Ever since Kick-Ass premiered there has been a rise of films depicting normal people putting on a costume and becoming superheroes. After films like Defendor, Super and Griff The Invisible now comes Superheroes, which is a documentary that takes us into the world of real life self-proclaimed superheroes. We are introduced to a variety of superheroes all over the U.S. with a focus on Mr. Xtreme from San Diego and The New York Initiative, which is consisted of four superheroes.

Let me start off by saying that I had absolutely no idea there were that many real life superheroes around. While all of them adapt a distinctive name and costume, they all share similar ideals. The purpose of these superheroes is to raise awareness of the apathy that drives today’s society. There are crimes being committed everywhere and many people even witness such crimes but no one does anything. Most people are too afraid to confront injustice, because let’s face it no one wants to be put in a life-threatning situation.

Watching this documentary made me realize how I misjudged these real life superheroes. I shouldn’t feel sorry or think these superheroes are stupid, because it takes a lot of balls and courage to do what they do. They may look silly and ridiculous, but they are not stupid. These people are in fact highly unselfish and have a very noble mission that makes regular apathetic people look like assholes. They are a bit crazy though, but aren’t we all?

This documentary presents their world in all of its aspects covering the positives and negatives. The positives are that these people are actually doing something about the problems we face. While their lives aren’t as exciting as the lives of superheroes in comic books just the fact that they’re out there risking their lives is truly inspirational. It’s really evident how much they care about making things right, and all the scenes of them helping the homeless seriously broke my heart. I have never seen strangers genuinely care so much about other strangers.

Then there are the negative aspects of being a superhero, which go form deteriorating your personal life to being demoralized by the authorities. Some of these superheroes have regular jobs, but they all sacrifice their personal and social lives for their cause. It’s a bit sad to see that these people live very solitude lives and I know that shouldn’t surprise me since I see it all the time in comic-book films, but knowing and then seeing the reality of it are two different things. I really like how the documentary basically paints the police and the law as corrupt assholes. The police are there to protect us, but it always seems like they rather give us a fine for playing loud music than go arrest some drug dealers. If the police acted even a little bit like these superheroes I’m sure the crime rate would spiral down.

Superheroes is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long time. It is a really effective documentary as it leaves you re-examining your own apathy and makes you want to do something about it. Some of these superheroes look silly while others look really badass, but they all have such noble intentions and a degree of unselfishness that I can see why it is difficult to understand them. Most people aren’t anything like them and I guess it’s easier to diss superheroes simply because we can’t accept how better human beings they are than us. It’s a very inspirational thing these superheroes are doing and one can only hope that more people took them as role models instead of let’s say Chris Brown for example.

We all know what happened between Conan O’Brien and NBC, and even if you preferred Jay Leno you still looked at that and shook your head in disbelief. After being kicked out of The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien went out on a comedy tour across the U.S. and Canada and this documentary gives us a behind the scenes look at the tour. As far as documentaries go, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop is definitely one of the weakest ones I’ve seen. Don’t get me wrong, I love Conan O’Brien but the documentary showed too much of the actual tour show. I would preferred if it focused a lot more on the behind the scenes stuff, which is where we truly see how and who Conan O’Brien is. He is a dick sometimes, but then he is also charming and a really nice person.

One of the things I really liked about the documentary is that it shows us how superficial and sort of two-face showbusiness is (I know, big surprise!). And these things come from different angles, but you can understand why they are there. Being nice to everyone all the time even when you’re tired and angry isn’t an easy thing to do, but in a business like that it’s a necessity. Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop is an okay documentary, but I rather watch Conan O’Brien’s show on TBS. That’s far funnier than this.

Rating:

Who The Fuck Is Jackon Pollock?

When Teri Horton pays $5 for a painting that might possibly be by Jackson Pollock, she sets out to prove its authenticity. The documentary showcases how the art world works and how different approaches to authenticating the painting can yield conflicting results. I’ve always been intrigued by the art world and now that I see it’s filled with self-absorved arrogant assholes, I don’t find it as intriguing. I don’t think I will ever understand how a painting could cost upwards of 100 million dollars. Like all good documentaries, this one really makes you angry, and think and features an awesome lead in the form of Teri Horton. She’s an inspiring, stubborn and compelling woman. 

Sleuth.

In Sleuth, Michael Caine and Jude law score off in a game of deception and wits. To what end? Halfway through the film the answer will appear in front of you in the form of “who gives a fuck?” The only reason why I decided to watch this film was because of director Kenneth Branagh, and sure enough his direction is the only appealing quality in the film. But the rest is just goddamn boring and so self-absorvant that I honestly don’t know how I sat through the whole thing. Thrillers aren’t very thrilling when you can see the twists before they happen, and some of them are so painfully obvious that I felt insulted. Sleuth was a horrible waste of my time and not even it’s awesome score made it worthwhile.

I’ve always said that if there’s one true thing about documentaries is that they are interesting. Whether you end up liking them is a whole different matter. I use to believe that there couldn’t be a documentary I wouldn’t like, especially one that deals with street art. The common misconception about Exit Through The Gift Shop is that it is a film about the famous street artist Banksy. The film is actually about Mister Brainwash a.k.a. Thierry Guetta and his fascination with street art. As a “filmmaker” Thierry started filming and becoming friends  street artists in order to make a documentary on street art. After tagging along famous street artists, he still hadn’t managed to meet the street artist which is Banksy. Through sheer luck their paths crossed and they became good friends. Next thing you know, Thierry starts trying out street art and becomes Mister Brainwash.

My main problem with this film is that I did not care at all about Thierry Guetta. I would go so far as to say that I did not find the guy likable/relatable and in my opinion he is a big joke. I totally understand why all the other street artists didn’t necessarily approve of Mister Brainwash. Why? Because he so called art is a joke. This is just a guy who took every work of other artists, combined them, called them his own and put up an exhibition. He did that in a matter of months and because the general public is delusional, everyone thinks he is the new Andy Warhol. It’s pure bullshit in my opinion. And another thing, Mister Brainwash? Is that really your artistic name? “Anne, punch me in the face.”

The only time I actually enjoyed this film was when the focus was directed at the other street artists and Banksy. I actually really enjoyed all the comments Banksy gives towards Mister Brainwash, they are hilarious. But besides that, I could really care less about this documentary. I am now actually really pissed off that this film got an Oscar nomination over Waiting For Superman. I’ll never understand America.

I got Netflix two days ago and decided to try it out with a film that wasn’t that long. While I was on the documentary section I came upon this documentary, Between Two Folds, about origami. The thing I love about documentaries in general is that they are interesting no matter what, especially when they deal with a subject matter that isn’t that fascinating. Between Two Folds focused on the variety styles of origami making. Some do it with mathematics, others without any calculations, and others just go crazy with it.

I didn’t know that origami was such a respected and fascinating art form. Yes, origami is very much an art form whether you agree with it or not. The level of intricacy and details these artists place in making extraordinary origami figures is unbelivable. These are people who are beyond a simple swan, instead they make extravagant set pieces with trees and people in it, a variety of life-size animals, and so forth. There are limitless figures that you can create by folding a single piece of paper. At moments I was just in awe of all the things they could do. It never orcurred to me that those were things even possible.

But in like every art form, the new generations is overtaking and advancing it at an extremely high rate. Teenagers are achieving things that would take years to accomplish. As a result the old generation, the one that started all, is questioning the new generation’s methods arguing that they’ve taken the sentimentality out of origami making. The old artists say that without sentimentality art is meaningless. I think that speaks a lot of our generation today, because sometimes we are so focused in trying to be better than others that we forget the real purpose of why we’re doing certain things. Sometimes we pay so much attention to the technical aspects of any form of art, that we forget to put our hearts into it.

I highly recommend that you watch this documentary. If you have Netflix then it should be no problem. Between Two Folds is an extremely fascinating documentary about an art form that isn’t taken seriously by the general populations. The film is only 54 minutes, very interesting.

This is a documentary about the end of our modern civilization. It is about what will happen when we have used up all the form of energy that we rely on the most, which is oil. During the course of this documentary, Mike Rupert narrates how everything will occur and how he knows that this collapse is inevitable. He gives us evidence of population growth throughout the course of the human race, how we went from having thousands to billions in matter of decades. This unnatural population growth started and can only be sustain as long as oil is a part of our lives. He goes on to shutting down our other supposed ways of attaining energy, proclaiming that only solar and wind energy are the ones that will remain. This is a guy who predicted the recent economic crisis years before it occurred and who has years of experience with this subject matter.

At one point during the film he tells us about the 5 stages of grief, which are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. That is exactly what I felt while watching this documentary. At first I could not believe what he was saying, I thought it was all bullshit because seriously, who the fuck is this guy? How can he be sure of what will come? I got angry at it’s arrogance and his “I know I’m right so you better fucking believe me” attitude; I was very close to just turning the documentary off. This was followed by me asking myself, well what could’ve I done differently? What could’ve we done differently? Then I just got really sad and felt extremely hopeless. Besides being afraid, I felt a sense of pointlessness, that nothing is worth it because everything will just go to shit. But the positive is that Mike Rupert gives you a way out, gives you a solution to all this and that’s what made me accept this eventual collapse. Maybe he is delusional and filled with paranoia, but everything he said sounded convincing to me. It does make sense that the way we are all living right now is not meant to last forever. No matter how much we hope that it will, at some time everything will change. Our way of life, of everyday thinking will change and then the question we face is: Can I adapt? Do I have enough will power to change my way of thinking in order to survive? He gives a great example about the three types of people and he connects it with the sinking of the Titanic. There’s one group who will say: “What do I do? I don’t know what to do? I’m sinking but I don’t know what to do?” Another group will say: “We need to built life boats in order survive this.” And the third group will just say: “the Titanic is unsinkable, that nothing will happened.” That comparison is so accurate with the whole human race that it is just amazing. Because it is so true, people will be divided between those three groups. When hardships come we have to figure out exactly in which group we will be in.

Collapse is very frightening documentary. Even though I believe that no one truly knows what the future holds for us, I think it’s always best to be prepared, to be prepared for whatever comes. But one thing is for certain, everything will change eventually and we have to form a revolution inside ourselves, we have to change our mindsets. Accept the fact that if we don’t balance ourselves with our planet, we will not survive.

The September Issue is documentary about the september issue of Vogue magazine, chronicling how editor-in-chief Anna Wintour selects what exactly is going to be featured. It’s like The Devil Wears Prada but in real life and unlike Meryl Streep’s character who was mean in a funny way, Anna Wintour is just down right mean and doesn’t hold anything back.

I’m not a person who is big on fashion, that is an industry that while I admire a lot and respect I do not understand. I had no idea of all the things that it takes to make an issue, there are lots of photo-shoots, editorials, clashing ideas and lots of drama. What really surprised me was when they did a certain editorial and in my eyes the photographs look spectacular, but for Anna Wintour they were dull and completely wrong for that month’s issue. Editorials that took a couple of thousands of dollars to make were simply tossed aside because Anna didn’t like them. Of course no one said anything to her, what she says goes and there’s no other way. It’s quite intimidating and surreal the level of respect this woman has attained over the years. The power this woman has is incredible, because she basically decides what the new trends are going to be in the fashion world. And every designer need to get her approval, otherwise they’re pretty much screwed.

The september issue was their biggest issue to date, having about 644 pages. It’s literally a fashion bible, that thing must’ve been huge. I’m actually really glad I got to see this documentary, because now I see the fashion world with a different light. All those people that say that fashion is stupid and not important are wrong and ignorant in my eyes. Fashion is important, it’s an art that we wear on a daily basis. This documentary shows that fashion is by no means an easy task to undertake and we must respect those people that live and breathe it.