711 Best Discussion-sparking Movies to Watch (Page 27)

Tale as old as time: longform wrestling content catered to a general audience kicks things off with disclaimers and explanations of what pro wrestling really is. But director and producer Barry Blaustein also does a fantastic job as narrator, guiding us with friendly fanboy insights through Terry Funk’s sincere inability to retire, the beginning of Jake Roberts’ self-destruction, Mick Foley’s perceived invincibility, and the cacophony of backstage stories in the late ‘90s that the film strings together. As if all that wasn’t enough, so many oddball and iconic skits (i.e. “I’m not booked, Terry”) push this from great to quintessential.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Accie Julius Connor, Aurelian Smith Jr., Barry W. Blaustein, Chyna, Darren Drozdov, Dave Meltzer, Dwayne Johnson, Jesse Ventura, Joanie Laurer, Mark Calaway, Michael Cariglio, Michael Manna, Mick Foley, Noelle Foley, Paul Heyman, Scott Levy, Steve Austin, Terry Funk, Tony Jones, Vince McMahon

Director: Barry W. Blaustein

Rating: R

That this film, an adaptation of a beloved classic and girlhood staple for 50 years and counting, is able to retain the same power, charm, and wisdom as the source material by Judy Blume is impressive in and of itself. Director Kelly Fremon Craig (Edge of Seventeen) turns the must-read novel into a must-see film, as urgent and relevant as ever in its frank portrayal of feminine woes and joys. Buying your first bra, getting your first period, losing a friend, doubting your faith, seeing—really seeing—your family for the first time, and knowing in your heart what you stand for...these are some of the thorny requisites of womanhood, and Craig navigates them with a bittersweet ease that never feels pandering nor patronizing. Like the book, the film honors this young person's big feelings by centering them in a sprawling story that involves other characters, who are just as fleshed-out as the lead. Rachel McAdams deserves special mention for turning in a sweetly nuanced performance as Margaret's mother Barbara, an artist attempting to balance her domestic role with her career goals. The film may be 50 years in the making, but it tells a timeless tale that will continue to hold the hands of teenage girls for generations to come.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Abby Ryder Fortson, Aidan Wojtak-Hissong, Benny Safdie, Echo Kellum, Eden Lee, Elle Graham, Ethan McDowell, Gary Houston, George Cooper, Holli Saperstein, Isol Young, JeCobi Swain, Jim France, Johnny Land, Judy Blume, Kate MacCluggage, Kathy Bates, Mia Dillon, Rachel McAdams, Sloane Warren, Wilbur Fitzgerald

Director: Kelly Fremon Craig

Rating: PG-13

Sophie Compton and Reubyn Hamlyn's British-American documentary about the harm of deepfakes won the SXSW Special Jury Award for its innovative storytelling and deservingly so. The two filmmakers use a clever and considerate way to let a young woman fictitiously named Taylor share her story of how she found deepfake pornography of herself online. With testaments, desktop form reconstructions, and lots of deepfakes, Compton and Hamlyn alert the audience to how terrifyingly widespread this kind of abuse is, and even more: how unregulated it is. Across the globe and 48 US states deepfake pornography is legal to make and spread, while victims remain helpless and unprotected. More than 90% of them are women. These chilling statistics are only part of the reason this documentary takes an activist stance and wants to raise awareness against the uncontrolled spread of face-swapping algorhythms amidst heated discussions around AI and ethics.

Genre: Documentary

Director: Reuben Hamlyn, Sophie Compton

Rating: NR

Initially, A Revolution on Canvas is about the Nodjoumi family’s quest to retrieve the patriarch’s missing paintings in post-Islamic Revolution Iran. Necessarily, it goes through Nodjoumi’s troubled childhood and shocking life as a resilient revolutionary. But the documentary eventually evolves into a knotty and heartbreaking tale about family, specifically about the sacrifices the partner of a rebel genius like Nodjoumi has to make to let the other shine. Nodjoumi’s daughter, Sara, confronts her father about his absence during their family’s formative years and, more importantly, shines a light on the sacrifices her mother--the artist Nahid Hagigat--had to make to keep them all afloat. The documentary could’ve easily been a straightforward portrait of Nodjoumi, but because it's told through such a specifically intimate lens, it’s elevated into something even more relatable and revealing.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Nahid Hagigat, Nicky Nodjoumi, Sara Nodjoumi

Director: Sara Nodjoumi, Till Schauder

Rating: NR

As its title suggests, Steve James’ documentary isn’t shy about its sympathy for its subject. Physicist Ted Hall was just 18 when he was recruited to the Manhattan Project and underwent a crisis of conscience when it became apparent that the atomic bomb’s ostensible target — Nazi Germany — was on the brink of defeat. Concerned by the possibility that, post-WW2, the US would achieve a nuclear monopoly and become a new kind of imperialist power, Ted and friend Saville Sax leaked key information to the USSR. James’ film takes a decidedly intimate approach: while it dips into archival interviews Ted gave before his death and provides background context via scholars, it’s mostly led by Ted’s wife Joan, a spirited interviewee. Her moving contributions expand the film’s scope, making it as much a portrait of a marriage as a study of the political impact his actions had. James also interviews their children — as well as those of his partner-in-espionage, Saville — to explore the conflicted personal legacy their actions left. In not limiting itself to a macro perspective, the film opens itself up to be more than a look in history’s dusty rear-view mirror, making it a welcome tonic to the Wikipedia-style approach commonly employed for subjects like this.

Genre: Documentary, Drama

Actor: Ann Harding, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry S. Truman, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Joseph Stalin, Mickey O'Sullivan, Theodore Hall, Walter Huston

Director: Steve James