The James Dean Story (1957, documentary) - The fallen star's life trailed and analyzed

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Mythologizing the recently passed away young actor, this poster for Robert Altman's The James Dean Story eagerly attempts to cash in further on his short life

James Dean's life is retold, starting from his birth in 1931, his mother's early death, his upbringing in Fairmount, Indiana, his time in New York as a young actor; achieving success in Hollywood, and his tragic 1955 early end in a speeding accident. 

The James Dean Story is written by Stewart Stern (The Outsider (1961)) and produced, directed and edited by debuting Missourian master filmmaker Robert Altman (Hawaiian Eye (1959, TV-series)) and George W. George (Bonanza (1962-63, writer)).

The movie's strength lie in the wonderful Americans who were someone in Dean's life, and who let themselves be interviewed for the film. The narrator's explanations about the ruminations of its super star subject are pretty subjective but also almost poetic. It is easy to identify with Dean and feel a sense of terrible upset at his early passing on, even today, watching this film.

 

Related posts:

Robert Altman: The Company (2003) - Campbell, Turner and Altman's fine ballet picture  

Gosford Park (2001) - Smith triumphs in Altman & Fellowes' exquisite whodunit

Ready to Wear/Prêt-à-Porter (1994) - Paris fashion week through the Altman lens  

The Player (1992) - Altman's overrated Hollywood satire 

James Dean: Giant (1956) - Stevens' great-looking Texas epic

 

 

In lieu of a trailer for the documentary, unavailable at Youtube, here is a fan-made tribute to the film

 

Cost: Reportedly 35k $

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[The James Dean Story was released 14 January (Japan) and runs 81 minutes. At first envisioned as a biopic, Elvis Presley lobbied to play Dean before the plan was scrapped in favor of a documentary. Shooting took place in Indiana, New York and Los Angeles, California. One site reports that the film 'fared poorly' at the box office, but it was released in at least 6 international markets as well. The gross regrettably is not known, but with the small cost, it seems unlikely that the film did not yield a healthy profit. Altman returned with The Delinquents (1957); George left directing alone but remained active as a writer and producer. 1k+ users have given The James Dean Story a 3.4/5 average rating at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The James Dean Story?

I Am Not Your Negro (2016, documentary) or, America's Race Problems

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A huge-sized title and James Baldwin's human stare resting atop makes up this poster for Raoul Peck's I Am Not Your Negro

African-American activist and writer James Baldwin was a sensitive, intelligent, enormously eloquent man, whose expressions on racism in America still resound today.

 

I Am Not Your Negro is written, co-produced and directed by Raoul Peck (Haitian Corner (1987)). It is based on Baldwin's unfinished, 30-page novel manuscript entitled Remember This House.

Presented as a documentary essay, the film shows us three central friends of Baldwin; Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers, who were all assassinated for their racial and civil rights activism. Sharply and with a ripe sense of grief their time is portrayed, and straight lines are drawn from this era to the current police murders and Black Lives Matter movement. It is a bitter, bordering on hatefully poisonous image of the US as a morally bankrupt wonderland of the white, which is painted here. 

Many aspects are missing in the personal perspective on Baldwin, due to racism being the defining trait in everything in I Am Not Your Negro. 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 1 mil. $

Box office: 9.6 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 9.6 times its cost)

[I Am Not Your Negro premiered 10 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. The film opened #24 to a 686k $ first weekend in 43 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #15 and in 313 theaters (different weekends), grossing 7.1 mil. $ (74 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 480k $ (5 %) and the Netherlands with 214k $ (2.2 %). The film was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar, lost to O.J.: Made in America. It also won a BAFTA, a César award and was nominated for an Independent Spirit award, among many other honors. The-Numbers.com assert that the film additionally made in excess of 2.6 mil. $ on the domestic home video market alone. Peck returned with The Young Karl Marx (2017). I Am Not Your Negro is certified fresh at 99 % with an 8.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of I Am Not Your Negro? 

I Am Ali (2014, documentary) - Boxing icon portrayed in affecting, under-appreciated doc.

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A bright and simple poster focused on its subject for Clare Lewins' I Am Ali

Documents the childhood experience of Cassius Clay, which opened him to the world of boxing, covering his charismatic, wild, braggadocio media style, the boldness of his beliefs of protest held against the Vietnam War, which locked him out of the boxing world, his loving, expanding family life, as well as his impact and enthralling light of life.

I Am Ali is written, co-produced and directed by debuting great English filmmaker Clare Lewins (Perspectives (2013, TV-series)).

It is a deeply moving and fascinating documentary with fantastic sound recordings of Cassius Clay/Muhammed Ali's own making from back in the 1970s as well as interviews with a wealth of richly vivid intimate sources from high and low in society. Ali's warm humanism and grand persona, - one of the greatest of US history and the 20th century, - make this a film not to miss. Outstanding.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: In excess of 7k $

= Uncertain (projected return of 0.1 times its cost)

[I Am Ali was released 10 October (Germany, USA) and runs 111 minutes. Shooting took place in England, including in London, England, New York, Kentucky, Washington, Los Angeles, California, Chicago, Illinois and in Las Vegas, Nevada. The film only grossed 7k $ in 11 theaters in North America over the course of 2 weeks. Its grosses in its other theatrical release markets Germany, the UK and Ireland are unreported online. If a larger amount in grosses is presumed there with a final gross of 50k $, the film would rank as a box office disaster if made at a small cost of 0.5 mil. $. The-numbers.com estimates that the film additionally made at least 279k $ on the North-American home video market. Lewins has since only returned with a TV movie and a video. I Am Ali is fresh at 65 % with a 6.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of I Am Ali?

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel (2009, documentary) - Fine portrait of a liberal icon of the 20th century

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An assortment of pictures of the same man against his iconic bunny icons and a dark background make up this poster for Brigitte Berman's Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel

The son in a puritanical family, Hefner early in life began stirring the limitations for publication in America, and with his Playboy magazine became a central, liberating force in the country and in the world in general.

 

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel is written, co-produced, directed and co-edited by Brigitte Berman (Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet (1981, documentary)).

Hefner is himself so intelligent, warm and inspiring as a person that he alone makes this mostly chronological, backwards-gazing documentary an exciting and worthwhile work. The film glorifies him, but it also underlines his controversial nature by including testimony from a series of critics; feminists and Pat Boone, among others. But it is ultimately Hefner's liberal mindset that has succeeded in the West.

 

Watch a short snippet from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Reportedly 10k $

= Uncertain but most likely a box office disaster (projected return of 0.01 times its cost)

[Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel premiered 12 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 124 minutes. Shooting took place from January - August 2008 in Ontario. The film had a 4-theatre release in Los Angeles, grossing 10k $. If made on a 1 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a box office disaster. - However, it is possible that it has been profitable as a TV rights property. Berman returned with The River of My Dreams (2016, documentary). Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel is fresh at 60 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel?

O.J.: Made in America (2016, documentary) - Edelman's masterful omnibus treatment a riveting epic

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+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best American Movie of the Year + Best California Movie of the Year + Best Epic of the Year
  

The American flag appears defeated as painted onto an eerily dripping black glove on this poignant poster for Ezra Edelman's O.J.: Made in America

 

From social housing in San Francisco came a young man of color with an athletic gift for sports, American football and a charisma that took the country by storm and seemed to sing the hopeful promise that race wasn't everything. His later crimes, however, brought the issue back into debate.

 

O.J.: Made in America is an overwhelming 5-part documentary by Bay Stater master filmmaker Ezra Edelman (Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals (2010, TV documentary)), whose 2nd feature it is.

The film takes the omnibus approach to the notorious sportsman, celebrity and convict, O.J. Simpson. It is an extremely thorough and well-researched work with clips and testimonies from a vast selection of the people whose lives were changed by 'the Juice', O.J.'s idolizing moniker. Beginning as a sports biography, it turns more into a historical-political film, before it turns into true-crime and then in the end a portrait of personal fiasco. It is all pertinent as a portrayal of the larger societal implications of the remarkable man and his long journey into night.

During the film's racial Los Angeles-focused historical part I wondered what the connection to O.J. was going to be, SPOILER but that became nauseatingly clear during the portion about O.J.'s double murder trial for the offing of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman, in which O.J.'s defense team's Johnny Cochran and Co. succeeded in getting an amoral racial vice on the trial to lead to the horrendous acquittal of the double-murderer - and a resulting jubilation among a segment of black America, highlighting the country's division. Morally bankruptcy defines O.J.'s defense attorney Carl E. Douglas, who appears a tasteless, suit-wearing villain in a league of his own here.

O.J.'s own hero-like persona and disguised demonic side are simultaneously deeply fascinating and eerie. Edelman also allows the 'black-in-America' racial discussion to take up space to a degree where its aimlessness sickens, - appropriately so, - because it simply devours everything it comes into contact with, - and ultimately gives nothing in return. Gary Lionelli (Least Among Saints (2012)) has made a fabulous, emotionally driving score. O.J.: Made in America is a terribly captivating film.

 

Related post:

 

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 5 mil. $

Box office: None - primarily a TV release

= Uncertain

[O.J.: Made in America premiered 22 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 467 minutes. After Brett Morgen did June 17, 1994 (2010, TV documentary) for ESPN's 30 for 30 sports documentary series, strictly about the O.J. murder trial, it was decided that a longer documentary on the man was appropriate. Edelman spent 18 months working on it, interviewing 72 subjects on camera. A three-part 5 hour format was eventually scrapped when Edelman came back with a 5-part 7.5 hour film, which was embraced by ESPN. The film premiered on ABC (part I) on June 11, with the following 4 parts following on ESPN from June 14-18. The film was only shown theatrically very few times due to its extreme length. It won the Best Documentary Oscar as the longest nominated film ever, prompting the rules to subsequently bar multi-part and limited series documentaries from eligibility. It also won 2/6 Emmys, an AFI award, an Independent Spirit award, a National Board of Review award and many other honors. Edelman returned with Ted Lasso (2021, TV-series) but has otherwise turned to executive producing. O.J.: Made in America is certified fresh at 100 % with a 9.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of O.J.: Made in America? 

Hell and Back Again (2011, documentary) - Intimate Afghanistan veteran documentary

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Calm suburbia and the dangerous foreign land of Afghanistan each have half of this poster for Danfung Dennis' Hell and Back Again

We focus on three-time Afghanistan veteran, the 26 year-old Marine Nathan Harris, who returns home to the States with a disability for a hard rehabilitation and morphine treatment.

Hell and Back Again is a war documentary by debuting Danfung Dennis (This Is Climate Change (2018, short)).

It is an observational portrayal of some of the work that went into the Afghanistan War, wherein one of the world's richest countries, and certainly the mightiest, waged war on one of the world's poorest. Watching Hell and Back Again, it is impossible not to sympathize with Harris, who carries both goodness and madness in himself. The film has a scene with a priest that is especially moving.

The title remains something of a postulate; the reality of Harris' situation seems to swallow the dramatic narrative, and perhaps the discrepancy is intentional, as it calls attention to veterans struggling with disabilities and PTSD upon their homecoming.

 

Dennis talks about the making of the film in an interview here

 

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 40k $

= Uncertain - but theatrically probably a mega-flop (projected return of 0.4 times the cost)

[Hell and Back Again premiered in January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 88 minutes. Dennis was a war photographer in Afghanistan in 2006 and became disillusioned with the task and moved towards video. He met Harris during time with Marines in Afghanistan in 2009 and fixed on him, reportedly spending a year with Harris and his wife. The film opened #95 to a 3k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #80 and in 3 theaters, grossing 40k $. The film's only other recorded market was the UK, where it made less than 1k $. If made on a tiny 100k $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop. The film was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar, lost to Undefeated. It was also nominated for a British Independent Film award and an Independent Spirit award and won 2 awards at Sundance, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review. Dennis has not returned with a feature since; he has however made 3 documentary shorts. Hell and Back Again is fresh at 100 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hell and Back Again?

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005, documentary) - Travel back in time with Scorsese and Dylan

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+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Epic of the Year + Best Music Movie of the Year

 

Bob Dylan looks beatnik cool by a gas station in the middle of nowhere on this poster for Martin Scorsese's No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

Bob was a musically interested young man in Minnesota. We follow him through his fascination and fandom of folk legend Woody Guthrie, his own establishing as a musician as a young man, as a groundbreaking 'song-and-dance' man and a protest singer through the stormy changes of the 1960s.

 

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan is directed by Martin Scorsese (New York City... Melting Point (1966, documentary)). The title is taken from Dylan's song Like a Rolling Stone (1965).

It is an eminent documentary, highly focused and thorough, which keeps its eyes firmly fixed on the musical aspect of the man and legend that is Dylan: The inspiration for his work, the times which informed it, the individual songs, and the process and development of them. It is filled with both fantastical witness accounts and anecdotes (Joan Baez is wonderful, but there are many terrific participants; memorable also is the musician who is convinced that it is the Holy Spirit that is working through Bob Dylan.) Also central of course are the insightful reflections from Dylan himself, and a wealth of recordings from the many years of his formidable career; from concerts, documentaries etc.

No Direction Home is riveting and probably the closest we'll get to a time travel without an actual time machine, back to this fantastically exciting era and time, - particularly the Greenwich Village culture is captivating, (and the center of the Coen brothers' masterpiece Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)).

Finally a great aspect of the film is that Dylan's lyrics get a chance to unfold themselves, so that goosebumps and tears almost invariably occur during their exhibition. The first part of the documentary is the most magical; the second part hits the later tragedies, the draining madness of the music business and the press, and the rage of the audience, when Dylan went electric. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan is another masterpiece and must-see in Scorsese's incredible body of work.

 

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The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - One helluva movie!  

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject)
Hugo (2011) - Scorsese's critically acclaimed, magical 3D family adventure/financial disaster 

Shutter Island (2010) - Scorsese's heavy-handed, long, second huge thriller attempt
Boardwalk Empire - 1st season (2010) - Luxurious 1920's ensemble gangster treats (executive producer)

Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

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2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

The Departed (2006) - Scorsese's Boston-set wildcat of a capital letter Movie

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  
The Aviator (2004) - The grand American biopic 

Gangs of New York (2002) - Death, violence and squalor in charmless period epic 

Top 10: Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Casino (1995) - Scorsese's sumptuous Vegas gangster tale has the wingspan of a Greek tragedy   
The Age of Innocence (1993) or, Stayin' IN the Pants
Cape Fear (1991) - Scorsese adds lots of stuff to remake but loses the balance     

Goodfellas (1990) or, Citizen Gangster

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 2 mil. $

Box office: None - TV documentary

= Uncertain

[No Direction Home: Bob Dylan premiered 3 September (Telluride Film Festival) and runs 208 minutes. The project began in 1995 with Dylan's manager Jeff Rosen conducting interviews with friends and collaborators of the man. Scorsese was hired to shape the material and was granted access to huge amounts of previously unused content. Shooting took place in New York and Minnesota, including in Minneapolis. The documentary was screened on US TV on PBS as part of their American Masters documentary series. The film won 1/4 Primetime Emmy awards, was nominated for a BAFTA, and won 1 /2 Grammy nominations, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Scorsese has since made another Dylan documentary, Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019). Scorsese returned first with The Departed (2006). No Direction Home: Bob Dylan is fresh at 88 % with an 8.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of No Direction Home: Bob Dylan?

My Enemy's Enemy (2007, documentary) - Dark annals of the 20th century explored in great Macdonald work

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A creepy B/W still of the villainous subject below a manipulated version of the American flag with swastikas mixed in with the stars make up this poster for Kevin Macdonald's My Enemy's Enemy

Klaus Barbie during World War II became known as the 'Butcher of Lyon' due to his extensive torture and execution crimes against Jews and others in his path, including countless children. But after the war he was not persecuted - but instead hired by the CIA.

 

My Enemy's Enemy is a terrific historical/biographical/war documentary by great Scottish filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (Chaplin's Goliath (1996)).

It is a deeply upsetting and disgusting story, which shows how the logic of tyranny and sadism function far into the ranks of the West, - along with clandestine veneration for Nazism and fascism. In order to combat Communism, the Americans hired a Nazi war criminal, who for decades since then continued using his violent skills, especially in South America, mostly in Bolivia, - to further damages for the people there.

The span of sources and material is deeply impressive, and Macdonald lets diverging points of view assert themselves without inserting himself personally in this gloomy, worrying, - and fascinating piece of  20th century history.

 

Related post:

 

Kevin Macdonald: Marley (2012, documentary) - Macdonald's great work of the truly inspirational musician

The Last King of Scotland (2006) - Macdonald's Idi Amin thriller debut is an electric accomplishment

 

In this video, Macdonald talks about his most current movie, Life in a Day (2021)

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 198k $

= Uncertain

[My Enemy's Enemy premiered 31 August (Telluride Film Festival, USA) and runs 87 minutes. The film only had a film festival screening in North America. Its 3 biggest markets were France with 175k $ (88.4 %), Belgium with 11k $ (5.6%) and Taiwan with 3k $ (1.5 %). Macdonald returned with State of Play (2009). 619 IMDb users have given My Enemy's Enemy a 7.4/10 average rating.]

What do you think of My Enemy's Enemy?

Marley (2012, documentary) - Macdonald's great work of the truly inspirational musician

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Dressed in the colors of the Jamaican flag, the instantly recognizable face of Bob Marley makes up the poster for Kevin Macdonald's Marley

An outsider at home due to his mulatto skin from a mixed-race parentage, Bob Marley of Trenchtown, Jamaica nevertheless became beloved by people all over the world due to his fantastic reggae songs.

 

Marley is a biographical documentary by great Scottish filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (Chaplin's Goliath (1996, documentary)).

It is an intense and fantastically comprehensive documentary of perhaps one of the most convincing, prophet-like figures of the 20th centuries. It is full of rich testimony from those closest to the icon, as his music and goodness inspires persuasively.

Macdonald has his focus set on the universal, spiritual heights in Marley's life, which he reflects with beautiful fly-over images from fertile mountain ranges (possibly from Jamaica's Blue Mountains.) Marley is a long but outstanding bio-documentary, which moves deeply.

 

Related post:

 

Kevin Macdonald: The Last King of Scotland (2006) - Macdonald's Idi Amin thriller debut is an electric accomplishment

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 5.3 mil. $

= Uncertain

[Marley premiered 12 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 145 minutes. It opened #19 to a 262k $ first weekend in 42 theaters in North America, where it peaked in 73 theaters and grossed 1.4 mil. $ (26.4 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was the UK with 1.4 mil. $ (26.4 %), North America 2nd biggest and 3rd biggest was Italy with 283k $ (5.3 %). The film was nominated for a BAFTA, a British Independent Film award and a Grammy, among other honors. The-Numbers.com further estimate that it made 6.4 mil. $ on the video market. Macdonald returned with How I Live Now (2013). Marley is certified fresh at 95 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Marley?