Something in the Air (2012)
Gilles is an artist in France in the 1970s. His friends are left-leaning political activists who expect him to join their protests. He has sympathy for their views, but their insistence he dedicate everything to the cause conflicts with his artistic commitment.
This is a good movie about the struggle to balance individual ambition against the demands of friends, family, and love.
Tabloid (2010)
In 1977, Joyce McKinney was accused of kidnapping Mormon missionary Kirk Anderson, chaining him to a bed, and raping him multiple times over a weekend. She claimed they were in love, but the Mormon church disapproved of their relationship and forced him to lie.
She was arrested, but escaped to America by posing as a Canadian musician. The case of the “Manacled Mormon” was a brief sensation in the British tabloids.
In 2008, McKinney made headlines once again when she had her deceased dog cloned in Korea.
Anderson declined to be interviewed, but McKinney was more than willing to talk about her experience. She continues to maintain her innocence, but she’s so coy and playful, there’s an undeniable sense she’s playing a game.
One of the best documentary filmmakers, Errol Morris enthralls in this fun movie about how a random story about sex can become a national obsession and briefly turn ordinary people into household names.
Room 237 (2012)
This documentary highlights a few of the endless number of conspiracy theories surrounding The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick.
It’s an apology for mistreatment of Native Americans.
It’s an admission Kubrick helped fake the Apollo lunar landing.
It’s an allegorical film about the Holocaust.
The point of this movie is not to uncover the true meaning behind the film, but to demonstrate how little intention matters in artistic endeavors. Every film is an individual experience. One movie can be a thousand different things.
This film suggests any attempt at criticism is glorified narcissism, empty words revealing more about the critic than the art.
When we see the obsession of others on display, our instincts are to highlight differences. They don’t have control; we do. We don’t let our obsessions run our lives; they do. We’re dedicated; their obsessed. But maybe the line between dedication and obsession is an illusion, a lie we tell to convince ourselves we’re better than the people represented in this movie.