213 Movies Like 1917 (2019) (Page 14)

This documentary is about a unique program in Chicago called CeaseFire whose sole aim is to stop violent deaths in poor urban areas. CeaseFire is staffed by ex-gang members and ex-convicts who try to intervene in conflicts in their community, particularly those that may escalate into extreme violence or death. In these neighborhoods though, violent conflict can result from something as minor as someone making a funky comment about someone else’s shoes. This makes total success for a project like CeaseFire nearly impossible. It is not a totally depressing film though as the program and its practitioners are all pretty amazing, and director Steve James (who made Hoop Dreams) has unparalleled access to these struggling communities.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Amanda Palmer, Ameena Matthews, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Steve James, Tio Hardiman

Director: Steve James

Rating: Unrated

Ever since the premier at the Toronto Film festival critics and viewers have been raving about this low-budget gem. A lot of people go as far as calling it a life-changing film, and rightfully so.  It tells the story of three people from different parts of the world who face new ethical problems caused by a change in their body: a blind photographer who finally gains sight; an animal rights activist whose newly diagnosed liver condition requires treatment that involves animal testing; and a man who, after having a kidney transplant, learns about the black market for organ trade. The title refers to the paradox that asks if all parts of a ship are replaced, does it stay the same ship? A beautiful intellectual exercise.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Aida El-Kashef, Aida Elkashef, Aishwarya, Aishwarya Bhaskar, Aydah El-Kashef, Faraz Khan, Neeraj Kabi, Sidharth Meer, Sohum Shah, Vinay Shukla, Yogesh Shah

Director: Anand Gandhi

Rating: Not Rated

Though it begins with the catfishing and hacking incident that affected thousands of Tegan and Sara fans, not to mention Tegan herself, Fanatical dips into the more general topic of fandom and explores both the good and bad of it. Tegan and Sara make for an excellent case study for two reasons. One is that they came into the social media world earlier than most pop stars, and two is that their fanbase back then was uniquely comprised of young queer people. They were vulnerable and eager to connect online, which “Fegan” or the Fake Tegan who catfished their fans, exploited to no end. The documentary does well both as an explainer of fandom and as an exploration of this unfortunate event. Where it fails is as a true crime documentary. Director Erin Lee Carr approaches some of the more unwilling interviewees with a strange sort of aggression, making the documentary feel uneven at times, if not outrightly biased.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Sara Quin, Tegan Quin

Director: Erin Lee Carr

Rating: R

Stories like Il Mare and Your Name/Kimi no Na Wa work because, unlike other romances, the conflict is understandably difficult. After all, how the heck can anyone fight against time and space? Love You Long Time takes a stab at the unique time-bending premise, with one main difference: the movie’s main lovers can talk to each other directly through an old pair of two-way radios. There’s no need for the two to depend on physical letters or texts. This difference is interesting – immediately, it allows Director JP Habac to play with cinematography, editing, and acting, to make us fall in love with the couple. Split between 2018 and 2022, the film makes meaningful points about the past and present, the years lost to the pandemic, and separation. However, without spoiling anything, the film’s third-act plot twists don’t land as well as they could have. Having them back to back made the plot nearly incomprehensible, and sadly, doesn’t resolve the conflict driving the film.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Ana Abad-Santos, Arlene Muhlach, Carlo Aquino, Meanne Espinosa, Patrick Quiroz

Director: Jaime P. Habac Jr.

The atmosphere communicated within the title Hurricane Season comes off incredibly clearly on screen: this is a film that just feels humid and full of foreboding for a coming storm, with people feeling all manner of guilt while secluded in their own homes. Cinematographer María Secco's gorgeous colors and brown tones fill the 4:3 aspect ratio nicely, and director Elisa Miller lets events unfold with the stately pace of a long novel. There's something fascinating here about how each new "chapter" or perspective doesn't really lead to more answers, but simply to more anguish closing in from all sides.

So it would be understandable if some may be put off by how unrelentingly dark Hurricane Season is, especially as the trans woman whose death becomes the central event never enjoys the kind of characterization everybody around her gets. Apart from how the film illustrates that discrimination against women, against repressed "taboo" sexuality, and against access to proper reproductive health only threatens to grow under poverty, it can be difficult to grasp what point the movie is trying to make. Social realism certainly has its place in cinema, but the different perspective in this particular film still don't add up to more than the sum of its parts.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Actor: Andrés Cordaz, Edgar Treviño, Flor Eduarda Gurrola, Guss Morales, Kat Rigoni, Mónica Martínez​, Norma Reyna, Paloma Alvamar, Rodrigo Corea, Said Sandoval

Director: Elisa Miller

Rating: R

The level of access that A Thousand Cuts gets to both the side of the press and of the administration is ultimately what makes it valuable. By being on the ground with journalists doing honest-to-goodness hard work, the film reframes Duterte's war on drugs (really a campaign to terrorize the poor into submission) as an information war between news outlets and government propaganda. Unfortunately, in the process, the film also winds up excluding the voices of working class people and how they both engage and are engaged by all this information. There should be a way to honor the work of these journalists without accidentally positioning them above the public they serve.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Amal Clooney, George Clooney, Leni Robredo, Maria Ressa, Patricia Evangalista, Pia Ranada

Director: Ramona S. Diaz

The broad, symbolic strokes of The Killing of Two Lovers—how its story is set up and the general atmosphere it evokes—are stunning to behold. It's a naturalistic story whose ordinary moments feel like they're being told at the end of the world, given how deliberately chilling Robert Machoian's direction is. Unfortunately, once you start getting into the details of the plot and its characters, their actions and decisions don't lead to particularly interesting insights about the separation and the couple's relationship to each other or their children. The end result is something that's clearly driven by a compelling mood more than anything, but whose resolution still feels anticlimactic.

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Actor: Arri Graham, Avery Pizzuto, Barbara Whinnery, Chris Coy, Clayne Crawford, Nicole Hawkins, Noah Kershisnik, Sepideh Moafi

Director: Robert Machoian

Rating: R

Made to commemorate Toei Studio’s 70th anniversary, The Legend & Butterfly seemed like a good choice for this purpose. As a historical epic about the first Great Unifier of Japan, the film could have enabled the production company to show off their studio’s best in production design, set pieces, costumes, and score, through a familiar story Japanese audiences would care about. And with Nohime having a near blank slate in history, it gives enough creative freedom for the team to craft a heartrending romance. While the design aspects definitely succeeded, the romance did not. On top of this, the film’s focus on the romance takes away time, effort, and emotional resonance from the large-scale spectacular war battles that epics like these are known for.

Genre: Drama, History, Romance

Actor: Ai Mikami, Daisuke Honda, Haruka Ayase, Hideaki Ito, Hio Miyazawa, Hirotaro Honda, Ichikawa Somegorō VIII, Jun Hashimoto, Kinya Kitaoji, Kokoro Morita, Manabu Hamada, Mansaku Ikeuchi, Masato Wada, Miki Nakatani, Shuichiro Masuda, Takuma Otoo, Takumi Saitoh, Takuya Kimura, Toshinori Omi, Tsutomu Takahashi

Director: Keishi Otomo

In the saturated sphere of sci-fi and superhero movies, Gray Matter just doesn’t cut it. The film, which was produced as part of the filmmaking workshop/reality show Project Greenlight, doesn’t add anything new, much less its own spin, to a story we’ve heard countless times: that of a young kid learning to harness her supernatural powers for the first time. If you’ve seen Carrie, Firestarter, or more recently Stranger Things, then you’ll be able to predict how most of Gray Matter turns out. It is watchable, sure, enjoyable even in the first few minutes where it promises a world chockful of lore, but it never fulfills that promise. To be fair, the performances are solid and the technicals maximize what limited resources the movie has (it looks more decent than you’d expect a small-budgeted sci-fi production to be), but the pros don’t outweigh the cons in this case. It’s simply too empty and generic to be elevated by anything else. 

Genre: Science Fiction

Actor: Amber Martinez, Andrew Liner, Chad Doreck, Crystal Coney, David DeLuise, Ellodee Carpenter, Erik Betts, Ezri Walker, Garret Dillahunt, Isabella Ferreira, Jessica Frances Dukes, Kristian Ventura, Mia Isaac, Robert Dill, Tony Wade, Wendy Braun

Director: Meko Winbush

Rating: PG-13

Better known as a podcast host, Stavros Halkias proves that he does have the writing ability and (the lack of shame and/or pride) to come up with effective jokes from his own perspective. But his momentum just doesn't hold throughout this hour-long special; he starts strong and keeps a coherent train of thought throughout the whole routine, but the latter sections begin to rely on gross-out comedy and potshots at the audience more than anything. Halkias knows who his audience is and he's very fortunate to be able to perform in front of people who seem to be very familiar with his style. But for a wider range of people watching through streaming, his more relaxed style of storytelling may come off as him simply droning on without particularly great timing.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Stavros Halkias

Director: Ben O'Brien

More a clip show than a real stand-up special—and certainly not a documentary about the New York-based comedy club—The Improv: 60 and Still Standing only really seems to be for the most hardcore devotees of American stand-up. But even if you are familiar with all the comics who make an appearance here, the film doesn't give their already brief routines enough time to breathe. They've ostensibly been instructed to prepare their best stuff or to just riff, and the resulting performances are very half-baked, with none of the comedians able to dive into any particularly funny or challenging material. They're all still lightly amusing in different ways, but this movie really could've just been a series of YouTube videos to commemorate The Improv's 60th anniversary.

Genre: Comedy, Documentary

Actor: Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Bert Kreischer, Craig Robinson, Deon Cole, Fortune Feimster, Jeff Dunham, Jo Koy, Kevin Nealon, Mark Normand, Whitney Cummings

Director: Jeff Tomsic

Rating: R

As documentaries go, They Called Him Mostly Harmless is pretty standard, if not forgettable, fare. There isn’t a lot of information regarding the case it focuses on, so it relies heavily on interviews with related persons and “internet sleuths” who have taken it upon themselves to solve the mystery of this hiker’s identity. It moves slowly, bogged even further down by unnecessary backstories that do nothing to get us closer to cracking the case. To be sure, it’s impressive that the missing man in question was able to scrub all evidence of his existence in this digital age, but the documentary fails to build on that intrigue and instead gives us something that sputters till the end.

Genre: Crime, Documentary, Mystery

Director: Patricia E. Gillespie