70s and ‘80s. There’s an incredible wealth of archival material on display – capturing the beats and rhythms of the interviews with found footage that matches to an almost uncanny degree, alongside news reports from the day and stunning photographs that round out the visual narrative. The interviews are phenomenal and come from a wide range of experiences they all provide essential context for the events covered throughout the film. There are sublime and powerfully moving moments threaded throughout the film – especially the ways it cuts back to the black-and-white photographs of the Black children who died in the horrific New Cross house fire at key moments in the film, reminding us of the lives that were cut short and white British society’s indifference to their death. And, of course, the use of music is exquisite and the perfect approach to highlighting the joys and sorrows of the Black British community, as well as the subsequent call to rise up against oppression. It’s an exceptional documentary, one that has relevance for anyone living in a nation with a legacy of colonialism and racist oppression.

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Rocks (2019) | Directed by Sarah Gavron

 4.5/5

Sarah Gavron’s Rocks is a powerful, deeply moving film that walks a delicate line in depicting the struggles a teenage girl and her young brother face after their mother abandons them. This is an honest, raw, and painful film that never becomes exploitive or veers into melodrama. Much of the film’s strength comes from the outstanding performances of the young, untrained actors. There’s a depth and honesty in all of these performances – especially in the two central roles – that is stunning. The film’s loose, handheld camera helps create a raw, unfiltered intimacy that brings us in close to the characters and embeds us in the narrative, which wisely avoids giving us too much exposition or explaining too much of the family backstory. In a film like this, it’s tempting to push the story further and further into miserablism, inflicting greater and greater trials and suffering on the protagonist up until the very end, but the film becomes a story of resilience and community, a tale of the ways that friendship can help you weather life’s difficulties – even if there are no easy solutions.