I cannot lie. This movie made me very happy. Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope, Morgan Spurlock’s fluffy and consistently funny (and shockingly not first-person) look at San Diego Comic-Con, is not just a puff piece advertising this huge event, which doesn’t really need help attracting crowds anyway. It’s a puff piece, no doubt, but it’s also an endearing profile of a phenomenon that non-geeks may think is impossible to understand or relate to.
The Gallaghers let fans behind the curtain in Don’t Look Back in Anger, a film that starts at tense rehearsals and ends with brotherly respect. “I forgot how funny he was,” Noel says of Liam
The Gallaghers let fans behind the curtain in Don’t Look Back in Anger, a film that starts at tense rehearsals and ends with brotherly respect. “I forgot how funny he was,” Noel says of Liam
A24 crashed the fall-movie season with last weekend’s surprise screening of Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s “You Can See Everything” at Telluride. We now have more details concerning the rollout for this Elizabeth Holmes doc.
“You Can See Everything” has been added the 64th New York Film Festival, within the Spotlight, set to debut on Wednesday, September 30 at Alice Tully Hall. Furthermore, A24 has also set an October 16 theatrical release for the film.
Here’s the NYFF synopsis:
In a seemingly endless parade of documentaries, dramatizations, and exposés, Elizabeth Holmes, the inventor of a purported ‘miracle’ medical device at her company Theranos, and sentenced to prison for fraud, has been the face of Silicon Valley hucksterism. Yet in this astounding new film from Nathan Fielder (The Rehearsal and The Curse, NYFF61) and Lance Oppenheim (Primetime), created in secret over the past four years, Holmes becomes an entirely different kind of camera subject. Inviting Fielder into their home to live with them and start recording their lives just 34 days before her incarceration, Holmes and her romantic partner, William ‘Billy’ Evans, profess her innocence on their own, intimate terms. Is this all an elaborate ruse? Or is something even stranger afoot? Fielder and Oppenheim have created a fascinating portrait of a relationship, decimating notions of objectivity in documentary while also interrogating the limits of fiction. This blistering, head-spinning—and frequently hilarious—high-wire act of self-reflexivity keeps changing shape and uncovering surprises as it swerves headlong into the unknowable. An A24 release.
A24 kept its Elizabeth Holmes documentary under extraordinary secrecy for three years — even the company’s own eight-person documentary staff was shut out. Only a small group of lawyers plus TV chief Ravi Nandan and colleague Sam French were looped in, according to Page Six Hollywood who put the budget just under $8M.
Fielder, co-directing with Oppenheim, moved in with Holmes and her family before she reported to prison, and A24 reportedly greenlit the effort with no guarantee it would ever be released. The company didn’t announce the project until the night it premiered at Telluride. The three-hour film became an instant sensation: strong festival buzz, enthusiastic critics, and immediate Oscar talk, with speculation that A24 will campaign it for Best Picture.
The film seems to fit Fielder’s track record of work that resists easy classification, from “Nathan For You” to “The Rehearsal” and “The Curse” — Variety’s Owen Gleiberman described his territory as sitting somewhere between fiction and reality. That said, A24 tells me that I should refer to the film as a “documentary,” rather than “hybrid.”
The film currently sits at 92 on Metacritic. Reactions have indeed been glowing, and A24 seems very intent on campaigning hard for this movie during awards season — its potential Oscar slate also includes “The Debut,” “The Invite,” “Club Kid,” “Primetime,” and “Misty Green.”
*** Book Link: https://give.chesapeakeclimate.org/pa…
*** Nerds Make Media’s Films: https://www.nerdsmakemedia.com/films
*** From the author’s organization, Chesapeake Climate Action Network:
“A riveting and elegant story of climate change on one city street, full of surprises and true stories of human struggle and dying local trees – all against the national backdrop of 2023’s record heat domes and raging wildfires and, simultaneously, rising hopes for clean energy.
In 2023, author and activist Mike Tidwell decided to keep a record for a full year of the growing impacts of climate change on his one urban block right on the border with Washington, DC. A love letter to the magnificent oaks and other trees dying from record heat waves and bizarre rain, Tidwell’s story depicts the neighborhood’s battle to save the trees and combat climate change: The midwife who builds a geothermal energy system on the block, the Congressman who battles cancer and climate change at the same time, and the Chinese-American climate scientist who wants to bury billions of the world’s dying trees to store their carbon and help stabilize the atmosphere.
The story goes beyond ailing trees as Tidwell chronicles people on his block coping with Lyme disease, a church with solar panels on its roof and floodwater in its basement, and young people anguishing over whether to have kids –all in the same neighborhood and all against the backdrop of 2023’s record global temperatures and raging wildfires and hurricanes. Then there’s Tidwell himself who explores the ethical and scientific questions surrounding the idea of “geoengineering” as a last-ditch way to save the world’s trees – and human communities everywhere – by reflecting sunlight away from the planet.
No book has told the story of climate change this way: hyper-local, full of surprises, full of true stories of life and death in one neighborhood. The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue is a harrowing and hopeful proxy for every street in America and every place on Earth.
** Praise for The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue
“An astonishing and urgently necessary book. One of our leading national activists, Mike Tidwell in this book makes the climate catastrophe utterly local and personal, analyzing what global warming has meant on his block and in his home. It’s all here: the devastating loss of neighborhood trees, the rising costs of flooding and erosion, the brutal summers and Tidwell’s personal battle with Lyme disease and the terrifying spread of other debilitating tick-borne diseases. A remarkable book that will change the way you think about climate change and remind you that, just as all the problems are fundamentally in your backyard, so are all the solutions.”
— U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-8), author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Unthinkable.
“Beautiful. Not only is Mike Tidwell a very fine writer, there’s almost no one I know who’s earned more of a right to set forward their ideas about how we climb out of the climate mess. For decades he has fought the fossil fuel industry, and done it creatively, effectively, and tirelessly. I’m awfully glad he’s taken the time now to reflect.”
— Bill McKibben, author The End of Nature
#climatechange #environmentalawareness #trees #maryland #solarpower #climatesolutions
*** Book Link: https://give.chesapeakeclimate.org/pa…
*** Nerds Make Media’s Films: https://www.nerdsmakemedia.com/films
*** From the author’s organization, Chesapeake Climate Action Network:
“A riveting and elegant story of climate change on one city street, full of surprises and true stories of human struggle and dying local trees – all against the national backdrop of 2023’s record heat domes and raging wildfires and, simultaneously, rising hopes for clean energy.
In 2023, author and activist Mike Tidwell decided to keep a record for a full year of the growing impacts of climate change on his one urban block right on the border with Washington, DC. A love letter to the magnificent oaks and other trees dying from record heat waves and bizarre rain, Tidwell’s story depicts the neighborhood’s battle to save the trees and combat climate change: The midwife who builds a geothermal energy system on the block, the Congressman who battles cancer and climate change at the same time, and the Chinese-American climate scientist who wants to bury billions of the world’s dying trees to store their carbon and help stabilize the atmosphere.
The story goes beyond ailing trees as Tidwell chronicles people on his block coping with Lyme disease, a church with solar panels on its roof and floodwater in its basement, and young people anguishing over whether to have kids –all in the same neighborhood and all against the backdrop of 2023’s record global temperatures and raging wildfires and hurricanes. Then there’s Tidwell himself who explores the ethical and scientific questions surrounding the idea of “geoengineering” as a last-ditch way to save the world’s trees – and human communities everywhere – by reflecting sunlight away from the planet.
No book has told the story of climate change this way: hyper-local, full of surprises, full of true stories of life and death in one neighborhood. The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue is a harrowing and hopeful proxy for every street in America and every place on Earth.
** Praise for The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue
“An astonishing and urgently necessary book. One of our leading national activists, Mike Tidwell in this book makes the climate catastrophe utterly local and personal, analyzing what global warming has meant on his block and in his home. It’s all here: the devastating loss of neighborhood trees, the rising costs of flooding and erosion, the brutal summers and Tidwell’s personal battle with Lyme disease and the terrifying spread of other debilitating tick-borne diseases. A remarkable book that will change the way you think about climate change and remind you that, just as all the problems are fundamentally in your backyard, so are all the solutions.”
— U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-8), author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Unthinkable.
“Beautiful. Not only is Mike Tidwell a very fine writer, there’s almost no one I know who’s earned more of a right to set forward their ideas about how we climb out of the climate mess. For decades he has fought the fossil fuel industry, and done it creatively, effectively, and tirelessly. I’m awfully glad he’s taken the time now to reflect.”
— Bill McKibben, author The End of Nature
#climatechange #environmentalawareness #trees #maryland #solarpower #climatesolutions
UPDATE: I don’t usually pay much attention to timed ovations—they often feel meaningless—but can you even imagine standing and clapping for a record-breaking 25 minutes straight at the end of a film? That’s exactly what happened at Venice for “NAZA.” That’s a festival record. Attendees are reportedly now at home soothing their sore hands in a giant bowl of ice.
EARLIER: I arrived in Toronto last night, which meant that I missed “NAZA,” a new work by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the four co-directors of the 2025 Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land.”
The synopsis: “Shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, the film reveals in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
The film, a late addition to the Venice lineup, is drawing raves — 92 on Metacritic—and looks like a clear Golden Lion contender. The reviews: The Guardian(4/5), THR, Screen, IndieWire (A), IONCINEMA(4/5), Next Best Picture(9/10).
In just 80 minutes, shot on Tel Aviv rooftops, Szor and Abraham sit down with anonymous IDF sources who lay out their methods in words and sketches. The title “NAZA” comes from an acronym Israeli intelligence uses offhandedly. It stands for “Nezek Agavi” — collateral damage — and denotes the number of civilians expected to be killed in an air strike.
THR calls the film “a sober and indispensable doc highlighting the immoral, state-of-the-art killing machine employed by the IDF in Gaza”: “It’s hard to describe all of the feelings provoked by watching a film like Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s Naza. Outrage for sure. Indignity as well. Most certainly disgust, on a profound level, for the current Israeli regime and its prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu.”
Will this be another “No Other Land,” which won the best documentary Oscar despite no US distributor willing to take it on? Who steps up this time? Abraham and Szor look certain to be in contention again, and the documentary branch appears unfazed.
One more day of screenings left at Venice with Ali Asgari’s “A Bit of Light,” and Marco Bechis’ “Back to Buenos Aires” left to be seen from the competition. The Golden Lion winner will be announced on Saturday.
Rooftop interviews in Tel Aviv play host to monstrous revelations about AI-assisted massacres.
Exclusive: Marq Evans and Tamir Ardon’s deep dive into the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film was an audience favorite at SXSW this year; on National Bigfoot Day, it will finally be unleashed in North American theaters.
Coming up with original or unused titles must be one of the hardest parts of making a true-crime documentary. A Killer Story sounds a lot more generic than this three-part series really is, but it’s difficult to sum up the documentary in just a handful of words. The gist is that it centers around a double-homicide case in which a woman is accused of murdering her ex-husband and his girlfriend. On top of that, it follows a couple with no direct connection to the case who are obsessed with proving the woman’s innocence. It’s driven by an investigative reporter from The New York Times who also became hooked by the mystery and bewildered by the twists uncovered throughout the six-year filming of the documentary.
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The first of the three episodes introduces all the characters. The reporter, Joe Sexton, is our narrating guide, and he curses like he can’t control it. He’s a great f’in stand-in for the viewer’s own curiosity and inquiry. The couple, Eileen and Keen, seem to be a folksy pair who love true crime, making them initially quite relatable to the audience. Then there’s the alleged killer, Dana Chandler, who is never a direct participant in the series and therefore not easily judged through the documentary itself. A Killer Story begins with an apparent desire to be some profoundly immersive work of creative nonfiction à la In Cold Blood, with the Kansas setting to boot. The middle episode, however, goes through the typical motions of a documented trial, and the finale loses some of its steam, though that feeling befits the way the story runs its course.
A Killer Story is admittedly one of the more addictive true-crime miniseries I’ve seen in a while. It’s structured perfectly to engage and captivate, and its first two parts end on cliffhangers that are satisfyingly dealt with quickly in the following installment. The series maintains and leaves us with several pressing questions about the case while also implicitly examining issues with the justice system (this story involves multiple, disparate trials, which is fascinating) and the motivations of true-crime enthusiasts and citizen sleuths who influence proceedings. The star of the documentary isn’t the case, though. It’s Sexton, who also gets the last word on everything we’ve been shown inside and outside the trial. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got his own show after this.