Senna

First Hit:  This how you make a documentary of a racing car driver.

Even if you don’t like racing, there is a chance you might like this film. I love racing and I loved watching this film and would have even embraced more racing scenes.

The Formula One drivers drive roads that might resemble roads we drive on. Monaco is the most famous. These road races, with open wheel cars, are dangerous and exciting. This film follows the story of Ayrton Senna, Brazil’s most famous driver. He won the World Championship three times in a row and had a rival in Alain Prost that would drive them both to learn more about themselves.

At the time of Senna’s reign, Brazil was having difficulty feeding and caring for its people. Unemployment was sky high and Senna was someone who was showing the world that Brazil had worth. He represented the best of Brazil.

The film uses footage from his entire career. From a go-kart driver to Formula One, we see it all. Interviews for the film were not specifically made, but there wasn’t any need. The public interviews from friends, family and fellow drivers were perfect.

The footage came from public archives and allowed this film to capture the time and events factually and realistically. It gave us a real glimpse of a man who cared about people and driving fast and fast he was.

Manish Pandey wrote some voice over and Asif Kapadia gets kudos for creating this comprehensive look at Senna.

Overall: A very watchable and enjoyable film about a man and his relationship with racing.

Tabloid

First Hit: This was a very interesting story about a woman convicted for kidnapping and sexually assaulting the love of her life.

Joyce McKinney, formally a Wyoming beauty pageant winner, claims she was a successful model who fell in love with Kirk Anderson a Mormon boy. She believes they were in love and a budding relationship was being created when all of a sudden he disappeared.

Joyce vowed to find her man therefore she went to Los Angeles to make money, hire a detective and locate her man. The audience listens to interviews of Joyce as she tells a tale which weaves in and out of intrigue, possible BS, and adventure story.

In brief, she finds her Kirk in England on a Mormon mission, gets him away from the church, they have a wild mad sex week, while visiting London he gets back with the Mormons, she gets captured, goes on trial and is found guilty. She escapes England, slips into the US through Canada and spends the rest of her life always loving her Kirk but then also getting back into the headlines by having her beloved dog cloned.

The English tabloids had a field day with this story and her capture, along with how she mesmerized the English Courts. As the story unfolds there are moments where I felt like Joyce was an innocent. Then as others are interviewed questions arise: Was Joyce this innocent girl in love? Was Kirk really in love with her? How did she make all the money she spent to find Kirk? Was the Church of Latter Day Saints involved at deeper levels?

My thoughts see-sawed back and forth, first buying her story then thinking she is just a great storyteller with a screw loose with a penchant for stretching the truth. It would have been great if Kirk would have been one of the people interviewed. Errol Morris directed this film with the right amount of old TV clips, interviews and questionability.

Overall: It was interesting worth it to hear Joyce tell her story.

Buck

First Hit: A wonderful film about a man who found and lives his path.

Nowadays there is a “whisperer” for everything.

Buck is occasionally referred to as a horse whisperer but in reality he simply assists people in understanding their horses. In this realm, Buck is phenomenal. He knows his audience (the horses and people he trains).

His path to his greatness, and there is no mistake he is great at what he does, came from his curriculum of being raised by an abusive and overbearing father all the way through the gracious firm kindness of his foster parents. Via his mentor, we see how he humbly watched, listened and learned how to understand the connectedness of man and horse. We learn that the connection comes from sensing and feeling the inner home of each respective horse. Each horse he says “reflects its owner”.

In this film we watch him as he travels from 4 day training to 4 day training. We watch him speak directly and clearly to owners who are having issues with their horses. He treats each horse with a firm directness which builds trust within the horse. He is funny, self-deprecating, honest, open and most of all clear about what he does. He doesn’t claim anything beyond that he learns each time he teaches.

During the film we see a number of segments of these 4 day trainings and we meet his wife who visits and his youngest daughter who travels with him through the summer months. It is clear they admire each other. We meet his foster mother who raised 23 foster boys and she is a hoot.

Sitting and watching the film, an air of admiration fills the movie theater which climaxes when, at one point, he kindly coaxes a damaged horse into a trailer after the horse bit a trainer in the face.

We admire him because he treats this horse with the same sense of kindness, respect and honor that he has for any horse in the film.

Buck Brannaman is a true teacher and student of how life really works. Cindy Meehl did a wonderful job of capturing Buck, his family, and his life in learning.

Overall:  A wonderful effective film of how life works. And as the tag line states: “There is no wisdom worth having that isn’t hard won.”

Bill Cunningham

First Hit: I knew nothing of Bill before the film and now I want to read every New York Times “On The Street” article that comes out.

What is it like to watch someone be fully who they are, then realize he’s been this way for years and years?

Amazing! Not that I would or could do what he does, but watching someone loving what they do and that they do it all the time is awe-inspiring.

When the film begins Bill is one of the very few people still living in a rent controlled Carnegie Hall apartment. He has no kitchen, no bathroom and the very small space is filled with file cabinets except for a very small platform bed where Bill sleeps.

Each day he is out on his bicycle looking for today’s style which he believes lives “On The Street”. He also writes a society column for the New York Times. He doesn’t care about money; he only cares about fashion and real fashion as he sees it. Bill shuns publicity and honors although in the film we see him get an award in Paris and his office mates give him a birthday party.

At 82 or 83 very few people know much about his personal life. The film makes an attempt to uncover some information, but not a lot is given.

What we do learn is that eats out always, he goes to church every Sunday; he has had 27 bicycles, and loves fashion.

Richard Press does an outstanding job of filming this wonderful view of an amazing man’s life. I cannot say anything more than – absolutely wonderful.

Overall:  This was an amazing film, no two ways about it.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (3-D)

First Hit: The paintings are magnificent.

I was thoroughly impressed with the paintings on the walls of the cave which were over 30,000 years old and I was also very unimpressed with the way this information was presented by the “experts”.

The intended or unintended arrogance of the French professors and scientists, who are the only people having the extremely limited access to these caves, with their descriptions as to how they thought people lived and why they painted some 30,000 plus years ago took away from the film.

At times I sat there and said to myself “stop talking” and “quit giving me your myopic impression” of what I’m seeing. They didn’t let the paintings just live and let the audience have their own experience. I kept getting that we needed to learn their perceptions and take them as the truth.

I thought the use of 3-D in the caves added to the experience and was very pleased as to how it was used. Because the caves were found in 1994, I couldn't help but wonder if there are more interesting and amazing caves, hiding previous life, around the world.

While watching I wondered what was used to make the paintings. Maybe I missed it but I’m not sure we were ever told. Lastly, I thought the “Postscript” was unnecessary and again led the film in a direction that added little or nothing to the subject at hand, the paintings.

Werner Herzog wrote and directed this film and therein lies the strengths and weaknesses of this film. He got some great footage of these amazing paintings and of the caves, but a collaborator with a differing perspective might have added to the wholeness of the film as it seemed to follow a single track.

Overall: If you see this film, you must see it in 3-D as it brings these paintings to life.