Documentary

WHITNEY: CAN I BE ME

Cert 15 105mins Stars 4

Drugs, booze and sexual jealousy feature heavily in the tragic life of 1990’s music superstar Whitney Houston, compassionately explored in this fascinating documentary.

The first black solo female artist to achieve global mainstream pop success, Houston was famous at 19 and dead at 48 from a drug overdose.

Having lived her adult life in the media gaze, there’s little new information here. But in a triumph of research, editing and storytelling, we see her story from a new perspective.

With her close family coming from a gospel music background, it’s suggested the church’s stance is complicit in her fall from grace.

A crowded marriage to Bobby Brown was made worse by the pressures of fame. It’s made clear Houston’s substance abuse began long before entering a destructive co-dependent relationship with the bad boy singer.

Of all her entourage, Houston’s bodyguard is the most clear eyed observer, but unlike in her smash film The Bodyguard, he was unable to save the star.

A GOOD DAY TO DIE (HOKA HEY)

Cert 15 87mins Stars 4

Peril, passion and the pursuit of the perfect picture make for an explosive composition in this documentary about a renowned British war photographer.

At the start we’re dropped by helicopter into a firefight in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, before shooting off to Colombia, Lebanon and Iraq.

Looking and sounding like Benedict Cumberbatch’s thrill seeking older brother, Jason P. Howe is alarmingly honest about his addiction to the adrenaline he experiences on the job.

Intelligent, articulate and extremely talented, he’s described as an idiot and a maniac by fellow snappers.

For twelve years his life was a barely believable storm of bullets, booze, drugs and romance.

When the film catches its breath, it adjusts its focus to the changing nature of the industry, questions of ethics and issues of censorship.

Many of Howe’s photos are disturbingly graphic, and a life on the front line has resulted in PTSD. But there’s no suggestion he wouldn’t do it all again.

 

MCLAREN

Cert 12A 92mins Stars 3

I’m as far from a petrol head as it’s possible to imagine, but this motor-racing documentary kept me engrossed until the chequered flag.

It’s a celebration of Bruce McLaren who overcame a crippling childhood condition and through his driving exploits, became a national hero of his native New Zealand.

Though it races along in nostalgia tinted plumes of petrol smoke, there’s no denying his was a remarkable life. A passion for engineering fuelled his racing ambition and drove his success as a businessman.

Friends, family and competitors offer the personal detail we can’t glean from the footage of beautiful if alarmingly fragile looking cars.

Sadly the film travels unburdened with financial details, salacious pit gossip or much in the way of technical details.

McLaren’s untimely death behind the wheel arrived in 1970 at the horrifically young age of 32. The F1 team which he established and bears his name is his legacy to the sport he loved.

 

A MOVING IMAGE

Cert 15 74mins Stars 1

Take a trip to south London and experience the worst kind of indulgent, inarticulate, and incontinent film-making.

In a self appointed challenge to explore the affect of gentrification on the borough of Brixton, first time writer and director Saloo Amoo director makes many assumptions.

Such as the audience having a knowledge of the history, politics, and social makeup of the area.

He fails to make a case that gentrification has occurred, or even it is undesirable. And his greatest mistake is to assume anyone outside of London cares.

Instead of offering us a compelling drama or well researched documentary, we’re provided with a tedious lump of impressionist moments.

These typically feature gigs, pop up art installations, street parties and random residents ranting about coffee shop proliferation.

Various young attractive arty types sit in a massive warehouse loft, drink wine and film each other. This is Brixton. And you’re welcome to it.

BEST

Cert 12A 92mins Stars 3

For anyone who knows nothing about the alcoholic former footballer, George Best, this unauthorised documentary is a sympathetic and straight forward introduction to his life.

For those looking for fresh insight, it’s back to square one.

The Belfast boy’s playing career peaked aged twenty two, and his drinking lasted until his death from liver disease at fifty nine years old.

All too-familiar footage of his playing days is mixed with interviews with his wives, Angie and Alex.

Former colleagues wax lyrical of his virtues but admit they refused to visit him as he lay on his hospital death bed.

Best’s contribution to popular culture was to be the first to fuse football and celebrity, leading us to where it’s reported the far less skilful player, David Beckham, feels entitled to whinge about not being ennobled.

This film is at its best on the pitch, where Best’s outrageous ability still makes me grin like a schoolboy.

HALE COUNTY IN THE MORNING, THIS EVENING

Cert 15 72mins Stars 3

Take a trip to the deep south of the US with this revealing and heartfelt documentary which offers a poetic portrait of the low wage population as they struggle to thrive and survive.

Director RaMell Ross was deeply embedded in the community while managing a youth program and this afforded him extraordinary excess with which to capture his subjects at their most relaxed and off-guard, though he sensitively retreats to a discreet distance when attending a funeral.

With an approach to filming which is almost experimental with oblique angles, brash colour and time lapse photography, his restless camera hangs on their shoulders as locals hang out, goof around and jam in a variety of musical styles including blues and rap.

This award winner at last year’s prestigious Sundance Film Festival is a showcase for the human spirit and offers a taste of America which is much overlooked, and is sometimes sweet, occasionally tough, but surprisingly rarely bitter.

BAD REPUTATION

Cert 15 94mins Stars 3

Raven-haired rocker, Joan Jett, is best known for her classic 1982 single, I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll, and as this unquestioning documentary amply demonstrates, she’s still rocking the free world at the age of 60.

While coyly skirting around her private life, Jett talks us through her career as part of the all-girl glam rock group, The Runaways, and later as singer of her own group, The Blackhearts, plus there’s a lot of onstage footage, artists such as Iggy Pop and Blondie are interviewed, while Miley Cyrus swings by to sing Jett’s praises.

Having emerged out of the Los Angeles LGBT club scene of early 1970s, and alongside the women’s liberation movement, Jett is presented as an important trailblazer in the macho and misogynist 1970’s rock industry.

But claims to legendary status are overstated due a deficit of hit songs and the lack of  evolution in her look and sound, especially in comparison for a singer born the same year as Madonna.

DIEGO MARADONA

Cert 12A 130mins Stars 4

This gobsmacking documentary about the magnificently flawed Argentinian footballing genius is a must-see for the ‘hand of god’ goal generation.

The infamous incident defeated England and helped him to almost singlehandedly, ahem, power his country to success at the 1986 Mexico World Cup, as well as cementing his contradictory image as a cheat and hero.

But that’s only the prelude to a glittering period of superstardom tarnished by a spectacular fall from grace, which involved cocaine addiction, and being banned from playing.

He drove unfashionable and unsuccessful Italian club side, Napoli, to two top-flight championships in Italy’s brutally savage Serie A, and to European success.

In doing so Maradona roused a proud city, inspired the region and became worshipped with an almost religious fervour, which is a terrible height to fall from.

Napoli’s Stadio San Paolo is a concrete gladiatorial arena full of flags and flares, and is packed for a riotous press conference where Maradona is first unveiled to the home supporters.

Whatever team you were supporting in 1987, it can’t have been as much fun as supporting Maradona’s Napoli. Mind you, if you thought the terrace songs of English football fans were sick and disgusting, you should hear the Italians in full voice.

It’s a look at a remarkable age of football from an age before players were obsessed with personal branding and access became limited to their immaculate online instagram lives, as for example, Lionel Messi, or Christiano Ronaldo.

Touching upon Maradona’s poverty stricken childhood, we see the pressure of his being the family breadwinner from age of 15 years old. And there are interviews with girlfriends and his personal trainer.

Oscar winning director Asif Kapadia, previously produced celebrated documentaries on singer Amy Winehouse, and racer Ayrton Senna, but where their untimely tragic deaths provide a strong narrative framework, here Kapadia has to create one, and it feels forced and arbitrary.

To emphasise the psychological importance of the accusation of his fathering a child, the narrative is mostly limited to Maradona’s career with Italy’s FC Napoli, meaning Argentina’s calamitous campaign in 1994’s USA World Cup is bizarrely excluded.

However it’s a victory for research and editing and uses a wealth of astonishing never seen before footage, accompanied by a soundtrack as winning as the football.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LIAM GALLAGHER: AS IT WAS

Cert 15 85mins Stars 3

With even the biggest screen barely able to contain his formidable charisma, the former frontman of 1990’s rockers, Oasis, swaggers into cinemas with this indulgent documentary charting his recent life with a cheerily casual and charitable eye.

It’s a reasonable attempt to rebrand the notorious hedonist as a fitness-minded family man and tea drinking elder statesman of rock music.

He was rescued from a post-Oasis creative, personal and financial low by his new manager and romantic partner, Debbie, and their complex relationship has interesting echoes of the marriage of reformed wild man, Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon.

Liam’s mother is a scene-stealing Irish charm, and he can’t resist sticking the boot again into his brother, Noel, whose absence along with the songs of Oasis is a loss.

Irresistibly funny and foul-mouthed, Liam’s a fascinating mix of humility, arrogance, sensitivity and bravado. Plus judging by recent musical output, he’s also the most interesting and talented member of the family.

The Eagle Huntress

Director: Otto Bell (2016) BBFC cert: U

A teenage girl soars in this inspirational and jaw dropping documentary.

Thirteen year old Aisholpan is from the nomadic Kazakh tribes of Asia. She faces formidable obstacles as she trains to  become the first female to become an Eagle Hunter.

It’s a centuries old, male only occupation which involves stealing an eaglet from its eyrie and training it to hunt foxes. While on horseback. In the snow. In the mountains.

The schoolgirl is brave, determined, skilful, and modest as she climbs, rides, and practises. She does so without complaint, a smartphone or a social media account.

Competing in a tournament against seventy bemused and fearsome looking blokes, she  challenges tradition and ignorance.

It’s beautifully photographed, skilfully edited and brilliantly told. ‘You are awesome’ says her father on the eve of her first tournament. And she is.

★★★★★

@ChrisHunneysett