Documentary

Free Solo

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Free Solo
  • IMDb: link

Free Solo movie reviewThe documentary from Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi follows climber Alex Honnold and his preparations to become the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite’s 3,000-foot El Capitan. While diving into the Honnold’s closest relationships and his makeup, the film focuses primarily on the dangers of the climber’s quest and the ambition and drive which he cannot ignore. Featuring interviews with fellow climbers and Honnold’s mother and girlfriend, we learn a bit of what makes the climber tick as he attempts to accomplish the improbable feat of climbing the sheer granite face of a 3,000-foot mountain without any climbing gear or any kind of safety net.

Because Chin and his cameramen are friends of Honnold, the documentary also adds an unexpected undercurrent to the story of Honnold not wanting to let his friends down while they are equally fearful of the very real possibility they might be enabling the climber to film his death during an outrageously dangerous feat. The result is an engaging documentary ending in Honnold’s historic attempt.

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Science Fair

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  • Title: Science Fair
  • IMDb: link

Science Fair movie reviewDirectors Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster‘s documentary Science Fair takes a cross-section of students from across the world earning entries into Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Including interviews from past winners to provide context for the prestigious event, the focus on the documentary are the students who competed for the top prize in 2017. Featuring interviews and documentary footage of winning individual science fairs to earn entry into ISEF, Science Fair is a compelling look at the top scientific high school minds taking their first step into a larger world.

While not all the subjects of the documentary will win, Costantini and Foster take care to showcase the intense dedication each has to their project (astounding work with real-world applications to help make the world a better place). The subjects range from teams from the most prestigious magnet school in the United States and the science teacher pushing her students to succeed, to entries from Brazil and Germany, and a shy young woman in South Dakota whose school is more concerned with their losing football team than her qualification for ISEF.

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Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
  • IMDb: link

Won't You Be My Neighbor? movie reviewFor decades Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood filled the public airwaves with television aimed at young children and a focus on allowing children to be themselves and a core belief that each of us is unique and special. It was created and designed by a seminary student named Fred Rogers who was looking to for a way to use television to teach an audience with a slow-paced show concerned with connecting individually with his core audience in a way which was very much the antithesis of your average children’s program focused on slapstick, action, and (often blatant) consumerism. The documentary from Morgan Neville takes a look at the man’s life and legacy which had a profound impact on generations who grew up in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood.

Other than touching lightly on how Rogers got into television, and some of his own childhood issues which informed his view of the world, the documentary focuses mostly on the man’s life work and the television show without diving too deeply into his personal life. If there’s one lesson the film does impart, it’s that Fred Rogers was the same person in real life as he was in television.

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The Toys That Made Us – Star Trek

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Toys That Made Us – Star Trek
  • IMDb: link

The Toys That Made Us - Star Trek

While the other episodes of the documentary series look at the phenomenally successful toy lines that defined a generation (or several generations), the Star Trek episode is an interesting departure that focuses far more on the franchise’s mistakes, false starts, stumbles, and decades of poor marketing that led to frustration from their target audience. While there are some interesting items here and there, and the quality did improve in later years, the stand-outs here are the toys that either failed (such as the constantly beeping walkie-talkie tricorder) or the bizarre (what exactly is that flashing helmet for?). Of the three episodes I’ve watched from the show’s Second Season, it’s the most interesting allowing collectors and toy makers to celebrate and bemoan the byzantine ups and downs of Star Trek merchandise.

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Kedi

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Kedi
  • IMDb: link

Kedi Blu-ray reviewThe documentary from Ceyda Torun showcases the locals of Istanbul and their relationship with the street cats who roam the city and are fed, protected, and cared for by its people. Telling us as much about the people who choose to care for them as the cats themselves, from artists to fishermen to restaurant and store owners, Kedi is the kind of life-affirming documentary which will leave you feeling a little sad when you walk down the street and don’t find a feline or two waiting for you.

Certainly aimed at a target audience, cat lovers will undoubtedly get more from the documentary than others. Initially choosing to follow 19 cats around the city using a special rig to offer the street level perspective of the film’s four-legged stars, Torun decided to trim the film to focus on seven cats (Sari, Duman, Bengü, Aslan Parçasi, Gamsiz, Psikopat, and Deniz). along with some Samaritans who each feed and entire block of cats.

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