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Who Asked You ... Movie Review - Documentary Roundup

Instead of full reviews I am going to merely throw out quick mini-reviews of documentaries that I have seen recently.
An Inconvenient Truth

Davis Guggenheim's "An Inconvenient Truth" is unfortunately two films in one. One story is important. The other story is rather meaningless. One story is compelling. The other sucks the life out of the movie.

The primary story of the film is the threat of global warming that the world we all live on faces today. The increase in global temperatures poses a significant problem to life on Earth that should indeed be addressed. The film does an excellent job, through Al Gore, of laying out the issue in a way that can be understood by all. While the existence of global warming cannot be argued, there are still disputes regarding the causes, effects, and extent of global warming. Sadly these disputes are not included in this film. In fact, much of Gore's presentation is made in the condescending tone that he is so famous for.

The secondary story is about the man, the myth, the legend of Gore himself. There are some interesting segments, such as the way his family had to deal with the consequences of their tobacco farming lifestyle after Gore's sister died of lung cancer. However most of these segments are painful to go through as you realize that you are being forced to watch a 90 minutes campaign ad. The film will please the true believers who already agree with Gore but will do little for anyone else. At least the subject of global warming is places into a more public sphere.

Sketches of Frank Gehry

"The Sketches of Frank Gehry" is an interesting journey into the life of the world's most prolific and artistic architect Frank Gehry. On the whole Gehry is a fairly interesting man with a fairly interesting story. The film showed a number of examples of his work and I must say that while some were awe inspiring others were just painful. I can't help but wonder if something was lost in the recording of these three-dimensional art pieces onto film.

The shining moments of the documentary are when we are taken into Gehry's creative process and get to "watch the master work". These scenes are exceptional and I only wish there had been more of them. You will probably need an interest in architecture or the artistic/creative process to enjoy this film.


Wordplay

"Wordplay" is a fun little movie about the New York Times crossword puzzle and everyone connect to it. The cast of characters includes those who edit them, those who created them, and those who solve them. Specifically, the film centers around the annual crossword puzzle championships held in New Jersey. The cast of characters is as quirky and funny as you might imagine. Even the likes of John Stewart and former President Bill Clinton are featured (they don't play in the tournament). I must admit after seeing this film, I was solving a crossword within hours. The only drawback to the film was the pompous, "We are the most important newspaper in the world, ever." attitude of the New York Times folks. Luckily this does not weight the film down too much.