Thursday, January 14, 2016

Documentaries

Some rough grades for documentaries I watched in the past decade, graded and ranked mostly on entertainment value or inspirational value, not ethical accuracy.

Exit Through the Gift Shop: A
Give Up Tomorrow: A
Harlan County, USA: A-
Power Trip: A-
The King of Kong: A-
American Dream: A-
Gates of Heaven: B+
The Boys of H Company: B+
Occupation Dreamland: B+
Never Forget to Lie: B+
Under Our Skin: B+
Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion: B+
The Cove: B+
Untitled lost battalion documentary (available almost nowhere): B+
Buck: B+
Paradise Lost: B+
Happy People: B+
Armadillo: B+
Casino Jack: B+
Hearts of Darkness: B+
Tales from the Script: B+
Tragedy of Bataan: B
Brother's Keeper: B
Nova B-29: Frozen in Time: B
The Yes Men: B
World War II in HD: B
Capturing the Friedmans: B
Client 9: B
Korea: The Forgotten War: B
Being Elmo: B
Religulous: B
Hearts and Minds: B
Little Dieter Needs to Fly: B
Out of Sight: B
Floored: B
Scared Straight! (worthless anti-crime tactic but amusing documentary): B
Anne Frank Remembered: B
We Stand Alone Together: B
Why We Fight (Frank Capra version): B
Scrappers: B-
Blossoms of Fire: B-
Secrets of the Dead: Irish Escape: B-
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii: B-
Super Size Me: B-
The Tillman Story: B-
Devil's Playground: B-
Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill: B-
The Farmer’s Wife: B-
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years: B-
The Korean War: Fire and Ice: B-
Best Boy: B-
Roger and Me: B-
The War Tapes: B-
A Perfect Candidate: B-
Limelight (starts slow but gets bizarre towards the end): C+
Fahrenheit 9/11: C
Atomic Cafe (seemed better in the 80s before nuclear irony became a cliche): C-
Nanook of the North: D+
Bill Cunningham New York (people thinking banal thoughts are profound): D+
Bukowski: Born Into This (ditto above): D+
Wordplay: D+
Capitalism: a Love Story: D+
Mugabe and the White African (quixotic waste of time in a toothless court): D+
Hell And Back Again: D+
Restrepo (nothing insightful not seen or heard before): D+
Prodigal Sons (two siblings complaining about each other): D+
American Movie (grating and boring character): D
Crumb (another grating and boring character): D
Body of War: D
A Film Unfinished: D
Korea: The Unknown War: D
Knocking: D
Capturing Reality: D
Grey Gardens: D-
Enlighten Up: D-
The World at War: D-
China: A Century of Revolution (Marxian propaganda): D-
Guns, Germs, and Steel: D-
The Fog of War (terrible moral reasoning by both McNamara and the filmmaker): D-
Elephant in the Living Room (The box cover describes the main character as big hearted. He's not.): F
The War by Ken Burns: F

Note that I did not pay Hollywood a dime for any of them. I obtained them from the library.

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