Year: 2005

The year 2004 produced more than a handful of angry liberal documentaries — editorials, really, with far more partisan and obvious points of view than your typical newsy flick. Whether by accident or design, these films are countering the balance that has been one-sidedly weighed down by a supposedly liberal mainstream news media that is more interested in toeing the lines of their corporate masters and in catering to an audience it perceives as ignorant and willing to stay that way than in attempting to explain what’s really happening in the world. Much of what these films cover will be shocking to those who believe themselves well informed by watching network or cable news.

The Insignificance of Static Set yourself in front of your VCR and rewind tapes for an hour and a half while your TV is tuned to a dead channel. There: You’ve just saved yourself the price of admission to White Noise, a limp attempt at scaring you with electronic static that’s about as frightening as … more…

I’ve never seen a sadder smile on a human being than Javier Bardem musters as Ramón Sampedro, a man who has “learned to cry” with that smile. In an extraordinary performance, this physically robust and bracingly brawny actor physically shrinks down into the body of a man paralyzed below the neck, bedridden for decades, who … more…

It’s a neverending springtime for Hitler and Germany in this ironic and mesmerizing 76-minute distillation of the self-delusion of an entire nation. German documentarians Oliver Axer and Susanne Benze have gathered together startling counterpoints to the images of the era we’re used to seeing: instead of dismal, grainy, colorless footage of goose-stepping stormtroopers and flag-waving … more…

There’s a scene in *The Aviator* and one in *Beyond the Sea* that exemplifies how each film approaches its biographical subject, how very different those approaches are, and why both films are so equally entertaining nevertheless.