Documentary

The Social Dilemma

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  • Title: The Social Dilemma
  • IMDb: link

The Social Dilemma movie reviewThe Social Dilemma takes a hard look at social media and how it is changing the way we live. With testimony from experts who worked at various social media cornerstones, the film examines how social media takes advantage of its users and distorts the world around them as it delves into social media affecting behavior and how someone can take advantage of the complex algorithms to affect change on a global scale.

Director Jeff Orlowski‘s documentary is a warning about how social media is changing us in both expected and unexpected ways as greed and capitalism continue to push development forward into even more questionable territories. How social media apps play on emotion to keep you online and play into reinforcing your own beliefs in creating separate clusters of people with their own facts, how social media has raised a generation who tie their own self worth to the likes of strangers online whose suicide rate is astronomically higher than the generation before it, and the idea of how easily these apps can be used to take advantage of the misinformed for nefarious purposes such as changing the outcome of an election are all truly frightening.

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Red Penguins

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  • Title: Red Penguins
  • IMDb: link

Red Penguins movie reviewRed Penguins looks back at the Pittsburgh Penguins owner Howard Baldwin bailing out the once great HC CSKA Moscow hockey team. Completely unprepared for what they were getting into in a country still struggling with replacing Communism with Capitalism, the Penguins hoped to lay the foundation for Russian players making their way to Pittsburgh and the NHL. A young marketer named Steven Warshaw was sent over to try and drum up support for the flagging team and bring a bit of capitalist know-how and 90s marketing to the former Soviet Union.

The engaging documentary is a bizarre tale including interviews from both American and Russians about the partnership which only lasted two years but involved a strip club under the hockey rink, free beer, a culture clash, the Russian mob, a potential business partnership with Disney, the Russian Army, corruption, and the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Despite the insanity and mismanagement, the Russian Penguins (as they were rebranded) were a short-term success only to be mismanaged leading to the end of the team and leaving behind a bizarre legacy and a legend of dazzling failure.

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Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful

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  • Title: Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful
  • IMDb: link

Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful movie reviewAlthough the provocative photographer passed away more than a decade ago, Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful showcases the work Helmut Newton left behind as it views his life and career through the lens of models, editors, publishers, and family who knew him best. The documentary by Gero von Boehm may not offer many surprises, but it does celebrate the decades of work from Newton and make good use of interview footage of the man prior to his death in 2004.

Without making any attempt to offer a linear structure, Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful examines the roots of Newton who came of age in Germany during the rise of Nazism and the early influences in his life as a student for Yva and, in stark contrast, the work of Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl whose strong blond female subjects would become a staple of Newton’s portfolio. The film also addresses the charges of misogyny against Newton painting him as a naughty boy who loved and respected women while still wishing to push boundaries as a provocateur.

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Long Gone Summer

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  • Title: Long Gone Summer
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Long Gone Summer reviewDirector AJ Schnack‘s examination of the historic home-run chase during 1998 Major League Baseball season is a solid documentary in covering the bases of what occurred, even if it fails for too much of its running time to fully capture the magic of the moment or find a way to better frame events following the exposure of rampant steroid use in baseball (which it saves for a lengthy epilogue).

Scheduled to air Sunday night as part of ESPN’s 30 for 30, the film includes interviews with both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa along with plenty of video from 1998 season and interviews from the likes of Bob Costas, Tony La Russa, Kerry Wood, and others. It also, oddly, spends quite a bit of time on Ken Griffey, Jr., who ended the year well off the pace McGwire and Sosa set, while barely mentioning Barry Bonds breaking the record again just a few years later.

Long Gone Summer is informative at times, especially in delving into the friendship born of rivalry between the two players. However, nothing presented here is likely to change your opinion one way or the other about the legitimacy of current baseball records.

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Be Water

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  • Title: Be Water
  • IMDb: link

Be Water movie reviewPremiering Sunday as part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, the documentary from director Bao Nguyen examines the life, philosophy, and legacy of Bruce Lee. Filled with interviews from family and friends who knew him best, Be Water also features an amazing amount of photographs and video from the Lee’s life. The director’s take on his subject is a deeply personal one as the son of Vietnamese refugees who saw Bruce Lee as a strong and vibrant Asian man far different from the usual depictions of Hollywood at the time. Over five years Bao Nguyen would trace the journey of Lee’s life culminating in the super-stardom which was only halted by his premature death.

Race plays a central role in Nguyen’s examination of Bruce Lee, as an Asian American who carved out a life for himself in America in opening martial arts schools and finding success on television. But as he struggled against the limitations Hollywood imposed on him, Lee had no choice but return to China in order to become a world star. Both the anti-Asian COVID-19 backlash and the Black Lives Matter movement make the film, and the examination of Lee as far more than just an action star, especially relevant today.

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