Ascension (2021) | Directed by Jessica Kingdon

 5/5

Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension is a masterful work of creative nonfiction that slowly traces its way through the rungs of Chinese society to examine the “Chinese Dream.” The documentary tactics here are strictly observational – there are no interviews, voiceovers, or onscreen text to orient us to the images and sequences presented. But through Kingdon’s meticulously conceived organizational structure, we’re given a series of images and sequences that are juxtaposed in such a way that it raises questions about inequity, working conditions, the obsession with western ideas of wealth, and our own reliance on underpaid labor to bring us inexpensive goods. Edits and cuts are made with visual or thematic resonances in mind, so that the transitions move us from factory work, to trade schools, to the wealth of the upper middle classes. The cinematography throughout is gorgeous, the procession of images hypnotic and mesmerizing. Kingdon has crafted a remarkable film that, while specifically about China’s rapid growth, asks us to reflect on the consequences for any society in which capitalism is allowed to create unfettered inequity.

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Attica (2021) | Directed by Stanley Nelson

 5/5

Stanley Nelson’s Attica is a powerful and sobering look at the institutionalized racism that infects our policing, our prison industrial complex, and the very fabric of our nation. The interviews with surviving inmates of the Attica prison uprising (as well as the surviving family members of the guards, members of the media, and other key participants) are all profoundly moving – and at-time gut-wrenching at times – as they tell of the horrors they endured and the crimes that have been covered up for far too long. Nelson includes extraordinary archival materials – from contemporaneous news reports and footage behind the prison walls, to surveillance footage used by corrections officers, and stomach churning photographs of the aftermath. All of these sources are combined to methodically lay out the circumstances that led to the uprising and provide a day by day account – right up to its tragic end. Without needing to make direct parallels, Nelson does as good as draw a straight line between the law and order campaigns of Rockefeller and Nixon and the modern GOP. This is an essential historical documentary that still has so much significance for our country’s ongoing fight for racial justice.

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Like A Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres (2021) | Directed by Suzanne Joe Kai

 4.5/5

Suzanne Joe Kai’s Like A Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres is an unexpectedly emotional, deeply moving tribute to journalism, curiosity, and integrity all wrapped up in the documentary profile of Ben Fong-Torres, the writer who helped shape Rolling Stone during the magazine’s formative years. Kai includes a treasure trove of archival material, including some incredible audio clips from interviews that Fong-Torres conducted with everyone from Jim Morrison and Marvin Gaye, to Stevie Wonder and Elton John. Modern day interviews with colleagues, musicians, friends and family, and those who were influenced by Fong-Torres are all insightful and honest, and the interviews with Fong-Torres himself are filled with a beautiful candor. The photographs that accompanied many of his stories – as well as the other archival footage – are laid out across the screen like a magazine spread throughout the film, and audio clips are often played over text from his articles, so we’re given the opportunity to see how Fong-Torres took the raw material of an interview and transformed it into a finished piece. The film pointedly addresses the racism he endured in his youth – and the racism that still exists today – and it embraces the notion that the politics of art are inseparable from the art itself. This is a rich and beautiful biographical documentary about a remarkable music journalist.

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King Richard (2021) | Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green

 3/5

Reinaldo Marcus Green’s King Richard is a pleasant enough crowd-pleaser that may do a better job than most major studio dramas at exploring issues of race within American society, but it fails to fully engage with the complexity of the titular real-life character at the center of the film – opting instead for heart-warming and saccharine drama. Will Smith is always a delight to watch onscreen, and while there are moments in this performance of his that really shine, for far too much of the film, it comes across as an impersonation of this public figure rather than a true character study. Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton, the two young actresses portraying Venus and Serena Williams, are fantastic and convey all of the hope, determination, and weight of the pressures placed upon their shoulders in two incredibly nuanced performances. It’s refreshing to see the film provide us with a few moments that call into question some of the harsher choices made by Richard Williams during the training of this daughters, but so much of the film is spent abandoning any semblance of nuance and justifying all of his decisions since they were part of his plan for success – not to mention conveniently leaving out some of his more egregious acts of control over the family. The resulting portrait becomes a romanticized look at the American Dream that never calls into question the myth that tells us, “As long as you have a dream and a plan, and as long as you work hard, you’ll make make those dreams a reality.” I appreciate the fact that it’s tempered by the honesty of the racism embedded in the world of tennis, but it’s not enough to truly ground the film’s rose-tinted glow.

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Try Harder! (2021) | Directed by Debbie Lum

 4/5

Debbie Lum’s Try Harder! is a thoroughly compelling look at the struggles of high school students in a prestigious public high school as they attempt to apply for elite universities. The students that Lum chooses to follow make for great interview subjects and provide a range of the experiences and reactions to the familial and societal pressures and expectations. Even though the film has a light tone through much of its runtime, it never shies away from exploring the racism that’s baked into the college admissions process and the ways university recruiters rely on stereotypes of Asian American teenagers during the application process. There are genuinely moving and heartbreaking moments throughout, as well as moments of genuine triumph. And as competition for college placement continues to get even more intense across our country (exacerbated by the pandemic), the film is a good reminder that the system we have in place now puts an inordinate amount of pressure on students. This is a really strong, very enjoyable film that’s more timely and relevant than ever.

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The Neutral Ground (2021) | Directed by CJ Hunt

 4/5

CJ Hunt’s The Neutral Ground is a rare first-person documentaries that manages avoid the snarky condescension of the format, due largely to Hunt’s genuine warmth and curiosity toward his interview subjects he follows the attempt to remove Confederate monuments in New Orleans. The meat of the film provides a thorough overview of the debate over Confederate monuments, as well as an important corrective and accurate history over how they came to be. The tone throughout is playful and gentle without ever mocking or belittling monument supporters – yet all the while still challenging their egregious beliefs. As the film proceeds, it becomes more sincere and more genuinely moving as part of an attempt to honestly reckon with the history of slavery in this country and the desire to help people wake up from their own ignorance. It’s an emotionally powerful, incredibly sobering, and thoroughly entertaining film about a difficult subject that we need to be having as a country.

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Passing (2021) | Directed by Rebecca Hall

 5/5

Rebecca Hall’s Passing is an exceptional film, filled with incredible performances from the entire cast – especially Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga. The black-and-white photography is luminous, and the use of light and shadow helps accentuate the different worlds our two protagonists move through and whether they are passing or not. The use of mirrors throughout opens up the spaces and reflects back the ways characters see themselves within a racist, oppressive society obsessed with surface appearance. And yet, the heavy reliance on point of view shots – often with limited vision, blurry, or obscured and altered – highlights how impossible it is to rely solely on our own perceptions and interpretations of a situation. This is a film that would all-too-easily become an easy sermon or message film, but Hall wisely allows the characters to remain complicated and nuanced, with class distinctions within the Black community and white benefactors adding additional layers of hierarchy to the relationships and obscuring motivations. Portions of the film are shot to look like a missing film from the late ‘20s or early ‘30s, a missing melodrama or proto-noir about the lives of Black women, and you can’t help but reflect on the stories and films from that period that we’re missing because of the voices silenced due to racism. This is a fantastic film, a nuanced and beautifully crafted work.

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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.