Why would anyone be interested in an hour and a half long film about dairy cows with no narration, no plot to speak of, and forces us to look at our treatment of animals for our own gain?

The simple answer is that it’s an incredibly engaging film. It tracks the life cycle of the dairy cows, starting with the birth of one calf and ending with the death of the mother who gave birth. That’s a severe oversimplification of the film. Through the film, the viewer begins to understand what the cow is thinking, existing on her level. When the newly born calf is taken from her after only a few minutes where she is allowed to clean it, one shot lingers on the mother for at least a minute or two, simply watching her bleat in frustration at losing her baby. However, she doesn’t get much time to grieve, as she is sent off to get milked before long, both literally and metaphorically going in circles throughout the course of her life.

The presentation of the film is that of cinema verité, showing us how things are with no comment. Many people will say that this is an anti-dairy farming film, or a pro-vegan/vegetarian film, but I don’t think it is meant as such. It is meant as a look into the world that all of us are connected to, but most will never see or even think of. We go to the grocery store and milk is there in a jug for us, so we don’t have to worry about the process it took to make that happen. I know I thought a bit more about where my food comes from after watching this film, and while I haven’t consciously changed any of my eating habits, I have given more thought to what is required to bring certain items to my plate.

Cow (affiliate link) is a film I would urge anyone to give a chance. It truly is a unique experience for each viewer and the story changes based on your own preconceptions about the topic.

7 out of 10

It’s not surprising that just a few years after the excellent documentary The Last Dance (affiliate link), about the rise of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, that we get another excellent basketball documentary.

The Redeem Team (Netflix link) is a deep dive into the story of the 2008 Men’s US Olympic Basketball Team. While not as detailed as The Last Dance (affiliate link), it provides plenty of backstory to the events that led up to those Olympic Games in Beijing. We got to see the rise of the original Dream Team in The Last Dance (affiliate link), and this is the next logical chapter, looking at basketball when the world had caught up with the United States, and even our top talent wasn’t guaranteed a win on the world stage.

The film provides plenty of typical documentary fare with talking head interviews from the likes of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwayne Wade, players on the team that had fallen short in 2004 and wanted to come back to the Olympics and regain the former glory. In addition to this, however, is going further back, not only to the original dream team, but even back to a controversial Olympic gold medal game where the Soviet Union beat the United States. This historical context serves to elevate the story of US Olympic Basketball and shows that it hasn’t all been sunshine and roses.
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I would be remiss if I failed to mention the inclusion of Kobe Bryant in the film. He was an integral part of the 2008 team and was able to put his Lakers loyalties aside, facing down NBA teammate Pao Gasol in their very first game. One of the most touching scenes comes near the end of the film with the team celebrating Kobe’s birthday while at the Olympics. He can be seen with his daughters, including Gianna who was only two at the time. It was sobering to see that footage and hear the interviews with him at the time and only reminded me that he was gone too soon.

This documentary is essential viewing for any true sports fan, and should be included on the watchlist of anyone interested in great comeback stories. It is a great retelling of a relatively recent time in our sports history, and one that some people may not remember exactly the way it happened.

8 out of 10

The most important part of this film is the conversation, but the concerto serves as a jumping off point for the conversation to take place at all.

The conversation between co-director Erik Bowers and his grandfather Horace Bowers Sr. comes in the run up to Erik being the featured composer at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. When he sits down with his grandfather, he uncovers a family history that goes back to the Jim Crow south, winds through the mid-20th century when Horace negotiated life as a black business owner, and eventually led to Erik's achievement and recognition as a black composer today.

The film is important and hopefully spurs many young people today to have deep conversations with their own grandparents and parents about what things were like when they were young. We take a lot for granted about where the world is today, often forgetting that things were much different just a generation or two ago. By having these conversations, we can hopefully learn from the lessons of the past, and apply them to continue improving our society moving forward.

While the film is only 13 minutes long, I would be happy to have a much longer conversation like this in a feature length film.

9 out of 10​​​​

"A Concerto is a Conversation" is available on YouTube.

For people who love film, getting to hear from some of the biggest names in the business from the last 40-50 years comes with a special thrill. Usually those names include people like Spielberg, Lucas, Lynch, Redford, Nolan, or Coppola. While some of those names appear here, the real stars of the show are Burtt, Murch, and Rydstrom, with some help from Zimmer and Göransson.

Put simply, Making Waves is your 90-minute primer on sound in film. If you watch films today in a Dolby surround sound theater, you might not think of all the various steps it too to get from the few minutes of synchronized sound in 1927's The Jazz Singer to the multitrack feast for your ears in an Avengers or Star Wars film. Perhaps you don't even think about the sound at all, just letting the entire experience wash over you. Enter Making Waves. (For more on The Jazz Singer, check out my podcast episode about it.)

The film does an excellent job of setting the stage for why sound is important in film before diving into a detailed history of sound (or lack there of) in film, going all the way back to the 1870s. The three key players mentioned above (Ben Burtt, Walter Murch, and Gary Rydstrom) relate their experiences first hand from working with directors Francis Ford Coppola (Murch), George Lucas (Burtt), and John Lasseter (Rydstrom) on some of the biggest films of the last 50 years, some of which were highly underestimated.

Once the film completes a 30-minute history lesson on sound in film, it jumps back into what the interviewees dub the "circle of sound." This includes the dialogue, sound effects, and music, which, when mixed together form the soundtrack of the film.

As a lover of films and many of the directors mentioned and interviewed for the film, I was enthralled with the depth provided here. I also have to admit to being a bit surprised at the relative level of diversity displayed throughout with nearly as many women interviewed for the film as men, and a number of individuals from different ethnic backgrounds. Granted the three kingpins are all white men, but since Burtt was the only really well known name for me, I was pleased to see a variety of people working on some of my favorite films.

My only real critique with the film is that I wish it had been longer! I never missed an episode of the 90s Discovery Channel show Movie Magic which mainly dealt with visual effects, and I would gladly sit through a 25 minute weekly episode about sound in films. One could easily teach an entire 100-level university class on the subject of this film, and probably not even scratch the surface.

The film is a must-watch for anyone who considers themselves a true film buff and at just over an hour and a half, it won't eat too much into your list of other things to watch.

Making Waves is available on Amazon Prime.

9 out of 10​​

Once in a while, a story comes along that makes you take a step back and try to figure out what is wrong with humanity. Athlete A is one of those stories and while you might know some of the big names, you surely don't know the whole story.

Anyone who has watched the Summer Olympic games in the last 30 years probably knows about the success of the American women's gymnastic teams. Longtime coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi have produced countless gold medals in the event starting with Marylou Retton winning the individual all around in 1984 to the most recent games in 2016 with the self-appointed "Final Five."

If you've been paying attention to the news of the last several years, you know the name of Larry Nassar, the man convicted on child pornography charges in 2017, but perhaps better known for his role as an athletic trainer with USA gymnastics. What this film covers is the systemic abuse and cover up that has been going on in this organization for decades.

Just as with any other organization where people gain more and more power and influence, they want to keep that power and will do whatever it takes to do so. If that comes at the cost of young people, specifically young girls, so be it. The documentary covers the fear that these girls felt at being a part of the Karolyi training team and how Nassar was the only "nice" one at Karolyi Ranch in Texas, gaining their trust by talking to them like a normal person and even sneaking them candy when the Karolyi's weren't watching.

My hat goes off to the reports of The Indianapolis Star who first broke the story in 2016. They were willing to tell the story based on the facts they had at the time, and ultimately their reporting encouraged several women to speak out publicly, asserting that they had been victims of Nassar as well. Ultimately, more than 250 women and girls have accused Nassar of some form of sexual assault, including some of the biggest names in the sport from the last several Olympic Games.

Films in general should make you think, and documentaries are no exception. Athlete A will reshape the way you think about elite gymnastics in this country and perhaps change the way you think about these young Olympic heroes, all the more powerful after learning what they had to endure to get to the top of the podium.

Athlete A is streaming now on Netflix.

9 out of 10​​

Whether you're old enough to remember the Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 1990s or you've just heard tales about it from your parents, this docuseries will go down as one of the definitive tellings of the story of those teams, specifically the 1997-1998 team that completed the second three-peat in eight years.

I don't typically review television series here, but this almost feels more like an extended 8-9 hour film, than a series, so I'm making an exception. From here out, I will refer to it as a singular entity.

First, a little background. The documentary focuses its attention on the 1997-1998 season of the Chicago Bulls, dubbed "The Last Dance" by coach Phil Jackson after he was told by general manager Jerry Krause that he would not be back as coach the following year. The team had been at the top for most of the decade of the 90s and was coming off their second run of back-to-back NBA championships in 1996 and 1997, bringing their total to five in the decade.

The story is told within the the framework of this last season through flashbacks within each episode. The 1998 frame serves to start the narrative before jumping back to build the team up, piece by piece, starting with His Airness himself, Michael Jordan. Many people spoke of this as "the MJ doc" or "the Jordan series" and they can be excused for using that terminology. While it is officially about the Bulls last run to the championship, Jordan features so prominently in the story of the Bulls of the 1980s and 1990s, that the two are nearly synonymous.

Fortunately, director Jason Hehir and his creative team didn't forget about the other role players on the team. Episode one not surprisingly focuses on Jordan before delving into Scottie Pippin and Dennis Rodman's history in episodes two and three. Episode four provides the backstory for Jackson before Jordan and the 1992 Dream Team head to Barcelona for the Olympic Games in episode five, also the only appearance of the late Kobe Bryant, interviewed before his passing earlier this year.

The second half of the series starts with questions about Jordan's seemingly rampant gambling and completing the first three-peat in episode six. Finding himself physically and mentally exhausted after that championship, and dealing with the death of his father, Jordan exits to play baseball in episode seven, before returning to chase his fourth championship in episode eight. Episodes nine and ten round out the series as the bulls face off against some younger talent in the NBA and struggle to complete the second three-peat.

The series includes hundreds of interviews from the likes of former president Barack Obama, journalists Michael Wilbon, Andrea Kramer, Bob Costas, Sam Smith, and J. A. Adande (just to name a few), former NBA commissioner David Stern, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, NBA hall of famers Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, John Stockton, and Kobe Bryant, not to mention members of the Jordan family, former coaches, and of course, players for the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s. I'm sure there was enough interview footage to fill another 100 episodes about this team, so the care that the creative team had to take to put together these stories does not go unappreciated.

One of the hallmarks of a great documentary, in my opinion, is one that can keep you on the edge of your seat even when you think you already know the story backwards and forwards (see O.J. Made in America). The Last Dance does that to perfection by reminding you of some of the stories you may have forgotten about this great team. What happens if certain shots fall an inch the other way? If Jordan hadn't been hurt early in his career, how would that have changed his trajectory? Would he have still left basketball if his father had still been alive? Did he really have the flu for the "flu game" in 1997? We get to see these stories play out as if watching them for the first time, and hear some of those stories from the mouths of those who lived them first hand.

Whether you are a basketball fan or not, The Last Dance is required viewing. The fact that it came out in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 only served to lift it to an even higher profile than it may have had otherwise. We were starving for sports and while sports have started to return around the world, this still feels like an important story to tell.

The Last Dance is streaming now on Netflix. You can also follow along with the episodes and listen to interviews with director Jason Hehir on the Jalen and Jacoby Aftershow podcast from ESPN or on YouTube.

10 out of 10​​

When I watch a film about an artist, be they a visual artist, musician, actor, director, or writer, I always want to find out more about the creative process they go through in creating their art. Sadly you get little of that in the 2017 film Five Foot Two, focusing on the time in late 2016 and early 2017 when Lady Gaga released a new album, performed at the Democratic National Convention, and landed the biggest gig of the year playing the halftime show at Super Bowl LI.

Billed as a behind the scenes documentary, this film relapses into a familiar view of celebrities as divas who are incredibly out of touch with reality. We move from Gaga at her Malibu home with her mother making dinner, to the palatial studio of her executive producer, Mark Ronson, to the expansive New York City apartment with glorious views overlooking Central Park. The film makes sure to highlight the fact that Gaga can hardly walk outside of her dwellings without a mob of fans and paparazzi following her around.

This constant attention tries to be the focus and she tries to deal with the anxiety of not being good enough (in her own mind) while also dealing with physical ailments that require the constant attention of a squad of personal masseuses. While I'm sure there is some degree of anxiety in her life, as evident by the handful of breakdowns displayed onscreen, the fact that she has a gaggle of handlers around reiterating how amazing she is and how any problem she encounters is somehow someone else's fault makes it hard to truly feel bad for her situation.

Early in the film, Gaga (born Stefani Germanotta) claims that she has come to peace with who she is and doesn't try to be someone other than herself. However, the film itself tells a different story, even if that is the only real narrative to be found. Even in this "behind the scenes" look, we rarely get to see Stefani. When we do get a look at her with disheveled hair and no makeup, the stylists are quick to jump in and start the process of turning Stefani into Gaga.

I really wanted to like this film. I wanted to learn more about how a Lady Gaga song comes to life. I wanted more moments like the heartwarming scene where Gaga plays a new song honoring her aunt Joanne who passed away at the age of 19 to her grandmother (Joanne's mother). If you're a die hard Gaga fan, you've probably already seen the film and loved it. For those looking for a deeper look at the artist you might not know other than a few songs on top 40 radio, you won't find it here.

Gaga: Five Foot Two is streaming now on Netflix.

3 out of 10​​

If you don't at least get a tear in your eye watching this film, chances are you are not really human.

This is the second short documentary on the subject of end of life care released by Netflix to be nominated for an Oscar in the last three years. I remember watching "Extremis" two years ago, and appreciating its impact, but this one stuck with me a bit more.

​Perhaps it's the inclusion of a story about a woman nearing the end of her life and seeing her young son facing a future life without his mother. Maybe it was the variety of stories and types of end of life care displayed in this film. Whatever it was, I've been thinking on this film more than previous encounters with this subject.

Clocking in at just under the Academy's short film limit of 40 minutes, you can easily take in this film in an evening, but be warned, it is not for the faint of heart. You will be forced to deal with the subject of death when watching this film. But the important message here is that we are all faced with these decisions at some point, yet so few of us are prepared to deal with them. Take the time and discuss your wishes with your family today.

7 out of 10

Focusing on a little known rally of American Nazi's in the run up to the Second World War, this film uses archival footage set to music to showcase what some might consider the dark underbelly of American history.

Clocking in at just under 7 minutes, there is a lot of punch packed into this film. Curry puts the visual pomp and circumstance of the Nazi rally on display and asks the viewer to think and make their own decisions about what this means and how it informs the world we live in today.

Looking at the world around us, it's easy to say we are nothing like the society portrayed in this film. But at the same time, there are rallies that look very much like the one we see here, complete with people being escorted out by security forces while the assembled masses laugh at them.

​This film should be required viewing for anyone living in our country right now. It speaks directly to the lengths to which some people will go to silence those with beliefs different from their own.

9 out of 10