August 2024 documentary review 10-pack: 'War Game,' 'Faye,' 'The Elizabeth Taylor Tapes,' 'Mountain Queen' and more
Reviewing ten new documentaries from this month
The summer is wrapping up with quite a few significant nonfiction films. Here my new capsule reviews of ten of them:
War Game
This doc, directed by Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss and headed to theaters this Friday, dramatizes a recent government exercise gaming out what would happen if another January 6-like event took place, only more competent and with the support of parts of the military.
It’s thrilling and chilling stuff, and if you’re a politics nerd, you’ll likely recognize some faces. They include Col. Alexander Vindman in a much more credible performance than when he guest-starred on Curb Your Enthusiasm that time.
The one false note? There’s no way sovereign citizens, one of the more batshit, weirdo-driven political movements in existence, would ever have their act together nearly enough to threaten a coup credibly.
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa
This is a fantastic film on Netflix now about an amazing woman, Lhakpa Sherpa, who is depicted on her quest to climb Mt. Everest for the 10th time—meaning one more time than her late, abusive ex-husband.
The Nepalese-American woman, who works at Whole Foods in Connecticut during her day job, tells her astonishing life story. At the same time, the film features some amazing photography of her latest journey up Mt. Everest.
Lucy Walker directed the film, after previously making another Everest movie called Blindsight. This is one of the best docs of the year.
Faye
One of two archival documentaries this month, on the streaming service Max, about a female movie star of the 20th century who was often controversial.
This one tells the story of the living legend Faye Dunaway. It features contemporary interviews and archival footage from Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, and her other classic films.
Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, the film has a clear but admirable agenda: Going through Dunaway’s career and arguing that her reputation as “difficult” was unfair, especially considering her diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes
This one looks at Elizabeth Taylor through the things she was most famous for: Her movie roles, her voluminous number of marriages, and the various intersections of both. If you love old Hollywood stuff, you’re going to love this.
The documentary is built around an interview Taylor gave in the early 1960s about her life and career up to that point. It includes plenty of film and archival footage from those years. However, it’s light on stuff after that interview; Taylor lived until 2011.
The Lost Tapes was directed by Nanette Burstein, who also co-directed the best-ever movie of this kind, The Kid Stays in the Picture; ironically, Robert Evans, like Taylor, had seven marriages, although the two never married each other.
Two American Families: 1991-2024
This amazing documentary, filmed over 34 years and recently debuting on PBS' Frontline, is about a pair of working-class families in Milwaukee. Its portrayal of work, family, and struggle is so much more real than what we’re hearing from any corner of the election campaign.
It reminded me quite a bit of Michael Apted’s “Up” series, albeit truncated into a single documentary (You can watch the entire film embedded above.)
The documentary is fronted and was over the entire three-plus decades by Bill Moyers; I would not have guessed that Moyers, now 90, was still alive.
Wild Wild Space
Another documentary on Max, directed by Ross Kauffman, examines the numerous entrepreneurs—at least the less-famous ones than Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos—who have started companies to get into “low-Earth orbit.”
The good news, I guess, is that these guys haven’t all lost their minds the way Musk has. But I have trouble seeing why I’m supposed to be inspired about their actions or missions.
Going to the Moon or Mars is one thing, but I fail to see what’s so fascinating about their actions.
Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net
This documentary from ace filmmaker Dawn Porter is on Prime Video now. It is about how Cirque du Soleil’s “O” show in Las Vegas returned from the pandemic shutdown.
Sure, it sometimes feels like a commercial for Cirque du Soleil and that particular show.
But it finds compelling subjects, including a woman you’ll root for to escape her terrible boyfriend. and another guy who, like Martin Short and Harry Shearer in that great SNL sketch, is a men’s synchronized swimmer.
Dude Perfect: A Very Long Shot
This documentary comes right out at the beginning and asks the question probably on your mind: “Does Dude Perfect deserve a 30 for 30?” Why are these dudes part of ESPN’s vaunted documentary series?
“Jackass for Kids” is the best description I can come up with for what Dude Perfect is- a group of five guys from Texas who became famous from their YouTube channel, which mainly consists of stunts, trick shots, and comedy sketches. It’s different from Jackass in that there’s not much edge, violence, or sexuality — all five are avowed Christians —
Dude Perfect is one of those things that my kids were very into for a time, and I even once took the kids to their live arena show. I’ve long chalked it up as one of those things that’s for people younger than me. But this doc made them more interesting than I ever thought they’d be, based on my previous exposure to them.
The Commandant’s Shadow
If you saw Zone of Interest last year or followed the ridiculous controversy that followed the director’s Oscar speech, here’s a sort-of sequel featuring Hans Jürgen Höss, the son of Rudolf Höss, the top commander of Auschwitz and the protagonist of Zone of Interest.
Directed by Daniela Volker, the film has Hans coming to terms with what he saw as a small child, while the film also follows both Hans’ son and an Auschwitz survivor and her daughter.
Streaming on Max now, it’s heady stuff, as stories about the legacy of the Holocaust tend to be.
Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd
Syd Barrett is known to most classic rock fans as the cofounder of Pink Floyd before he was removed from the group in 1968 amid drug addiction and mental illness. He spent most of his life in obscurity before dying in 2006 at age 60.
Have You Got It Yet? Is a documentary on my radar for at least a year before it finally landed on VOD in the U.S. last week. I realized I didn’t know much about Syd Barrett, and the most significant revelation is that Floyd, during Barrett’s era, sounded very little like the “Pink Floyd” of the Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here eras in the ‘70s; they sounded more like The Kinks.
The film continuously uses the intro riff of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” the band's song dedicated to Barrett.