Gleason

Steve Gleason was a successful NFL player whose career highlight  occurred when he was playing with the New Orleans Saints in their first game in the city’s Superdrome exactly a year after Hurricane Katrina. Gleason made a spectacular pass which enabled the team to win this crucial  game which was a vital step in the recovery of all their after the intolerable devastation that they had survived, and it made the whole city feel good again. They called it ‘the rebirth’ of New Orleans, and Gleason was named as the hero of the day.  

A few years later in 2011 after he had just retired from playing professionally, Gleason then aged just 34 years old, was  diagnosed with ALS also known as Lou Gehrig disease, and told he had 2 -5 years to live.  Then 6 months  after that when he and Michelle his artist wife were still trying to come to terms with the reality of Gleason’s illness, they discovered that Michelle was pregnant with their first child.  This put more of an urgency as to how they should deal with their impending situation as their research had uncovered the fact that whilst Gleason would keep his cognitive functions for a while, however in a very short time he would lose all movement and speech. 

From the word go, it is obvious that Gleason is an irrepressible optimistic man who is extremely good natured and generous and he easily channeled all his energies into what he considered to be paramount for the future. To this end he started making a regular video record for his yet unborn son just in case he was still not around when the boy was older and he wanted to have a real conversation with him. He insisted to Michelle that they live life to the full even though it got increasingly difficult once the disease started to take its  hold.  Michele was a tower of strength but she soon couldn’t handle all the physical lifting when Gleason got weaker so she ‘persuaded’ their hunky neighbor Blair into being a full time caregiver with a simple threat ‘if you don't take the job I'll kick you in the balls!”

Gleason knew that he had this great support system that he could depend on but as he became aware of how tough it was on others and how expensive it was too, he persuaded Michelle's father to help them start a foundation to help other less fortunate ALS sufferers. The Gleason Foundation, with it’s defiant catch phrase ‘no more white flags’  was set up to finance special equipment in treatment centers and to be able to give special treats, like a surprise dream holiday, to others who simply couldn’t afford them.

The ever-present camera records not just the rapid decline in Gleason’s body, but also the highlights such as his sheer determination in conquering the sight talk machine now that he could no longer speak.  However even this remarkably strong man had his ‘off’ days  and some of the most heartbreaking moments are when he is at his lowest and he questions his wife's attitude to him and the process, and even his own purpose of still being around.  It takes an immense amount of bravery on both their parts to deal with this once healthy man becoming a mere shadow of his former self, but  it was even more courageous of both of them to allow these very intimate  scenes to be shown.

His old teammates treated him as a hero, and they not only erected a statue of his moment of glory in ‘the re-birth’ but they also got totally on board actively supporting the work of the Foundation. The only real fly in the ointment was Gleason’s own father who was a right-wing fundamentalist and at every single opportunity he had, he tried to impose his own unshakable faith on his son, which made for some very tense moments between the two of them. But Gleason’s own relationship with his son Rivers is exceptionally wonderful and full of so much love that it makes for a real highlight of the whole film.

The documentary directed by J Clay Tweel with its unparalleled unrestricted access to the family is a powerful piece of filmmaking of how this family unflinchingly deals with something which could have torn them apart, but which instead emboldens them into finding the strength to get even closer together.  It will probably be one of the most emotional and heartbreaking stories you will see all year, and be sure to have a large box of kleenex ready.

★★★★★★★★

Jim : The Story of James Foley

James Foley .... known to everyone as Jim..... was a American freelance photojournalist who was abducted in Syria in 2012 and then publicly beheaded by ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) eighteen months later.  His compelling story is told in a new HBO documentary by first time director Brian Oakes who had been Foley's friend since first grade, and it tells how this man from a tight-knit large New England Catholic family ended up on the front line of a war zone.

Foley with his four siblings had a conventional upbringing, but h was quite a restless soul as a young adult and tried his hand at all sorts of enterprising ventures like teaching kids in a juvenile detention center. However, he never really found the 'calling' he was searching for until in 2009 he got it into his head that he wanted to go overseas as a war correspondent.  Totally untrained and clearly out of his depth, he hooked up with a small itinerant band of other freelance journalists in Libya who he bonded with and quickly learned on the job.  A handsome rugged man who was described by one of his new colleagues 'with a jawline you could cut cheese on', Foley simply used his incessant charm and sheer optimism to make up for his lack of experience. 

Two years into his stint there Foley was captured by Gaddafi loyalist forces and held prisoner for 44 days.  The moment the news of his abduction reached his family they mounted a high profile campaign to secure his release, and when they succeeded there was much relief all round when he was back home on US soil again. Whilst his siblings and parents were happy to have him back in their bosom, Foley however was not.  Even the offer of a desk job in Boston at the HQ of Global Post, who he reported for back in Libya, was not enough to keep him from wanting to go back to the front line.  When he soon decided this is what he would indeed do, he chose to go to Syria which was so very dangerous that it would make Libya seem like a walk in the park.

Oakes makes no attempt to portray his best friend either as a Saint or a misguided fool, instead what comes over is this image of an old-fashion romantic who was an incredibly resourceful and unselfish man who never showed any sense of personal danger. Foley was simply determined to play his part in making the world aware of the atrocities that were being carried about in these treacherous war-zones in the hope that dialogue from all this information might provoke some change.  However, before he could even send much footage back in November 2012 Foley was abducted and held captive.

This time however there was so much mis-information that even the State Department could not establish who in fact was holding Foley, even which region he was being held.  There was eventually email correspondence from people who claimed to be holding Foley and they issued demands for an enormous ransom, which after they offered proof that they indeed had captured him, then the family prepared to raise the monies they demanded. However communication with them ended as abruptly as it had started. and as the State Department proved reluctant to help pursue the matter, it was dropped.

Most of Foley's time held by the Syrians was recounted by some European photojournalists who were also imprisoned with him for the best part of 18 months, but who managed to be released.  It is their testimony that sheds light on how inhumane the violent horrors of their treatment was at the hands of their vicious and vindictive captors.

The documentary states at the very beginning that it will not show the actual beheading, but is does show video of a shaved-head Foley wearing bright orange robes making an anti-American speech with a defiant look on his face.  It is never really clear why he was killed, especially as all the other journalists were freed. 

One of his ex-colleagues says that Foley would have been really annoyed that the world's attention on his death was a in fact distraction from his own work exposing the massive human rights crisis in the region is neglected.  The last word however goes to Foley's elder and somewhat conservative brother who not only deeply regretted that this job in the US Airforce may have caused him problems, but more importantly he said that he had never ever really understood or appreciated him as much as he did now.

Winner of Sundance Audience Favorite Award this movie can be seen on HBO On Demand  until 03/06/2016

★★★★★★★★★

Seymour : An Introduction

Seymour Bernstein is probably the most talented classical pianist alive today, yet very few people have ever heard of him. He was at dinner party a couple of years ago and seated next to the actor Ethan Hawke who was immediately impressed that this octogenarian musician seemed to understand all his anxieties and self-doubts much more than his peers. The two formed a very close friendship out of which came this documentary on Bernstein directed by Hawke who wanted to share his remarkable find with the world.   

It's very easy to see why the movie star was so smitten with this genial genius who has such a measured and reasoned approach to life.  He started wanting to play the piano aged just 5 years old even though his un-musical family didn't even posses one. It was the beginning of a passion that has totally ruled his life through all its ups and downs, although it is initially hard to believe there could possible have been many of the later.  

Hawke films Bernstein giving masterclasses in NY (he has lived in the same small one room apartment on the Upper West Side for the past 57 years) as he found his true calling as a teacher.  He is precise and exact sharing his passion with a self-effacing humor that tempers the real seriousness he takes with every aspect of the music. 

When he had initially started out as very young concert pianist many years ago, he received unprecedented rave reviews from the notoriously ungenerous New York Times critics.  This however was never enough for him to overcome his nerves of performing, and so without warning he gave his last public performance 35 years ago. That is until now as Hawke has persuaded him to make this one recital which is the climax of the movie.  

As Bernstein discusses his theories with several of his ex-pupils who have gone on to achieve their own success, but not always performing and one of them was Michael Kimmelman a writer with the NY Times. Bernstein professes that he believes that having a major career in music is not a healthy thing, and agrees with Hawke that there is a very marked connection between having such a sheer talent and being a real monster too.  Or just becoming an uncontrollable neurotic like the genius Glenn Gould.

When Bernstein is pushed at one point to agree that if you are that talented, then you do indeed have some sort of responsibility to share this with the public, he neatly side steps  that with the assertion that he pours his own talent into others via his teaching which also gives him a sense of achievement.  It is actually easy to see that this man who places such great store on his solitude is in fact remarkable generous and sociable with anyone who shows the merest hint of sharing his passion for making the music.  It is he that has now helped Hawke overcome some of his own demons regarding performance nerves.

As much as Bernstein is on camera we still learn very little of any his life outside of music other than some years ago he was pursued by an overly keen wealthy patron, but he exudes an air of contented happiness. Evidence by the fact that one of his favorite expressions for describing things was calling them 'impossibly beautiful'.

That actually is an apt way of summing up his own playing at the Recital that ends this touching documentary on this charming and extremely affable old gent. He then sighs when he says 'I never dreamt that with my own two hands I could touch the skies.'

★★★★★★★★

Meet The Patels

Finding the love of your life in today's culture isn't easy, particularly with its dependency on social media. In fact it can really be quite complicated as Ravi Patel found out especially when he wanted to bring his parent's happiness into the equation too. Ravi, a rather charismatic Indian/American actor living in L.A. has just split up with Audrey his redheaded girlfriend from Connecticut of 2 years who's very existence he kept a secret from his parents because she wasn't an Indian, and he wants to finally settle down with a wife. He and his sister Geeta .... who is behind the camera filming this documentary .... are very close to their parents, however as neither of the siblings, both in their thirties, have never married, the Patel seniors are really disappointed that they still cannot look forward to the prospect of any grandchildren like all their friends.

The family are entirely Americanized but once Ravi finally agrees that he will allow his parents to fix him up with an 'arranged' marriage, they all take a trip together to India in search of a traditional bride.  Not just any suitably unattached female, but one who is also named Patel.  It is not a matter of some icky incest (!) but this is also the surname of an entire community in a particular region of the country.  They even have their own Patel Matrimonial Convention to make it easier, but naturally with Ravi and all his westernized ways, even that is not really going to make it that simple for him. 

Ravi's parents are such an amiable and patient couple who adapt all their different searches back home in the U.S. to cater for his whims, because although he says he is in full agreement of them selecting a wife, it is soon very obvious that his heart is not actually in this whole exercise.  In fairness Ravi goes through checking out all the 'candidates'  under the very close scrutiny of the camera, and even though his world is far apart from that of his parents, he has inherited all their disarming charm, which makes both the search and this enchanting movie so completely enjoyable.

Greeta is hardly a good cameraman but even her sometimes shaky shots add to the informality of this completely engaging tale that has all the makings of a perfect TV reality show.  Except there is no need for any follow up as Ravi ended up set to live happily ever after, and with his parents with their big happy grins looking on  ...... but you will need to see the movie to discover why and how.

★★★★★★★★

Janis : Little Girl Blue

It took filmmaker Amy Berg almost 8 years to bring her very stunning and definitive documentary portrait of the blues singer Janis Joplin to the screen, and it was well worth the wait.  With the full co-operation of the late singers estate, her family and friends, and several of the musicians that she played with, Berg has pieced together a very comprehensive picture of the somewhat troubled young lady who was described at one point as fluctuating being like a little girl lost or as strong as a mountain lion. 

As an outspoken schoolgirl, her very liberal views in her conservative hometown of Port Arthur in Texas,  made her very unpopular with her class mates.  Her brother fondly remembered that Joplin loved to rock the boat as often as she could,  which not only got her thrown out of the school choir, but some of the frat boys who disliked her very cruelly got her voted as 'most ugly man'.  So it was no surprise that she hot-footed it out of town and landed in San Francisco when she was barely 19 years old. Here she discovered and experimented with everything from her sexuality, the blues, and also with heroin which would ultimately prove to be her undoing.

Now involved in a full blown affair with a man who got her hooked on methadone, Joplin got into such a sorry state that her very worried friends intervened and bought a ticket back to Texas to get herself sorted out.  It looked for a time that this may work as she got sober and even introduced the addict boyfriend to her parents , who acting in an old-fashioned manner he asked them if he could marry Janis. Turns out that he already had a pregnant girlfriend at home, so with the realization that she wasn't going to get married, Janis decided for once all music was too be her life, and so she trooped back to San Fransisco to join a band.

They were called the Holding Company and with Joplin fronting them they were moderately successful until they played the new Monterrey Pop Festival.  They were the smash hits of the show and overnight Joplin really started to become famous. All the reviews said that whilst she had the makings of being a very big star, her band were a big let-down, and so they soon parted company, and Joplin went solo.

The film details how much Joplin wanted all the celebrity of fame and how much she came alive whilst performing on stage, yet when the show was over she relied heavily on her fixes of heroin to be able to cope with life out of the spotlight.  However what was surprising was her close bond with her family, and her constant need for their approval.  Berg included a treasure trove of letters (read by singer Cat Power) that she regularly wrote to her parents in which she was constantly assuring them she was not only successful but happy too, as she obviously believed she was when she put pen to paper.   In fact, both her younger siblings who were interviewed spoke very warmly of their sister who they were obviously close too and very proud off.

Some of the members of her own band that she formed to tour the world performing spoke of the fact that Joplin always felt everyone else's pain, and they believed that in itself was the main reason that she used heroin. Others spoke of her desire to want the pain of being a real blues singer which contributed to her addictions.  Yet asides from all this excess, what stands out most in this very moving story, is the sheer electricity of her singing and performing live which reminds you of what an extraordinary and talented musician she was.  There is some unique footage of Joplin not just performing in large stadiums, but also actually recording new tracks in the studio which are a sheer joy to watch.

Joplin's legacy is the fact that Pearl her most successful album was released three months after her her death in October 1970 at the tender age of 27 years old.  It seems somehow fitting that this documentary comes out the same year as Asif Kapadia's film on Amy Winehouse, as the British singer was obviously very influenced by Joplin on so many levels.  Both of them had their brilliant careers curtailed when they were both at their peaks, and are still, all these years later, such a sad loss to the world.

★★★★★★★★

Harold and Lillian : A Hollywood Love Story

The real-life story of Hollywood back-room couple Harold and Lillian Michelson is the sort of stuff that movies used to be made of. It's a good old-fashioned true romance made more appealing by the fact that there were such a couple of really such likable people. They were both happy enough being together and just quietly slaving away practising their art and without any real credit helping some very famous directors make better motion pictures. Now their story is very affectionately told  by Academy-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim in this low-budget documentary that aims to tug at the heart strings of every cinephile, and particularly romantic ones.

The couple met in Florida after WW2 and Harold got it into his head that life would be better for them in California, so he hopped on a train across countryside to set things in motion.  When Lilian joined him soon afterwards, the young couple were still like total strangers to each other.  He got a job as an apprentice in a Hollywood movie studio and  very gradually worked his way up to being a storyboard artist in which he found his true milieu. Harold's particular skill was that he knew what should be in each exact frame depending on the lens which some directors began to use as an actual blueprint for the movie they were shooting.  So much so that people like Hitchcock, who really respected Harold's input, had him on the set of his movies "The Birds" and "Marnie", and looking at both the storyboards and the finished movie, it is very obvious to see Harold's very significant contribution. Although he never was officially credited for any of this, he was even responsible for designing what are now regarded as some iconic movie scenes such as the view of Dustin Hoffman through Anne Bancroft's legs in "The Graduate". 

Lilian stayed at home raising their three young sons ..... one of whom was autistic..... but the moment they were school age, she set about finding herself a job.  First as a volunteer at a film research library which years later she would end up running, then actually owning too.  Her forte was painstakingly researching all the minute detail for period movies in particular whether it be the girls underwear worn in "Fiddler on The Roof" or trotting off to Colombia to check out how drug barons lived for "Scarface" (Harold actually put his foot down on the later). Like her husband, who she now co-operated with doing his research for Hitchcock's movies, Lillian made herself completely indispensable as she got to ensure that the designs of all the major movies she worked on, were completely accurate.

Raim includes interviews with several filmmaking heavyweights such as Mel Brooks, Danny DeVito and Francis Ford Coppola who enthusiastically sing the praises of not just how popular both Michelsons were, but they readily acknowledge their significant contributions to the movies. In fact Coppola eventually provided a home for Lillian's library at one point. Raim fills this in with contributions from friends and also with actors reading the couples own love letters.  

Most important however is the presence of Lillian herself, now a very spry 86 year old resident of a Motion Pictures Assisted Living Home , but having lost none of infectious zest for life.   She is frank and funny and although passionate about her work, and that of Harold's too,  it seems that she may not always want to acknowledge how it significantly shaped the movies themselves. When she talks of Harold (who died in 2008) she becomes even more animated and it is so wonderfully clear that even through the rough patches their relationship went through that she openly discusses, this was a marriage made in heaven.  As happy as she was  that Harold finally got his just deserts professionally and finally became the Production Designer on movies such as "Star Trek", Lillian was much more proud of the more important fact, that for over sixty years, he had been her husband. 


★★★★★★★★

Ingrid Bergman In Her Own Words

Triple Oscar Winning actress Ingrid Bergman was an extraordinary iconic movie star who defied both the Hollywood studio system and a rather puritanical press and society to lead the life that she wanted, regardless of the consequences. This new highly intimate look at Sweden's most famous actress (after Garbo), based on Bergman's own diaries, home movies and pictures has been made with the co-operation on her children and it provides a window into what made this exceptionally charming Diva, the woman that really she was.

The movie focuses on Bergman herself rather than her work, and starts as she in 1939 as she is first traveling to Hollywood from Sweden clutching a new 5 Year Contract with David O. Selznick who wants to re-make her big Swedish hit 'Intermezzo'. To do so she has left behind her husband and new baby daughter Pia in what starts to be a pattern of abandonment that she will repeat so often in the future. The movie is an enormous hit, and she is now in great demand and seems never to stop working.  In 1943 she picks up her first Academy Award Nomination ("For Whom The Bell Tolls") and the following year actually wins the Oscar for her performance in "Gaslight". Her husband Petter and daughter Pia are now in the US, but settled in Rochester NY, so Bergman rarely sees them.

The three movies she makes with Hitchcock at the end of that decade are barely mentioned, but what is touched on is her obsession with "Joan of Arc" which Bergman also got to play on stage. The movie was directed by Victor Fleming and by Bergman's own account she fell hopeless in love with him.  The infatuation however finished after shooting was over which was a pattern Bergman adopted with over men in her life too.

Despite being one of Hollywood's top box office stars, Bergman was very restless and so when she saw an Italian movie made by Roberto Rossellini, she immediately wrote to him offering to be in his next movie. He accepted and so she upped and left America and they made "Stromboli" on the remote volcanic island with the same name, and again Bergman fell for her director.  The feelings were reciprocated and the couple made absolutely no efforts to hide their love affair from the world. As both of them were still married to other people, the volcano wasn't the only thing that erupted,. So too did a world-wide scandal that almost ruined her career.  

After divorcing their spouses Rossellini and Bergman married and had four children and made four more movies together.  The latter were not a success and when Bergman started getting unsettled again and wanting to make films with other directors, it marked the start of the disintegration of her second marriage.

During her time in Italy, Bergman's estranged daughter Pia who had grown up with her father in NY, paid a visit. It was the first time mother and daughter had seen each other in over 10 years. The Rossellini children would also soon have their own taste of long distance mothering, as Bergman left them all in Italy in a home of their own with just staff to care for them when she went off to Sweden to live with her next husband Lars Schmidt.  Isabella Rossellini was just 6 years old at the time.  Bergman wrote at the time "I loved the children, but I loved acting more. Without it, life was boring and unfulfilled". The remarkable thing was that even now Pia, and her siblings, genuinely hold no grudge against their mother abandoning them like this.  

In 1956 Bergman was finally persuaded to do another movie in Hollywood but she was as nervous as hell how she, and the film, would be received.  In fact the Studios themselves were not at all keen on her comeback but the Russian born director Anatole Litvak insisted that he wouldn't make the movie without her.  It was called "Anastasia" and Bergman need not have worried as not only had the public 'forgiven' her but she actually won the Academy Award for Leading Actress. Her diary entry at the time reads "I was a saint, then a whore, then a saint again, all in the same lifetime".

In a career that spanned some 50 years and that had her living and working around the world : 10 in Hollywood, 8 in Italy, 20 in Paris and then ending up in London, Bergman lived the life that she wanted to life.  Her mantra was simply "I never regret anything" and even though this upset her daughter Ingrid Bergman, she still conceded that it was right that her mother said and believed that.

In fact the overall theme that permeates throughout this compelling documentary by filmmaker Stig Björkman is that everyone who knew the fiercely independent Bergman never regretted  about being part of her life. As unconventional and as self-centered that she was, they all line up to portray one of the greatest actresses of the last century simply as disarmingly charming and a sheer joy to be with. The last words are from daughter Isabella "she was too much fun to be with".

★★★★★★★★

Brand : A Second Coming

Russell Brand is not an easy person to like. The 40-year-old British comic and recovering drug addict and a former Mr Katy Perry is an obnoxious, loud-mouth, narcissistic, vain, self-serving, hedonistic irritating man.  He is however side-splittingly funny when he is on stage performing and that is the saving grace of both Brand himself and this intriguing and compelling documentary which serves as another excuse for the man to behave very badly knowing that he has an audience that will probably lap it all up.

There are no redeeming features of Brand's story that even make him even remotely likable.  It starts with his childhood and his 

indulgent mother who has to focus of her re-occuring bouts of cancer and his absent father who could only ever focus on himself. Whatever lucky breaks young Russell got he ended up by blowing, like his Drama School Scholarship that he wasted to fuel his growing addiction and that ended up with him getting expelled.

When his stand -up comedy gigs started getting him noticed, his obsession with fame and celebrity and all the trappings it gave really kicked in, and even when he eventually seemed to achieve it all, and way beyond his wildest dreams,  it never ever was enough for him.  When he was a 'star' in the UK, he was bitter that he was still unknown in America, and then when his career took off in the US plus he married singing superstar which rocketed him into celebrity overload, Brand seemed to be more un-fulfilled than ever.

When his short-lived marriage collapsed and his bizarrely erratic behavior made him completely unemployable, Brand's English manager persuaded the star to commit to rehab before his excessive intake of drugs actually killed him.  The treatment worked as far as the fact that he became and remained sober, but it failed to dent his persistent perception that he was the brightest and most wonderful man in the world who deserved so much more than he had.

The latter part of the movie deals with Brand creating his new comedy show which had the same title as this documentary.  The comedian somewhat brilliantly and extremely hilariously compared himself with not only Jesus Christ but other saint-like historical figures such as Gandhi, Malcolm X &  Che Guevara. The only disturbing aspect was that there is more than a fine line of doubt about Brand actually believing he is a second Messiah.  

It leads him to wanting to change the world a la Brand.  However, when he goes on to take to the airwaves of the world to preach revolution he is very passionate about his principles, but always very light on detail and relies on his quick wit to dismiss anyone who dares to question his reality.

This documentary profile is credited to writer/director Ondi Timoner, but she was in fact the 6th filmmaker to try and film this very unruly subject (even the great Albert Maysles had been on board at one time).  It does explain why there are several really odd segments that don't fit in with the rest and are obviously pieces Timoner inherited such as Brand interviewing people like David Lynch and Mike Tyson (!) about spirituality.  By the time filming was wrapping up, Brand had a such a large falling out with Timoner by the end that he tried to get the movie withdrawn from the SWSX Festival where it had been scheduled to premiere.

Brand's legions of fans are in the millions according to the hits he gets with his online presence and they will no doubt lap up every single minute of this movie, but there are others who will be like Jeremy Paxman the distinguished British TV Journalist who just simply questioned why anybody would want to listen to this 'very silly man'.

★★★★★★

A Ballerina's Tale

Documentarians could not possibly wish for better luck than that which befell on Nelson George when he was recently finishing up his profile on the ballerina Misty Copeland and it was announced that she was to become the first African-American soloist with the prestigious American Ballet Theater in over two decades. It’s a perfect ending to a fairy tale story and is one of the highlights of George’s otherwise rather patchy movie.

The opening scenes show some grainy home videos of a teenage Copeland dancing with her local ballet troupe in California and you can see already that this skinny young girl, who didn’t even take up ballet until she was 13 years old, is remarkably gifted. By the time she is 15 years she is already local star and then from there she transitions to New York where she becomes the only African/American in ABT’s company of some 80 dancers.  George’s emphasis here, as earlier, is very much of the cultural significance of Copeland’s breakthrough and sadly we learn very little about the young girl herself or anything of her family background or roots at all.

Copeland is not only an exceptional talent in pointe shoes but she is also a stunning beautifully and simply lights up the screen whenever we see her performing at the Metropolitan Opera House, or in a dress rehearsal when she is learning a new part. There is a rather lengthy section when she discovers a leg injury after dancing Firebird that is hinted maybe the end of her career but after successful surgery and rest she recovers fully in time to land her first leading role.  After that she becomes the cultural face of the ‘Under Armour’ label and when the video of their advert goes viral, there is even more talk of Copeland’s position of being one of the leading ballet dancers of her generation attracting much more diversified audience to the somewhat privileged airs that still surrounds the whole ballet culture.

Nelson’s film beautifully shows us an extraordinary ballerina  …. watching her star as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake is a sheer joy ….but  it’s just a pity he didn’t let us discover the woman too.

★★★★★★

The Wolfpack

This is such an unlikely story of seven siblings who were raised in the heart of New York’s Lower East Side by a tyrannical father and subservient mother who only allowed them to venture outside the front door of their apartment once or twice a year throughout their childhood, that it at first seems like that it could not possibly be true. It is however very much the stuff that movies are made off, and part of the extraordinary drama of these ‘imprisoned’ young brothers (and one almost silent sister) is that their reality is based on re-enacting in precise detail all their favorite movies that for some inexplicable reason they have been allowed to watch on their battered old television.  Most of them are violent and pure escapism, and the fact Tarantino’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’ tops the list, speaks volumes.

Filmed by first time director Crystal Moselle over 5 years and incorporating some archival homemade footage it witnesses the children getting home schooled and obediently accepting their parents reasoning for keeping them so isolated from the world outside that they often look and stare at from the windows of their high rise apartment.  Oscar their Peruvian father, a Hare Krishna devotee, had met their American free-spirited mother on a hippy trail in Manchu Picchu and had subsequently given all the children Hindu diety names.  Rarely seen on camera until the end of the film he doesn’t believe in the whole concept of working for a living but would have been happy becoming a rock star.  Ruling the family mainly through terror and fear from behind a closed door he considers himself almost god-like and is unchallenged until the boys start to act defiantly like the young men they become.

All the boys, very good-looking with their waist length hair, are happy enough to articulate their feelings which develop as they grow and although they remain a tight knit group that still derive so much pleasure for their intense play-acting which one senses is the reason they remain so sane.  When one of the actually dares to venture outside on his own when he turns 15 year old is dressed up as Batman, he is picked up by the Police and lands in a Mental Institution for a short while.

Director Moselle never offers any explanation at any level and at any time and lets the family talk for itself.  They are mainly so guarded in what they reveal that even through they are extremely coherent, so much of their intriguing story is subsequently left to supposition.  There is so much unanswered including the very crucial question as to why/how this very secretive family ever permitted a stranger in their midst to document their life in this manner.

The fact that the brothers are immensely likable and have such a passion for everything they turn their hands too, and even when they finally realize what a despot their father is, their devotion to their mother never wavers one iota, contributes to make this such a compelling viewing.  Watching them journey from oppression to freedom is unquestionable uplifting but it does beg the need for Moselle to go back to see how they all fare, as by the end we are all so committed to their futures too.

★★★★★★★★★

AMY

The great British soul queen Amy Winehouse burned so bright with her extraordinary voice belting out her songs fuelled with so much of her personal anguish and love in an era when most other music was blandly manufactured, and it's still difficult to take on board that she eventually burned herself out.  In Asif Kapadia's excellent documentary we become voyeurs when he gets up so personal and intimate at the raw and shocking details that led this troubled soul to die at just aged 27 years old. It is however balanced with seeing her perform live at different venues all around the world when, apart from a few incidents towards the end, that this tiny figure just gets up there on stage and soared with that voice of hers that never failed to make one's spine tingle.

Kapadia avoided the usual route of using talking heads to tell Amy's story, and instead he focused on a treasure trove of archival footage that ranged from childhood home movies to hanging out with her friends in her early adult life to some of her TV performances in concert or on chat shows.  One of the best of the latter group was her appearance with Britain's Jonathan Ross who teased Amy with the fact that she had this rich syrupy voice when she sings but when she talked she had the same brash common North London accent like him.

The story starts with Amy as a teenager when she finds her voice at the same she loses her father when he walks out on the family. She explains how much his desertion really hurt her, and she blames his behaviour for the fact that she later adopts a rather laissez-faire to sexual partners and potential boyfriends. It is therefore even more difficult to understand why when the going gets really tough for her, she not only lets him back in her life but allows him to act like a Svengali.  It's a move that will cost her dearly as when she is obviously in a very bad way physically and emotionally from the ravages of her addictions to both alcohol and drugs, he goes against the grain of all her Therapists and insists that there is no need for her to go to re-hab and she should get on the Tour she is contracted to do.  She gets a hit song out of it ....They tried to make me go to rehab but I said, 'No, no, no.' Yes, I've been black but when I come back you'll know, know, know I ain't got the time and if my daddy thinks I'm fine'. However it turned out to be the beginning of the end for her.  Even when she escaped to St Lucia for a few months to desperately try to get 'clean' her father showed up trailed by a camera crew on a short-lived TV reality show about his life, even though it caused a fragile Amy even more stress.

Equally sad in this tragedy as it unfolds on the screen is the army of managers, promoters and music industry chiefs who made so much money out of this exceptionally talented young woman and who acted with deaf ears and blind eyes to the terror of her turmoil, and now indecently scramble to try and re-assure us that they were in no-way responsible for her descent and her death. Her charmless waster of a husband Blake Fielder-Civil  appeared to be the one who introduce Amy to hard drugs and he bitterly resented his wife's success when he wasn't involved in it. She was totally addicted to her dysfunctional relationship with him as she was to the drugs themselves, and in the end this probably did as much harm to her, if not more.

Despite how taken we are with her story with its desperately sad ending, we know that Amy Winehouse may have sung like angel, but she never acted like one.  What Kapadia so eloquently captures in this faultless film of his is an exceptional talent  of a very young soul that that gets squandered as it never ever got to grow up.  One of the saddest aspect is that she told us all how very unhappy she was in the fiercely bitter lyrics she wrote but all the world could hear was some Grammy winning songs without really listening at all.

With her big beehive hair and her figure hugging skinny sheath dresses Amy Winehouse could electrify an audience as she crooned like an old-fashioned jazz singer. In fact one of the highlights of the film, and probably her life too, was getting to record a duet with the great Tony Bennett.  She was so in awe of her idol and insisting on doing more 'takes' so that it was good enough.  She needn't have bothered as he had enormous respect for her as a musician and he loved her even more after that session. As we all did too.

Kapadia's movie cannot bring Amy Winehouse but it will help keep her memory and remind us of her exceptional talent.

★★★★★★★★★

FINDERS KEEPERS

John Wood has a bad habit of losing things. Soon after he lost his job, he then lost his house too and when it was foreclosed, he put all his worldly possessions into a storage unit. When he failed to pay the rent for that, he lost the entire contents which were auctioned off in his home town in North Carolina. They included a barbecue grill in which he had stashed his leg which he had lost, or rather had amputated, after a plane crash in which his father had died.

The new 'owner' of his limb was Shannon Whisnant an unkempt overweight redneck who was initially horrified when he first discovered it, but then wanted to parlay the novelty of his find into a ticket for his long dreamed-off 15 minutes of fame.  What followed however was a lengthy drawn out battle over several years to decide who legally and morally owned the leg.  

Whisnant's comically tragic attempts at becoming a TV star based on his new infamy rancorously backfired on him when he realized that the Reality TV crew were not taking him seriously at all and were in fact treating him like the jerk he really is.  On the other hand this is counterbalanced somewhat by Wood's own rather sad story as he struggles with his battles over his drug and drink addiction. However despite the fact he is often very strung out, Wood has a very natural wit and is probably the only genuinely nice person in this whole sordid scenario. He is certainly a vast improvement on his embittered mother who is a real piece of work and says of her son 'I like him, but I don't think I love him.'

Then as if the whole thing is not bizarre enough, when Wood was eventually awarded custody of his own leg again after the matter is settled on a TV Court Show he takes it to an lesbian amateur taxidermist who offers to stuff it for him for nothing. 

Directed by Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel, this unintentionally hilariously funny documentary must have been tough for them to edit as they revisited the feuding men and their families over several years, during which time they all went through an entire spectrum of the worse mullet hairstyles ever. 

This weirdly eccentric movie surfaced first at Sundance who excel at showcasing such oddities. This one mixes sensationalism and downright bad taste with total insensitivity for any of its participants : which all makes for such compulsory viewing.

★★★★★★★