November
17
Oscar Documentary Short List
The Academy has announced the 15-film documentary short list. Now the doc branch will select the final five nominations. UPDATE: Here's Justin Chang's story. And Andrew O'Hehir's reaction.
Errol Morris's Standard Operating Procedure is on the list, even though Abu Ghraib was also covered in Alex Gibney's Oscar winning doc Taxi to the Dark Side. Surprise omissions include Gibney's Hunter Thompson doc Gonzo; the Mardi Gras movie The Order of Myths; and Marina Zenovich's Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. The well-reviewed doc Dear Zachary was clearly an emotionally-charged film with a strong personal POV.
On the other hand, so was Scott Hicks' gorgeous Philip Glass doc, which went pretty easy on the famous composer as he went through a tough patch in his marriage. The Academy made up this time for overlooking Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man by including his must-see Antarctica doc Encounters at the End of the World. I suspect the Philippe Petit tightrope thrill-ride Man on Wire is going to be a strong contender, as well as the New Orleans doc Trouble the Water and Pray the Devil Back to Hell, an inspiring story of the women who fought against war in Liberia and won.
Here's the list:
At the Death House Door
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
Encounters at the End of the World
Fuel
The Garden
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
I.O.U.S.A.
In a Dream
Made in America
Man on Wire
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
Standard Operating Procedure
They Killed Sister Dorothy
Trouble the Water
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I only recently saw “Trouble The Water” a film about two Katrina survivors from New Orleans’s Ninth Ward neighborhood, Kimberly and Scott Roberts, and was shocked to have been so thoroughly taken in by pre-screening industry spin. Critics have heaped praise on this paltry effort largely because of its subject matter--- Salon’s Andrew O' Hehir devoted most of his Aug. 21 ’08 review to a discussion of racism in America. Is all of the praise for the film just a back-handed whack at 'W'? Just because racism and ‘W’ are bad, that doesn’t mean this film is good. It isn’t.
The Roberts's footage is interesting early on, but the film flags after the storm scenes. Post-Katrina footage is even boring at times. Directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal do little to reverse that, heaping awkwardly staged reenactments and archival clips on the choppy narrative like a powdered sugar dump on a stale beignet. This film could have made a great Katrina road trip movie, but it isn’t; and it doesn’t even come close to the quality of prior and ongoing Katrina documentaries (Spike Lee, Jonathan Demme and Frontline’s June Cross). If you want to see a masterful documentary built around footage shot by the subject, check out Herzog’s “Grizzly Man.” Because Herzog is detached enough from his subject to choose how to portray him, he doesn’t let Treadwell’s footage hijack the film. The skill with which Herzog shapes his subject’s material into a compelling and coherent narrative makes this effort look like another day in the life of Joe The Plumber.
Posted by: Robin Graves | January 09, 2009 at 08:45 AM