Hello everyone! Welcome to Top of the Docs! Where, rather than lip-synching, we instead look each week at a specific documentary we feel deserves its 15 minutes.
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All articles filed in Joel Whitaker
London based culture writer from Merseyside.
What’s on Scene #1 – February 2020
Howdy! Welcome to What’s on Scene, our new monthly column dedicated to keeping you up to date on the latest screenings and programmes across the UK.
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100 Years of Pollyanna: The Legacy of Mary Pickford, and Recapturing Childhood Through Performance
For every Uncut Gems there’s a diamond in the rough. So it is about time we celebrate Pollyanna, arguably Mary Pickford’s best role.
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REVIEW: 'Heimat is a Space in Time' (2019) is One of the Most Affecting and Important Films of the Year
“Powerful, fearless, and intellectually challenging.” Out of all of the European powers, Germany undoubtedly had the most tumultuous 20th century: limping from the Kaiser to hyperinflation to a fascist who would bring about one of the worst atrocities the western world would eversee. The country was divided for half of the century, then at the…
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The Greatest Rock Opera You Never Saw: Dusty Stacks of Mom
The musical as a genre is fairly unique. It often takes the audience on a surreal, extravagant and lavish journey through its stories, which tend to focus more on expression than subtlety. From The Love Parade (1929) to La La Land (2016), musicals have always had a certain magic to them, and none more so…
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LFF REVIEW: “Dramatic, Powerful, and Relevant” – ‘Rose Plays Julie’ (2019)
★★★★★ “Beautiful, resonant, the culmination of their work.” When we first meet Rose (Ann Skelly), she is faceless. Much like Anna Karina in Vivre Sa Vie, she begins her story shrouded in mystery, through narration she slowly peels away at her own mystery. She wants to meet her birth mother, Ellen (Orla Brady), but Ellen’s…
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REVIEW: “Unlike Anything He’s Made Before” – Family Romance, LLC
★ ★ ★ “Not necessarily a misstep, and definitely not to be missed.” Werner Herzog is, in 2019, a figure most of us are familiar with. Be it as a creepy real estate agent in Parks and Rec, the director of globe-trotting documentaries – from Into the Inferno (2016)to Encounters at the End of the…
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The Fall of Man and How That’s Kinda OK: The Eco-Apocalypse in Film
I love a good apocalypse movie. Be it a mystery virus, global warming, or some enigmatic invader, films where we’re forced to confront our demise have always fascinated me. Everyone is always running around, panicking, trying desperately to prevent what is of course one day inevitable – the end of man. The one thing that…
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