DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Purgatorio: A Journey into the Heart of the Border DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/69229 Tue, 07 Jul 2015 01:39:04 UTC Highly Recommended

The MovieThe border between the U.S. and Mexico casts those who try to cross it into a purgatory between two worlds that are, in many ways, vastly different. The borderland is where people wander and are never seen or heard from again. They may leave behind a foot print, a shred of clothing caught on a branch, a crushed water bottle on the ground. Some are migrants who try to escape purgatory by climbing over one of its high walls, in the hopes of finding a better life on the other side. Some are trapped in this purgatory because they've become hopeless casualties of the War on Drugs. They languish in the in-between and use narcotics to numb the pain of being stuck. Minutemen, garbage collectors, social activists, and border patrol agents are like guards at the gates of this purgatory. The vastness of the limbo between both countries is explored in Purgatorio: A Journey into the Heart of...Read the entire review

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Monk With A Camera DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/68412 Fri, 24 Apr 2015 18:13:15 UTC Rent It

Born into wealth and privilege, photographer Nicholas Vreeland (son of Ambassador Frederick Vreeland and grandson of acclaimed fashion editor Diana Vreeland) abandoned his former life in 1985 to become a Buddhist monk. Naturally, this involved giving up frivolous material possessions (and hair), but there's always been one item he's never been able to put down: his camera. Photography has been an important part of both lives: as a young man, Nicholas loved the work of Irving Penn ...Read the entire review

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The Movie:

Aaron Swartz was a bona fide computer genius who contributed to the development of the web feed format RSS when he was only fourteen and co-funded the still hugely popular social news site Reddit a short time later. He was so young when he gave seminars to adults about his groundbreaking work that it was impossible to see his face as he spoke behind his laptop on the podium. After selling Reddit to Conde Nast for seven figures, Swartz was well on his way to becoming one of Silicon Valley's billionaire power players. However, there was one problem: Swartz wasn't interested in making money, he wanted to work towards social change and equality.

In America, if you're a genius who genuinely isn't interested in making as much money as you can humanly get your hands on and then more, people freak out and don't know what to do with you. How dared he have goals and aspirations b...Read the entire review

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Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/67162 Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:44:38 UTC Rent It

As a sculptor, photographer, documentary filmmaker and political whistle-blower, Ai Weiwei has become one of China's most salient and outspoken figures, currently ranked at the top of ArtReview's most recent "Power 100" list. A decade ago, he began blogging and joined Twitter several years later, using both platforms to increase awareness of political corruption and the unfair treatment of Chinese civil...Read the entire review

]]> Better Things: The Life and Choices of Jeffrey Catherine Jones DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/63827 Sat, 22 Feb 2014 04:37:50 UTC Recommended

Note: When speaking about transgender people, the issue of pronouns is considered a sensitive one. Within the documentary, Jones personally expresses his comfort with whatever people are inclined to use. Most of Jones' friends continue to use masculine pronouns, which dictated my decision to do the same for the purposes of the review.


The art of painter Jeffrey Catherine Jones has graced the cover of many fantasy novels, comic books, and albums over the years. His softly detailed figures (often women) have an incredible character and life, despite Jones' bold strokes. He and his contemporaries helped transform the idea of sci-fi and fantasy artwork as a lesser or commercial endeavor, creating pieces that are recognized as fine art. Better Things: The Life and Choices of Jeffrey Catherine Jones was shot shortly before Jones' de...Read the entire review

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Radio Unnameable DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/59404 Mon, 07 Oct 2013 22:29:34 UTC Highly Recommended

THE FILM:
If you're of a certain age, you have this memory. We all do. You're sitting in the car, perhaps riding with your parents or yourself and some friends as you're now old enough to drive. It's late at night and the AM stations are pumping out the same three pop songs that you've been obsessing on all day. You're tired and impressionable and perhaps not ready to make wholly cognizant decisions. So you fiddle with the radio knob, feeling both lucky and punchy, and then it happens. You stumble across something sublime. For me, it was The CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Or maybe it was Larry King and his follow-up act, Jim Bohanan. There are even those of us who remember coming across a non-politicized Glenn Beck, or perhaps most intriguingly, Art Bell and his endless stream of conspiracy theorists, alien abductees, and Bigfoot enthusiasts. Now, thanks to the terrific documentary Rad...Read the entire review

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Sushi: The Global Catch DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61513 Sun, 25 Aug 2013 21:20:49 UTC Recommended

THE PROGRAM

Despite not being a fan of "raw" sushi, (or sashimi as it's properly referred to) the concept, specifically the history and reverence for the food has always intrigued me. If I had perhaps done the tiniest amount of research into the true content and intent of the documentary, "Sushi: The Global Catch," my viewing experience would have been a more balanced and possibly more open-minded one. That said, the 75-minute runtime of said film, is less about the pageantry of sushi and more insight into the widespread effect on the environment it has, before semi-devolving into a thinly veiled soapbox for the sustainability movement. This isn't by any means a bad thing, but does leave viewers with a very inconsistent documentary offering.

Director Mark Hall does a tremendous job of drawing in a casual viewer, one likely to come across this on Netflix, into the traditional worl...Read the entire review

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Sushi: The Global Catch DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61430 Sun, 11 Aug 2013 12:23:16 UTC Recommended

In 10 Words or Less
The growing cost of tasty sushi

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Sushi, documentaries
Likes: Documentaries with a conscience
Dislikes: Wasabi
Hates: Feeling guilty

The Film
One of my favorite documentaries ever is Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which combines a fascinating story of obsession, artistry and familial expectations with one of my favorite cuisines: sushi. It's an amazing tale with beautiful imagery of an incredibly tasty type of food. But before wrapping up the story, the film touches on an issue of concern, as the subjects talk about the effects of overfishing on sushi's future availability. It's a small moment of message is an otherwise apolitical film, but the point really stuck with ...Read the entire review

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A Good Day To Die DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/60444 Mon, 29 Jul 2013 08:09:00 UTC Highly Recommended

The Film:
At its core, the documentary A Good Day to Die is the sort of film best suited for an audience that will most likely never see it. This particular audience is the one made up of people who with little to no knowledge of Dennis Banks or the American Indian Movement (AIM), the central points of focus in David Mueller and Lynn Salt's documentary, and is ultimately the audience that most needs to see this film the most. Instead, I suspect, the people mostly likely to watch A Good Day to Die are those that know a bit about either Banks or AIM or both, and may find much of the film to be a refresher course in a part of American history that has long been ignored. It is the former group that the documentary best serves, yet the latter group that will probably be the one who sees it, coming away with the feeling of wanting to know more. But the fact of the matter is that if yo...Read the entire review

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El Bulli: Cooking in Progress DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/55959 Sat, 05 May 2012 03:44:02 UTC Rent It

The Film:

Several times deep into El Bulli's generous running time of nearly two hours, this writer had to remind himself, briefly but firmly, that one is supposed to be engrossed and awed by the culinary expertise on display. Watching Ferran AdriĆ  (a preternaturally stoic man whose unflappable demeanor suggests a thicker Henry Silva) gesture infrequently and deliver statements that sound like occasional self-parody, director Gereon Wetzel's approach to the documentary becomes puzzling with every passing minute. Presented as observational cinema, with barely any background on the restaurant's haute cuisine status or why it's attracting attention worthy of a feature-length doc (though nowadays everything halfway impressive is obsessively recorded), El Bulli quickly loses its novelty.

Certainly the subtitle attached to Bulli is more than an afterthought - "Cooking in Prog...Read the entire review

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Sunrise/Sunset DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/45673 Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:02:15 UTC Recommended

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th incarnation of the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's most revered leader, spends five months a year in isolated study and contemplation. During the other seven months though, he's engaged in near-constant advocacy for a myriad of global human rights-related issues including wealth redistribution, public health initiatives, disarmament, climate change, women's rights, literacy, fisheries management, religious toleration, and especially, political and religious autonomy from China for Tibet. The Dalai Lama pursues his agenda through one-on-one meetings with world leaders, larger audiences with the international political class at home and on a global lecture circuit abroad, and by reaching even wider audiences through media, especially television and home video. In addition to countless interviews for television news and public affairs programs, since 2000, the Dalai Lama has appe...Read the entire review

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Meditate and Destroy DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/43219 Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:16:46 UTC Recommended

Sarah Fisher's documentary about Buddhist teacher and ex-addict Noah Levine, Meditate and Destroy, answers a question I've long had. As a longtime non-believer in a god or gods who answer prayers, I've frequently wondered where atheist and agnostic alcoholics and drug addicts could turn for help overcoming their addictions when so much of the treatment available in the United States relies on the principles of the 12-step program. You see, six of those 12 steps explicitly involve acknowledging a higher power, confiding in God one's woes, and praying for divine assistance. While well-heeled addicts can turn to secular psychotherapy or other treatment options, where can working-class teens and young-adults turn for encouragement, I wondered; enter Noah Levine.

Born in 19...Read the entire review

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Hair: Let the Sunshine In DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36098 Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:22:14 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie:
Note: this review is based on a pre-release screener, which may or may not reflect the final retail version of this title.

William Goldman, the august screenwriter with an Oscar or two sitting on his mantle, also has written several fascinating non-fiction books detailing various insider information about sundried artistic genres. While his 1983 tome "Adventures in the Screen Trade" may be his most famous work to the general populace (at least the populace that visits sites about film), I personally recommend that anyone with any interest in showbiz generally and theater specifically check out his 1969 masterpiece, "The Season." This frightening, acerbic (and, yes, occasionally homophobic) look at the disastrous 1967-68 Broadway season will open your eyes about the ways shows got produced, at least back then, with several incredibly revealing chapters about the "...Read the entire review

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