Shot by Stephen McCoy over five years, Nightcrawlers is a ground-level look at homelessness and addiction. McCoy—who ended up both homeless and addicted to heroin while making the documentary—offers no commentary, no Freudian causality, and no solutions. Instead, he simply watches others … Continue reading THE NIGHTCRAWLERS
For Paul Stamets, it begins and ends with mushrooms. From death, they create life. From fractures, they create connections. And from sickness, they create health. “Mushrooms represent rebirth. Rejuvenation. Regeneration,” Stamets says. Fantastic Fungi, directed by Louie Schwartzberg and edited by … Continue reading FANTASTIC FUNGI
Craving some much needed positive PR, the Valiant Tobacco Company announces a cockamamie scheme: Any American town that can give up smoking for one month will win $25 million, tax-free. Eagle Rock, Iowa—population 4,000—needs that kind of coin to revamp … Continue reading COLD TURKEY
Somewhere in Japan, business is winding down for the night, and café owner Kato (Kazunari Tosa) goes upstairs to his apartment to relax. But on his computer monitor he is still in the café, two minutes in the future. Convinced … Continue reading BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES (ドロステのはてで僕ら)
John Chester’s story starts in 2010 in a small apartment in Santa Monica, California. John is a cinematographer working for a variety of nature programs; wife, Molly, is a private chef and food blogger. When the two adopt Todd, a … Continue reading THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM
Set in London, Sorry We Missed You follows a working-class family, the Turners, as they try to keep their head above water financially and emotionally in the freelance and gig economy. Sorry We Missed You is a harrowing look at what it takes … Continue reading SORRY WE MISSED YOU
Shot in stark black and white like a moving Weegee photograph, Lionel Rogosin’s On the Bowery is a stunning piece of filmmaking instrumental in dropkicking American movie making out of the studios and onto the streets. The story here is of an … Continue reading ON THE BOWERY
George Clooney’s 2019 adaptation for Hulu was faithful to Joseph Heller’s novel until it missed the mark. He condemned Yossarian to a Sisyphean hell rather than set him free and off into the world. Clooney’s deviation probably comes from a … Continue reading CATCH-22
Directed by Matthew Rankin, The Twentieth Century is one-half quirky bio-pic about the rise of Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (Dan Beirne), and one-half spoof of King and the notion that a bio-pic can be a truth delivery device. Shot … Continue reading THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Michael J. Cinema 
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