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The Blues Society is an captivating, insightful and well-edited documentary about the Memphis Country Blues Festival from 1966 to 1969. Director Augusta Palmer covers a lot of ground as she balances the archival concert footage, talking head interviews and the words of her father, Bob Palmer (voice of Eric Roberts), one of the festival's organizers. She does an effective job of explaining the festival within the context of the counter-cultural movement of the 1960s. Interestingly, the blues musicians prefer to be referred to as beatniks, though, not as hippies. A truly great documentary finds the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking them emotionally as well as intellectually. The Blues Society accomplished that feat without becoming dry, tedious or exhausting. It's a loving, engrossing and nostalgic tribute to an essential part of music history that deserves to be better known. At only 1 hour and 16 minutes, The Blues Society opens at DCTV's Firehouse Cinema before hitting VOD on July 9th, 2024. It would be an interesting double features with Summer of Soul.
In The Garfield Movie, directed by Mark Dindal, Garfield (voice of Chris Pratt) has been living with his owner, Jon (voice of Nicholas Hoult) and Odie (voice of Harvey Guillen), a dog. After he and Odie get kidnapped by a cat, Jinx (voice of Hannah Waddinham), he reunites with his dad, Vic (voice of Samuel L. Jackson), to help him steal a milk truck. The screenplay by co-writers Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove and David Reynolds begins on a high note with a funny and witty first act, but it quickly runs out of jokes as well as ideas. The plot isn't very engaging, clever or fun, even during the heist sequence. It throws lots of Easter Eggs at the audience, i.e. references to Mission: Impossible and even pays homage to it with an action scene that takes place on top of a fast-moving train. The voice acting is a mixed bag, especially Chris Pratt who's miscast as the voice of Garfield. Kids might be amused by the sight gags and dazzled by the bright colors, but there's not nearly enough to entertain adults. The CGI animation looks great, though, and the film moves at a brisk pace. At a running time of 1 hour and 41 minutes, it's harmless and mildly engaging with solid animation, but too bland and low on laughs to rise above mediocrity. It opens nationwide via Columbia Pictures. 
Jim Henson: Idea Man is a slickly edited and mildly engaging, but often hagiographic documentary biopic about legendary puppeteer and animator, Jim Henson. Director Ron Howard opts for a rather conventional, linear structure as he charts Henson's life and work beginning with his childhood. There's nothing in the film that's particularly revealing or surprising about him, though, perhaps because Ron Howard assumes that the audience isn't very familiar with Henson's work. The interviews with Henson's surviving family members and colleagues like Frank Oz provide some interesting anecdotes and observations about Henson, but without enough focus or insights beyond providing the audience with a reader's digest version of Jim Henson. This isn't a warts-and-all documentary, unfortunately, so Henson still remains behind the curtain, so-to-speak, without enough opportunities to peek behind that curtain. As an introduction to Jim Henson, Jim Henson: Idea Man is decent, but beyond that, it's a squandered opportunity to become a transcendent and moving documentary biopic like Remembering Gene Wilder. At 1 hour and 51 minutes, it opens at AMC Empire 25 before streaming on Disney+ on May 31st, 2024.
Maestra follows four female orchestra conductors participating in the La Maestra competition in 2022. The documentary's structure is pretty conventional as it provides a "behind the scenes" glimpse of how the four conductors prepare for the competition. Director Maggie Contreras does a decent job of showing their determination, diligence, struggles and, above all, their passion. Although Contreras squanders her opportunity to add suspense like what Spellbound does for spelling bees or Science Fair does science projects, Maestra at least manages to humanize its subjects and to illuminate what it's like emotionally, physically and psychologically to be a female orchestra conductor. It's also very well-edited and doesn't have any scenes that feel dull or repetitive. Maestra opens at Angelika Film Center. 
Queen of the Deuce is a captivating, illuminating and well-edited documentary biopic about Chelly Wilson, a Holocaust survivor born in Greece who moved to New York City where she owned and operated porn theaters in a section of Times Square called The Deuce back in the 1970s. Director Valerie Kontakos combines interviews with Chelly Wilson's friends and family as well as archival footage and photographs to chart her life from Greece to the US and to shed light on how she began her porn theater empire before the demise of porn theaters---there are a total of 0 porn theaters in NYC today. The anecdotes are just as fascinating as Wilson's story itself. She wasn't a great mother, but, as a businesswoman who was tough, savvy and quick-tempered. She was also lesbian who was married to a man. So, there's much more to her than meets the eye. She's an ordinary woman with an extraordinary life. Her life story serves as an inspiring lesson that it's possible to overcome adversity and to achieve success. At a running time of 1 hour and 18 minutes, Queen of the Deuce opens at IFC Center via Greenwich Entertainment.
Songs of Earth is a mesmerizing, lyrical and poignant documentary about Oldedalen, a valley in Norway where Jørgen Olink grew up. Director Margreth Olink, Jørgen's daughter, captures the majestic beauty of Oldedalen with its mountains, glaciers and waterfalls as well as a lake and a river. Jørgen serves as the narrator who talks about what the valley means to him and his experiences with his wife, Magnhild, whom he's been married to for over five decades. Margreth divides the doc into the four seasons with each season representing a different chapter in her father's life. He discusses everything from natural disasters that took the lives of his neighbors to the glaciers that have been melting throughout the years because of global warming. You can feel the love he has both for his wife and for nature as well. The film's images are even more powerful than words, though, so Songs of Earth excels the most as a nature documentary. At 1 hour and 30 minutes, it opens at IFC Center via Strand Releasing. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga  Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) kidnaps Furiosa (Alyla Brown) as a child and holds her in captivity in the Citadel run by Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). During her teenage years, Furiosa (now played by Anya Taylor-Joy) shaves her head, escapes, and goes on the run while teaming up with Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) to battle Dementus and his vicious gang.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga suffers from a dull and shallow screenplay by writer/director George Miller and co-writer Nick Lathouris. The plot treads water with poor exposition as it first focuses on Furiosa as a young child when she gets kidnapped while Immortan Joe and Dementus are established as the main villains. Neither of them comes across as interesting villains, although, like most villains, they're quite mean, ruthless and power-hungry. This film doesn't quite work effectively as Furiosa's origin story because nothing stands out about her except for how much she physically resembles the grown-up version of Furiosa played by Charlize Theron. The dialogue doesn't have much in terms of wit or nearly enough comic relief. The suspense and thrills wane during any scenes that don't have action. Worst of all, it's hard to root for Furiosa or to care about what happens to her. Miller and Lahouris just care about moving the plot forward from one action set piece to the next, but they forgot about breathing life into the movie. They also do a poor job of exposition and fail to offer the audience any surprises. The set design, sound design, costume design, action choreography and cinematography are the film's only strengths. They come with diminishing returns, but there's one exhilarating action scene taking place on a truck that stands out. Chris Hemsworth gives an over-the-top performance that's more awkward than campy or funny. The violence is quite graphic and gritty, much like Mad Max: Fury Road and the sound is often very loud, although it doesn't overlap with the dialogue to drown it out---this isn't a Christopher Nolan film, after all. When one quiet scene finally arrives, albeit ephemerally, it feels refreshing and even a bit relaxing for a change. Beyond that, though, the pace moves quickly and the heavy weight of the running time can be felt, especially after the 2 hour mark. At 2 hours and 28 minutes, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is an overproduced, overlong, dull and exhausting spectacle.
 I Don't Know Who You Are  Benjamin (Mark Clennon), a Jamaican immigrant, works as a musician and has a new boyfriend, Malcolm (Anthony Diaz). After a stranger sexually assaults him late at night, he struggles to afford the medicine that would prevent him from getting HIV. Writer/director M. H. Murray has created a poignant character study that also sheds light on the lack of affordable healthcare for people without insurance in the US. Benjamin has merely 2 days after his assault to start taking the medicine because it won't work after that period. There's no doubt that he needs therapy after such a traumatic event, but, before that, he needs to avoid the risk of getting HIV. It's a life or death situation. So, when he learns from the pharmacist that his insurance won't cover the necessary medication that he was prescribed, he gets frustrated while lashing out at the pharmacist after his credit card gets declined. He even tries to negotiate with him by saying that he can pay for half of the prescription, but to no avail. His anger towards the pharmacist is technically misdirected because it's not his fault. However, he has the right to be indignant, so his anger is justifiable. Luckily, he has a good friend, Ariel (Nat Manuel), and someone he tutors in music is kind enough to move up her lesson so that he can get paid sooner. What happens afterward won't be spoiled here, but I Don't Know Who You Are does go into dark territory with at least one major surprise. It's not quite as emotionally devastating , powerful or gripping as Femme, which also begins with a sexual assault. However, it comes pretty close. Mark Clennon gives a breakthrough performance as Benjamin while finding the emotional truth of his role. The film's emotional depth comes from his performance rather than from the screenplay. Kudos to him for handling the nuances of his role effectively as well. Fortunately, writer/director M.H. Murray avoids melodramatic or maudlin scenes. There are more than a handful of understated moments that speak louder than words. At a running time of 1 hour and 43 minutes, I Don't Know Who You Are is an engrossing, honest and tender emotional journey.
 I Love You, to the Moon, and Back 
 The Keeper   Sight  Dr. Ming Wang (Terry Chen), lives in America and works as an eye surgeon at a Nashville clinic. He desperately tries to find a cure for blindness that would help restore the vision of blind people like Kajal (Mia Swaminathan), a young girl from India whose own mother blinded her with acid.
Based on a true events, the screenplay by writer/director Andrew Hyatt and his co-writers, John Duigan and Buzz McLaughlin, begins as Dr. Wang tries to develop a cure for blindness with the help of his friend and medical partner, Misha Bartnovksy, before flashing back to Ming during his childhood in 1970's Communist China. The flashback scenes are much more powerful and engrossing than the present day scenes with Dr. Wang at his lab. The non-linear structure of the narrative isn't distracting or confusing, though. It actually humanizes Dr. Wang while helping the audience to understand the traumatic events from his childhood that shaped him as an adult today. In his younger years, he remained diligent and persistent even through events like the Chinese Cultural Revolution. That's when he met and befriended Anle (Danni Wang), who later became his wife. He has clearly been through a lot of hardships, but he persevered nonetheless. It's refreshing to watch a film about someone who's introspective and understands the importance of facing painful memories in order to heal from the emotional pain. The filmmakers see and treat Dr. Wang with genuine empathy which allows the audience to do the same. He's strong, yet vulnerable. He's also brilliant, yet, everyone else, he's also fallible. Knowing that he developed the world's first amniotic membrane contact lens is uplifting, but his journey, through thick and thin, to achieve that success is ultimately what makes Sight so engaging and inspiring. The performances are solid all across the board from Terry Chen's moving performance to the charismatic Greg Kinnear in a supporting role. The always-reliable Fionna Flanagan makes the most out of her brief scenes as a nun. Meanwhile, Ben Wang and Jayden Zhang, the actors who portray Dr. Wang as a young child and teenager, respectively, are also impressive. The set design and cinematography during the flashbacks are superb along with the editing between those scenes and the present-day scenes. Fortunately, the transitions don't feel abrupt nor does it lead to the film becoming disjointed or overstuffed, although it does cover a lot of ground. There are pacing issues with the flashbacks moving briskly while the present-day scenes move somewhat slower which would have benefited from being the other way around. However, those are minor and forgivable flaws. At 1 hour and 40 minutes, Sight is an empowering, heartfelt and captivating true story about a man who conquered adversity and never gave up on his dreams.  Solo  Simon (Théodore Pellerin), a drag queen, develops a romance with Olivier (Félix Maritaud), another drag queen, which turns into a rocky relationship. Meanwhile, he struggles to reconnect with his estranged mother, Claire (Anne-Marie Cadieux), an opera singer. The screenplay by writer/director Sophie Dupuis avoids melodrama, cheesiness and heavy-handedness as it explores Simon's relationship with Olivier and his mother. Both of them are toxic and emotionally abusive people, but neither of them is a villain. There are no villains here. No one gets cancer, gets killed or hurts someone physically. That doesn't mean that Simon doesn't experience a different kind of pain which is much deeper and harder to heal from: emotional pain. It's also harder to notice that kind of pain because the scars aren't visible. Simon yearns to feel happy, fulfilled and accepted for his true self, but he's seeking acceptance and validation from two people who are too self-involved and shallow to provide it for him. His mother is too busy with her work to even have dinner with him. In one of the most poignant scenes in the film, she abruptly leaves him after briefly meeting up with him and tells him to text her. He looks clearly dejected and disappointed. She's capable of giving him and his sister, Maude (Alice Moreault), materialistic things like gifts, but she neglects to provide him with his emotional needs. Simon has a cathartic and sensitively-written scene toward the end where he briefly confronts his mother. Perhaps she's trying her best, but her best isn't good enough. Perhaps she's a narcissist. Is she a malignant narcissist? How emotionally immature is she? Is she capable of introspection? It's hard to tell. Fortunately, Solo doesn't judge her, Simon, Olivier or anyone else nor does it ask the audience to judge them either. Kudos to writer/director Sophie Dupuis for grasping human nature in all of its complexities which reflects her emotional maturity and for designing a window into Simon's heart, mind and soul which reflects her emotional generosity as a filmmaker. Théodore Pellerin gives a raw and genuinely heartfelt performance while capturing Simon's emotional truth. He knows how to handle all of the nuances of his role convincingly which helps to further ground the film in authenticity. It's also beautifully shot, has a wonderful, lively and well-chosen soundtrack, and the pace moves at just the right speed without any scenes that overstay their welcome. At a running time of 1 hour and 41 minutes, Solo is a warm, unflinching and tender story about a young man who gradually learns how to find love, validation and happiness within himself. It would be an interesting double feature with The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
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