Documentaries & Biographies > by Subgenre

Advantages: good film
Disadvantages: where do i start?

The arrogance of filmmakers can be staggering sometimes. As the world recoiled from the world?s worst peacetime atrocity, 11 filmmakers were given $400,000o make a short film that lasted 11 minutes, nine seconds and one frame ? and to be honest, the money would be better going to charity. Without Ken Loach?s superb, standout entry, this is self-indulgent tripe. Using the events of another Tuesday September 11 ? this one in 1973, when the CIA helped ...
...begin his reign of terror ? Loach offers a stunning indictment of America?s double standards. The rest of this compendium, though, varies from the vaguely interesting (Nair), to the pointless (Imamura). And then there?s the plain terrible (Chahine). But this pales next to Sean Penn?s boring folly, the pretentious story of a man living in the shadow of the twin towers, complete with dripping taps and billowing curtains. No words can describe 9/ll. ... Read review

Advantages: Excellent value, great selection of his best documentaries
Disadvantages: Lack of extras, missing Max Clifford documentary

...Louis Theroux: The Man Louis Theroux is best known as a documentary maker specialising in films about off-beat, quirky subcultures around the world (but predominantly in the USA) and also for his celebrity profiles of some of Britain's more eccentric personalities. He started out his television broadcasting career with a few segments on a documentary show by Michael Moore called 'TV Nation' in the mid-1990s. His first major series, Weird Weekends, ...
...with a series called 'When Louis Met...', originally aired on British television between 2000 and 2002. During 2003, Louis made three special episodes before disappearing from our screens for three years. In which time he signed a deal to make ten films for the BBC over the course of three years. To date, five of those films have been broadcast on television since the start of 2007. His interviewing style is quite unique, mainly due to (what I think ... Read review

Advantages: wonderful film of a true story
Disadvantages: none

I remember watching Apollo 13 when it first came out at the cinema in 1995. Base on the real events of the unsuccessful moon mission in 1970, it would have been possible to hear a pin drop as the entire audience watched as the events unfolded - and this was even when we knew what happened. For the purpose of this review I am going to assume that most people know the story of Apollo 13 - if you don't and you are likely to watch the film it's probably ...
...on the Apollo 13 mission which was intended to be the third moon landing by US astronauts. The mission was led by Commander Jim Lovell (played by Tom hanks) who had already circled the moon on an earlier mission. His crew was meant to be Fred Haise (Bill Paton) and Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) but a threat of contracting the measles while in Space meant that Mattingly could not go and his place was taken by Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon). The film charts ... Read review

Advantages: Incredibly dark, superbly funny, an exquisite display of acting ability.
Disadvantages: A little cheesy at times, glamorises depersonalization disorder a little.

It has been quite a bumpy road for Matthew Perry since 'Friends' finished in 2004. When you play the same character in a successful sitcom for ten years it's always going to be difficult to be seen as anything other than that character ever again; it's all too easy to get typecast and with 'Numb' Matthew Perry plays a part incredibly different to that of his 'Chandler Bing' character in 'Friends'. 'Numb' was given a somewhat limited release in the ...
...do this slick black comedy film justice. Written and directed by Harris Goldberg, 'Numb' is an intelligent romantic comedy film and one which I personally thoroughly enjoyed watching. 'Numb' has been written from the personal perspective of Harris Goldberg about events which he has experienced in his life and this is therefore something that makes the film all the more enjoyable and provides the film with supremely heightened realism. Hudson Milbank ... Read review

Advantages: Thought provoking, will learn alot about graphs and spreadsheets
Disadvantages: You may never want to go near Microsoft Excel again, tad boring

...follow (Super-Size Me for example), An Inconvenient Truth is essentially one of Al Gore's lectures, put onto film, with a few clips 'tacked on' to break up the never ending flow of graphs. Some just don't seem to fit with the nature of the film, for example, the clip of Al Gore losing the 2000 American elections. Although he does explain why it's important to his passion for global warming (unfortunately I wasn't convinced), its obvious the real ...
...going to the cinema, not an auditorium. Humour plays a small part in Gore's fight, with cartoons displaying simple-to-follow explanations of global warming, and stories that poke fun of the intellect of the American education system. Unfortunately, despite its best efforts to appeal to a wider audience, only scientists will be able to sit comfortably throughout the films running time. Some parts of the lecture have the American audience in stitches, ... Read review