Hot Docs 2012 - Detropia (Ewing & Grady, 2012) ****

Acclaimed documentarians Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp) offer in Detropia a visually stunning, thought-provoking mosaic of a decaying urban city that evocatively shows the macro and microeconomic causes of the fastest shrinking city in America. A provocative feature that seeks to portray the city of Detriot's woes as a microcosm for what's currently ailing the U.S, Ewing and Grady employ a detached, fragmented narrative that peeks in on the myriad abandoned homes and buildings in the downtown core and lets its subjects speak for themselves.

Detroit, a city that used to employ hundreds of thousands of people who could pull in a decent wage working at an automotive plant, has been steadily in decline since the 1980s, when the corporate push for cheap, foreign workers and federal divestment from municipal coffers became economic effects of the Reagan administration. As a result, the city has been mired with issues of poverty, crime and general degredation for decades, with no hope in sight for long time union workers looking to retire before they reach old age, or youth abanoned by the education system looking for steady work, or even a way to keep afloat. Presently, all the wealth in the Detriot area is centralized in the suburbs, beyond the city's infamous 8 Mile, as director Ewing even alluded to in her remarks after the film.

This kind of background is important for understanding the film's aesthetic, which means that the film will probably mostly appeal to those who have an interest in municipal policy, economics or urban planning, but for my money, does not lessen its power or its message. Ewing and Grady decline to establish a main subject, but there are a few interesting Detrioters that cross the viewers path: There's the deeply philosophical, politically astitute "last black owner" of a blues bar just outside the city; the charismatic, slightly senile union leader who longs for the good old days; and the blogger / barista with a big personality who has an interesting hobby of sneaking into abandoned buildings, taking pictures and sharing the property's stories with the world. The rest of the film is comprised of beautifully shot vignettes that give sometimes bleak, sometimes quirky and sometimes life-affirming snapshots of modern day Detroit.

This is a documentary that is not about "solutions" or establishing a public relations campaign to save Detroit. Rather, Detropia is a kaleidoscopic journey into a city that reminds us of the kindness and perseverence of the American people despite economic woe. Those who are engaged in, or passionately observing economics at the municipal level will immediately find much food-for-thought in the filmmakers' subtle depiction of the City as perhaps the most important level of government when it comes to maintaining the well being of the American citizens but fans of gorgeous, intelligent documentaries would be remiss to pass up Detropia.

Hot Docs 2012 - Indie Game (Swirsky & Pajot, 2012) ***

 Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky's first feature documentary Indie Game: The Movie is a surprisingly heartfelt look at the undocumented trials and tribulations of a new breed of independent video game developers, who put their lives and their finances on the line to create state of the art video games that are both deeply personal artistic expressions and highly lucrative products. The film follows three games, each with their respective creators, looking to take advantage of the completely revolutionized video game distribution model that has allowed independent developers to flourish and create legitimate businesses for themselves. There's the egotistical perfectionist Phil Fish from Montreal, whose game Fez has been in development for almost half a decade; Edmund and Tommy, highly quirky, intense nerd-types about to release Super Meat Boy; and Jonathan, a developer out of San Francisco, whose Braid was a smash hit before the film was released, struggling to cope with the emotional impact of the game's success.

For a film about guys sitting on their computers all day, the directors actually wring an enormous amount of emotion out of their subjects. Super Meat Boy developer Tommy, in particular is a multifaceted, highly complex and at times psychologically difficult person. We see him taking insulin shots after eating meals, expounding on his social awkwardness, going as far as discussing death if his game is not completed. Phil Fish also openly contemplates suicide on camera, his enormous ego being driven to its limit as his personal life crumbles and a former business partner threatens the release of the game. Film has great production values too despite it's crowdfunded budget, with some of the best visual respresentaions of 2D and 3D video games ever seen on screen.

Indie Game is a tad on the long side, though. At times the film feels overwrought, as all the main subjects are consistently on the verge of a panic attack. A sharper edit could have fixed some of the apparent fat that hangs off the film as we wait for stories to find their climax. Swirsky and Pajot have recently inked a deal to option their film as a television show, produced by Scott Rudin, Ron Howard and airing on HBO. This is a film not just for video gamers, but people interested in the immense challenges associated with investing everything into an art form and praying that it will all be worth it someday.

Hot Docs 2012 - Shut Up and Play the Hits (Lovelace & Southern, 2011) ****

I illegally downloaded LCD Soundsystem's first self-titled album in 2005, which was just when I was starting university. I hadn't known the face of the band, the wunderkind James Murphy, other than what I had read about him in SPIN magazine. But what I remember is that the music was almost revolutionary for its day: it was like Murphy took all the genres he liked and threw them in a blender and they came out as this new genre called "dance rock" that suddenly became all the buzz. Murphy was unapologetically cynical in his lyrics and in the hard-edged disco grooves laid down beneath his voice, his music influencing a new generation of genre-busting rock musicians. Cut to 2011. Just months after releasing the band's successful third album "This is Happening", Murphy, 41 years old, decides to call it quits. Shut Up and Play the Hits is a concert film that captures the band's final concert at Madison Square Gardens, as well as a behind the scenes meditation on aging and morality as an artist in the 21st century.

For those unfamiliar with LCD Soundsystem, I would describe Lovelace and Southern's film as kind of a mash-up between Scorsese's The Last Waltz chronicalling the last show of The Band (rest in peace, Levon Helm) and Jonathan Demme's masterpiece, Stop Making Sense, the Talking Heads concert film. Sequences during the actual show itself are meticulously shot and edited, with lots of lush, sweeping camera moves and artful, dynamic framing that add an adrenaline fueled feeling to the already spectacular performance of the band and the accompanying light show. Special guests include members of Arcade Fire, Reggie Watts, and even a brief cameo by the wonderful Donald Glover as a spectator. In the pantheon of great farewell concerts, Murphy, who describes it in the film as a "giant high school musical", put on one of the most memorable and kinetic shows of all time.

Intercut with concert footage are segments that bookend each song. Murphy is interviewed just before the show by the incisvely nerdy Chuck Klosterman, who pushes the musician to come to terms with his decision to leave his greatest accomplishment by the wayside. We also see what amounts to Murphy's entire lazy hungover day-after the show, as he purges the necessary emotions and begins his retirement. Thematically, Shut Up and Play the Hits asks questions about art and fate. Do we let our art govern our paths in life, or will our conscience inevitably come to shed the art from our lives as we get older, and it loses meaning. Or does the art we create ever lose meaning? One of the strongest concert films in years and the most visually stunning documentary at Hot Docs 2012 thus far.

Hot Docs 2012 - Charles Bradley: Soul of America (Brien, 2012) *****

Filmmaker and Music Video director Poull Brien's first documentary Charles Bradley: Soul of America is a truly funky, modern and inspiring story about Daptone Records artist Charles Bradley's ascension to worldwide recognition and success in the face of great adversity, heartbreak and perseverance. The same deeply felt soul that is so prevalent in Bradley's debut album No Time for Dreaming is mined by Brien's documentary; a real feeling of soul that Bradley exudes in his amazing music and his explosive stage performance.

Bradley's story begins as a 62 year old James Brown impersonator discovered by Gabriel Roth and Neil Sugarman of Daptone Records, famous for catapulting Sharon Jones into the limelight and recording Amy Winehouse's most acclaimed album Back to Black. We catch up with Bradley roaming the same Brooklyn and Bed-Stuy neighbourhoods of New York that he grew up in, doting on his feisty old mother, dodging the violence and depression of the building projects, hoping and praying that his record finds an audience and finally breaking into the music business after years of exploitation and bad luck.

Poull shoots with a sharp eye for framing, colour and objectivity, letting Bradley tell his life's story on his own terms and letting powerful, crisply edited music sequences play on. Described by his songwriting partner, producer and recording engineer Tom Brenneck as one of the "greatest story tellers he's ever met", Bradley's many, sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking tales are rendered by Brien as memorable reenactments; a fresh visual approach that at times feels like a music video, but leave indelible emotional impressions, bringing us closer to the man.

I've been a fan of Charles Bradley's music for sometime now and have nothing but respect and admiration for him. One of the final tracks off his album, called "Why is it So Hard?" is a raw and moving song about growing up and having to fight everyday just to survive. I think the reason why Charles Bradley's music and story connects with such a broad base of people is because it touches on the nerve of so many who know what it's like to feel loss and the biting anxiety of what lies ahead in life. It's also the reason why we gather to see films and documentaries: to be collectively inspired and remind ourselves of the perseverance of the human spirit. Charles Bradley: Soul of America is an instant classic and a must see for lovers of inspirational urban documentaries and soul and funk music.

Hot Docs 2012 - Capsule Reviews - 04/30/2012

Tchoupitoulas (Ross Brothers, 2012) ***

Bill and Turner Ross's second documentary feature, Tchoupitoulas, is an evocative, immersive portrait of New Orleans, seen through the wide eyes of a band of curious youth who venture across the river into the bright lights and sounds of the city for a dreamlike night of unexpected adventure. Led and narrated by the charming, overly precocious eight-year-old William with his two brothers and dog Buttercup along for the ride, the film adheres to an abstract, roving, tightly framed aesthetic that yields an almost childlike-wonderment at the endless stream of musicians, quirky drunkards and lovers that cross their path.

The Brothers Ross skillfully weave in tangents that expose the seedy, sexy underbelly of NOLA nightlife, serving as a thought-provoking counterbalance to the naive, superficial journey of the boys: We peer in on burlesque artists literally from behind a curtain, a group of transvestites belting out "Proud Mary" in a small dive bar and even jump on the stage for a grimy after hours blues show. The film takes a fascinating and dark turn as the boys miss their ferry back home, making for a satisfying narrative arc including the exploration of an abandoned cruise ship. Tchoupitoulas might feel a tad too wavy and empty for viewers looking for a more cohesive structure, but those interested in a visually compelling, intelligent journey of NOLA at night will find themselves engaged completely.

McCullin (Morris, 2012) ****

A searing, sobering look at the 30+ year career of Don McCullin, a world renowned war photographer, who ironically hates the moniker "war photographer". The first documentary feature by Jacqui Morris, a producer/director who initially started her career in film as an assistant to McCullin, the film deftly handles the photographers exploits into some of the most urgent humanitarian disasters and war zones of the 20th century. Morris interviews McCullin at his home during a wintry month in the English countryside and manages to purge shockingly vivid memories from her subject, taking us from his initial beginnings as a gruff amateur taking pictures of roughnecks in the bad side of London, to assignments in Berlin, Cyprus, Vietnam, Biafra, Cambodia and Beirut.

Morris pulls no punches here, relying on the stark, visceral humanity evoked by the sometimes violent, shocking images captured by McCullin; the edit is tight and unobtrustive. McCullin is our guide, but perhaps what is most compelling about the way he tells his story is the humility and self-deprecation about his unrelenting dedication to his subjects and the moral quandries inherent in the grey zone of journalistic ethics that one inevitably finds themselves in a war zone. One of the most pleasant, lingering surprises of this year's Hot Docs.

Hot Docs 2012 - Beware of Mr. Baker (Bulger, 2012) ****

Rolling Stone journalist-turned-documentarian Jay Bulger's Beware of Mr. Baker is a tough, hilarious ride through the life of Ginger Baker, one of the most infamous musicians-among-musicians of the 20th century. Famous for his stint as the drummer for the legendary 1960s rock band Cream, Bulger plunges us into the dark, dangerous, consistently self-destructive exploits of a damaged man whose musical ability was forged from the flames of World War II, a fatherless family and the violence of the schoolyard. But where your cookie-cutter doc about a musician would focus on the point of view of the subject and those he influenced, Bulger takes a kitchen sink approach that includes animated sequences, incredibly rare archival footage and interviews with famous drummers, adding up to a doc that is at times revelatory, sometimes disturbing, but always refreshing.  

For over 18 years of my life, I have been a drummer and percussionist, so I have a lot of theories about rhythm and it's place in human history: how is it used as a tool for freedom and release, what is it about the feeling of hands or sticks on skins that elicits a feeling of power and survival? Bulger's doc asks these same questions. As we're taken through Baker's life, we see his some of his most important moments captured as animated sequences in the style of (as Bulger revealed in a post-screening Q&A) German expressionist art. We see him as as a teenager, listening to the sounds of his idol, jazz drummer Max Roach, watching his mentor simultaneously shoot heroin and introduce him to African music, his violent screaming matches with Cream bassist Jack Bruce (and Eric Clapton watching in the background, horrified) and a recurring sequence that renders Baker beating a large drum on a slave ship, keeping the boat above water with every stroke of the mallet, but enslaving all those who have to man an oar to survive. These sequences add a thematic depth to the idea hinted at by all the subjects in the film, that without the drum, Baker will completely self-destruct; an idea that lingers in the subconscious of many a drummer, but sumptuously visualized by Bulger. 

This is a music documentary that will mostly appeal to those interested in the dark, transgressive side of artistry and is not for the faint of heart, despite the relatively comedic tone Bulger's doc takes sometimes, bringing to mind a segment where Baker travels to Italy and lives in a decrepid house with an 18-year-old, on top of a mountain. Ginger Baker is twice divorced and has three children, one of which, who is a drummer himself, says Baker "should not have had children." He is described by many, as a "cunt", "complicated" and of course,"self-destructive". When asked if Mr. Baker had seen the film, Bulger says that Baker's reply was "it's my fucking life, I did it. Why do I need to fucking watch it?"

Review - The Cabin in the Woods (Goddard, 2010) ****

A veteran scribe of the J.J Abrams cabal of forward thinking creatives, Drew Goddard's first feature film "The Cabin in the Woods", co-written and produced along with fantasy/sci-fi master Joss Whedon, is a roundhouse kick to the balls to the modern "horror" film. The word "horror" in this case deserves such puncutation because this is not a horror film. Well, on the surface, in terms of actual plot, style and thematic substance, this is a horror film, but on it's most base operating level, it is not. Rather, "The Cabin in the Woods" is one of the most subversive genre pictures ever made precisely because it is specifically about genre and the stigmatic pratfalls of falling into what one might call a "genre."

To give away any plot details of this film, other than to say that it is about five co-eds that have embarked on a weekend getaway to a cabin in a remote part of the woods, so remote that it does not even register on GPS, would be a crime. But I guess I can also tell you that what happens at this cabin will ultimately result in a frightening, gory mess since I revealed that this is a "horror" film. The five leads, of which the most noteworthy is Chris Hemsworth, whom we are familiar with from "Star Trek" and last summer's "Thor", are impressive in their portrayals of what some might call the typical "horror" film archetypes. Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins are also in this film and they're both perfect for their roles, but I cannot reveal more than that. What I can reveal is that Goddard has a knack for getting the right pitch and tone from his actors; this is a very funny, I would argue hilarious, "horror" film.

The comedy in this film is fascinating. It amused me the same way that other subversive horror films like Peter Jackson's "Braindead" and Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead" did; those films ultimately sticking to their respective genres. But this is a film that breaks loose from genre, while actually creating its own metaphysical genre of comedic horror film, which is ironic. But it is this irony that propels the comedy and creates a substantial amount of mystery surrounding not just the actual plot of the movie, but the purpose for the movie even existing at all. Why make a "horror" film if all you want to do is shoot horror films in the face with a 12-gauge shotgun? Or stab them in the face with akimbo pick-axes? Or perhaps you might want to rip the hearts out of their chest cavities and then feed them to a pack of hungry mutant Zebras? You need to watch this film if you want to find out why the hell I just wrote all that.

I could spend pages unpacking the philosophical and even sociological implications of this film; it's that fresh and intelligent. This is a kitchen-sink style "horror" film that on one level isn't afraid to satiate your thirst for blood, humor, destruction and just a plain old fun-ass time at the movies. But on another, tougher level, if you're willing to look further (and it is really up to you if you want to go there), it will force you to question the popularity of horror films and why they quench the most transgressive of thoughts that go on in the back of our sick, depraved skulls. In the end, both thematically and philosophically, this is a film about sacrifice. What are we willing to give up for the greater good? What are we willing to suppress in order to function as civilized beings in an ultimately primitive world?

I could end this "review" of this "horror" film with a quote or some sort of pithy remark about the state of the modern horror film and how "The Cabin in the Woods" has irrevocably changed the way I define "genre." Oh wait, I just did.


"The Cabin in the Woods" has had an interesting distribution history. It was put on the shelf for two years after MGM, the studio that made the film, went bankrupt. In 2011, following legal deliberations, MGM decided to sell the distribution rights. After what director Goddard said was a heated bidding war, Lionsgate picked up the film and has slated it for release on Friday, April 13th. If you do not know why that is awesome, don't see this movie.