In late 2018, Dave Ohlmuller embarks on a solo bike ride from Chicago to New York City. As a survivor of sexual abuse by a priest, Dave rides to inspire other survivors to come forward and tell their stories.
A Peloton Of One is not an easy watch as the documentary is about a survivor of sexual abuse by a priest tries to inspire other survivors to come forward and tell their stories. The survivor is named Dave Ohlmuller who is very inspiring throughout the documentary, he rides his bike from Chicago to New York City it’s a journey he takes you on while sharing his story and the survivors he meets a long the way share there’s as well. The documentary also talks a bit about the American Justice system and how these cases either get ignored or can’t be put on trial, the journey Ohlmuller takes is a powerful one that really captures tons of emotions, hearing survivors share their stories is truly heartbreaking. There’s a lot of sense of healing in the documentary, you could look at Ohlmuller’s journey as sense of healing but also one that helps survivors and teaches the audience. As far as filmmaking there isn’t anything that crazy or something worth mentioning but there really doesn’t need to be. In fact that benefits the film when you think about it, it’s shot in this very raw style to it that moves the documentary along very well. Overall A Peloton Of One is a fantastic documentary that while it might be hard for some people to watch it is a very important documentary.
A Peloton Of One is currently in theaters. It will release on all VOD Platforms March 11th!
Intrepid scientists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft die in a volcanic explosion doing the very thing that brought them together: unraveling the mysteries of volcanoes by capturing some of nature’s most explosive imagery.
Who knew a documentary about two people sharing their love for volcanos would be one of my favorite films of the Sundance film festival. Fire Of Love tells the story of Katia and Maurice Kraftt two married volcanologists who share their love for volcanos, the film uses archival footage as well as Miranda July’s commentary to the tell story. Which both combined truly create something absolutely stunning, the beauty of the lava is truly captivating and really grabs you, there truly is something whimsical about watching the lava and hearing the story of two people who share their love for volcanos. It’s also an incredibly touching story that really get’s to you, Miranda July’s commentary adds so much to the documentary in every single way possible she has this beautiful voice that truly hypnotizes you. The archival footage is brilliantly used, it really shows the beauty of the volcano and adds so much layers to the documentary. Overall Fire Of Love is straightforward yet a absolutely fantastic documentary that I can’t wait to watch again!
1968: Massive civil unrest, followed by a rare chance for justice. Riotsville, USA is the untold story of what we did instead. Told through a series of all-archival chapters chronicling forgotten and increasingly bizarre events, the film reveals the mechanism by which a nation declares war against its own.
Riotsville USA is entirely archival footage with some narration but not a whole lot, which truly helps this documentary get it’s point across. It talks about a lot of different topics such as the history of the police, the government’s control of American protests in the 1960s particularly the 1968 Democratic National Convention. It draws a lot of parallels of the past and present and does a really good job of explaining why, it truly teleports you to the 1960s and shows how these protests happened, why they happened and how did the media react. As far as filmmaking goes it feels very experimental which is a very different approach from a lot of other documentaries I’ve seen, sure the information given In Riotsville USA might not be new but the use of archival footage really makes this a quite disturbing and cold film that I truly believe justifies a watch.
Princess Diana’s story is told exclusively through contemporaneous archive creating a bold and immersive narrative of her life and death. It also illuminates how the public’s attitude to the monarchy was and still is.
Although The Princess doesn’t say anything new about Princess Diana, the documentary goes for a different approach which is using archival footage with no commentary. Which makes it surprisingly pretty haunting at times, it’s entirely from the media’s point of view and it truly highlights both sides of the media. Showing how much she was loved and how some outlets took advantage of her during scandals, it was outlets going at war with each other which I have to say was very interesting. The archival footage as I said before is very effective, it makes it a lot more raw and definitely gives us a different perspective of what Princess Diana’s life was like in the royal family. We have heard many other documentaries talk about that from people who knew her or family members, but here it definitely feels a lot different. It feels a lot more open which is definitely a lot more effective for the viewer.
The Princess currently has no release date but will be released on HBO later this year.
With TikTok crowned the world’s most downloaded app, these are the personal stories of a cultural phenomenon, told through an ensemble cast of Gen-Z natives, journalists and experts alike.
TikTok, Boom was by far the weakest documentary I watched at Sundance, basically this documentary covers all the controversies that TickTok has been in such as the whole situation with China, the Trump rally being taken over, Trump threatening to shut down TikTok, the BLM hashtag being silenced because of a “glitch” and so on. There is absolutely nothing new here at all that wasn’t on the news, sure the documentary does a decent job of talking about the controversies but if you go into this already knowing everything that has happened with TikTok you are not going to get anything out of this. The best thing I can say about it is at least it was sort of refreshing to hear the perspective of some other TikTokers who aren’t Addison Rae, Bella Poarch or some of the others. But that doesn’t make it an interesting documentary, I guess it ends on a nice message but it doesn’t make up for the rest of the movie being a slog to get through. You are better off just reading news articles about the controversies surrounding the app rather than sitting through the documentary.
And just like that we are at the final quarter of 2021! September is a bit on the weak side when it comes to movies, it’s like an appetizer that while it’s good you wish you could have had a little more. Especially when you compare it to October (which in my opinion has the best lineup of movies of any month this year) November and December (both have really strong lineups as well. But there are movies to look forward to in September so let’s talk about them!
One other thing before we start, I made the decision to exclude The Guilty while yes it is getting a theater release in September it’s a very small one. The Guilty is going to be released on Netflix in October so I will be counting it as an October movie! With that out of the way let’s get started! O
ne last thing I’m not going to go in great detail with all the movies because unfortunately certain studios really don’t say too much about their releases, sometimes they leave you with a plot and one trailer then that’s it until it actually comes out. So if one movie that is ranked lower has a much bigger description than a movie that’s ranked higher that’s why.
Like always let’s start from the bottom!
21. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – This was one of those movies that jumped around from release date to release date due to COVID until Amazon got the rights to it and will now be releasing it. I was pretty excited for this movie when the trailer first came out but over time the hype around this movie just died down for me. I’m sure it will be a fun movie though! It releases September 17th on Amazon Prime Video!
20. The Voyeurs – I’m watching this movie mostly due to the cast (love Sydney Sweeney) this was kind of a wildcard for the list. The trailer was interesting enough hope this will be good! It releases September 10th on Amazon Prime Video!
19. Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster – This one is pretty straightforward, it’s a documentary about well Boris Karloff who played Frankenstein’s monster. Not much really else to say…it releases September 17th in theaters
18. We Need To Do Something – This is the first of a handful of movies I already saw on this list, I saw this one back at the Tribeca Film Festival and it’s quite great, it’s one of those horror movies that restricts itself to one area and slowly gets more and more bonkers as it goes on. Some people are definitely going to like this movie, others aren’t really going to be a fan. I found it to be a solid enough movie that’s worth a recommendation. It releases September 3rd on all VOD Platforms!
17. Shang-Chi – I had a hard time deciding where to put Shang-Chi if I’m going to be honest, on one hand the action scenes seem really neat and I am interested to see what they do with the character. However from the trailers it really looks like just another origin story, plus you have Eternals and Spider-Man that just look so much better thrown into the mix. We will just have to see how it is, which we won’t have to wait long because it releases in theaters September 3rd!
16. Surge – This one was in release date limbo for awhile, I’m glad to see it finally being released! The plot sounds interesting and the trailer is solid. Surge releases September 24th on all VOD Platforms!
15. Scooby-Doo Meets Courage The Cowardly Dog – Combining two of my favorite cartoons as a kid immediately gets my attention, plus this is a crossover that should have happened years ago, Courage The Cowardly Dog remains as one of my favorite cartoons of all time. So it’s nice to see the cartoon get something in 2021, plus I can definitely see this crossover working! It releases September 14th on all VOD Platforms!
14. Dating & New York – Yet another film I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival, Dating & New York takes a familiar story and manages to make things interesting, the acting is great, the atmosphere is fairytale like and it’s just an overall enjoyable movie as well as being quite solid! Dating & New York releases on all VOD Platforms September 10th!
13. Blue Bayou – Despite the very mediocre reception for this movie, I’m still pretty interested in this one I really like Alicia Vikander, Justin Chon is a fun actor and the story does interest me. The trailer seems promising enough I’m just hoping that it’s at least solid! It releases September 17th in theaters!
12. The Starling – This is definitely an interesting one, it’s a comedy drama with Melissa McCarthy and its directed by Theodore Melfi the director of St.Vincent and Hidden Figures. It seems promising enough and I hope this will be a good performance from Melissa McCarthy! It releases September 17th in theaters and September 24th on Netflix!
11. I’m Your Man – This one seems like a very interesting take on the romance genre, the trailer definitely has me intrigued! It releases September 24th in theaters
10. Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter To Los Angeles – Going to be real short on this one, it’s basically a concert of Billie Eilish’s new album that came out not too long ago, with that said I’m still excited! A lot of these concert movie type things are always fun to watch and I’m glad to see they aren’t going to go away anytime soon! It releases September 3rd on Disney+
9. Malignant – I’m so glad this movie is finally releasing, James Wan is back with a new horror film. I’ve wanted James Wan to do another horror movie for awhile now, his last horror movie was in 2016 with The Conjuring 2! Malignant seems pretty solid, I’m not completely won over by the trailer but I do have hope that James Wan will make this movie really interesting! It releases September 10th on HBO Max!
8. The Eyes Of Tammy Faye – With September starting tomorrow that means award season is here and The Eyes Of Tammy Faye is definitely one of those movies that might be able to get into a few categories! Jessica Chastain looks pretty fantastic and while I’m not as excited for this movie as I am with other films that look like they could be award films, I still think this looks quite solid! It releases September 17th in Theaters!
7. Worth – Really Interested in this one and I’m glad it’s finally releasing, Worth is about lawyer Kenneth Feinberg who battles cynicism, bureaucracy and politics to help the victims of 9/11. It releases September 3rd on Netflix!
6. Language Lessons – I saw this one back at SXSW and it was one of the best of the festival. It’s one of the only movies that is COVID related to actually be quite fantastic, Natalie Morales does such a fantastic job with this film and truly delivers so much human type atmosphere to it. Meaning emotion, character moments and raw performances. It’s a beautiful movie that I absolutely highly recommend people see when it releases which is September 10th in theaters (I could almost swear it was set for a VOD release as well, I’ll make an update if I do end up finding out that it does have a VOD release!)
5. The Nowhere Inn- I’ve been looking forward to this movie for the longest time, the trailer seems interesting and the reviews I’ve seen have been pretty solid as well! It releases September 17th on all VOD Platforms!
4. Ema – So I should not had put this on my August list mostly due to it getting a small theater release. This month it gets it’s VOD release which is September 14th, it looks really great and I’ve heard it’s fantastic you have heard me talk about this already let’s move on.
3. Prisoners Of The Ghostland – Nicolas Cage is here with yet another film, I saw this back at Sundance and I’m truly excited to see this one again! Prisoners Of The Ghostland is such a bizarre movie that I’m unsure how audiences are going to react, some people will absolutely love it others won’t like it. I will say that it’s some of the most fun I’ve had with a movie so far this year and yes there are Nicolas Cage moments! It releases September 17th on all VOD Platforms!
2. The Year Of The Everlasting Storm – I love anthology films and this is one of them it’s seven stories from seven directors from around the world who chronicle the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. From what I’ve heard about it it’s quite fantastic and I’m truly excited to watch it!! It releases September 3rd in theaters!
1. Dear Evan Hansen – Ever since the trailer I’ve been really excited for this one, I’ve never seen the play but I’m just a huge sucker for musicals and this definitely seems like a very fun one!!
And that is all folks! One more thing!! I will be participating in the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) and I’m currently figuring out the New York Film Festival! So keep an eye out for reviews for both those festivals!!
Documentary centering on the daily life of actor Val Kilmer featuring never-before-seen footage spanning 40 years.
Val is a very straightforward documentary about Val Kilmer, it’s a heartfelt and at times moving documentary about his life and career as an actor. Kilmer himself is in the documentary and goes into detail of his experiences in certain films he’s been in, there’s also a lot of home movies (that’s mostly filmed by Kilmer himself) and behind the scenes footage that’s used and it’s quite enjoyable to watch. Val is a very personal documentary that Kilmer share’s with the audience, I’ve said this in past but this is the type of documentary where you feel like your having a conversation with someone, in this case Val Kilmer. He’s telling you his experiences as an actor and about his life and the end result is a moving and touching conversation. As far as filmmaking there really isn’t anything noteworthy but in this case there really doesn’t have to be, it’s a personal film that gets the point across pretty well. I say give this one a watch it’s a solid documentary that’s a very enjoyable and moving watch!
Over the course of six weeks during the summer of 1969, thousands of people attend the Harlem Cultural Festival to celebrate Black history, culture, music and fashion.
Summer Of Soul is a fantastic and very wonderful experience, seeing a lot of footage that was thought to be lost be rediscovered and shown to the public. Especially when it’s about the topic of summer of 1969 where thousands of people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival. The documentary is exactly what the description says it’s about, it’s a huge celebration of Black history, culture, music and fashion and every minute of it is glorious. I have said before how I like lost media being found and then being released to the public, this is a prime example of that. The footage shown is absolutely beautiful, it feels like you are there at the festival with everyone just having a great time. It’s time capsule that’s truly beautiful and captures so much about a community coming together and just having fun while talking about important history and issues. I highly recommend giving this one a look if you haven’t already.
Summer of Soul is now available in Theaters and on Hulu!
In the early 1990s, before New York City’s mass gentrification, a group of disparate youth venture outside their broken homes into the city’s brutal streets. United by skateboarding, they cultivate a family and build a unique lifestyle that inspires Larry Clark’s 1995 groundbreaking film, “Kids.” The crew become overnight commodities, thrust into the spotlight. Left adrift under the bright lights, some discover transcendent lives and careers, while others suffer fatal consequences.
The Kids is a documentary that’s not going to be easy to talk about and it’s definitely going to be hard to review as the documentary is very self explanatory, but I feel like this discussion needs to be talked about. Almost immediately when I saw this being confirmed for the Tribeca Film Festival I knew this was going to be one of the ones I’m going to watch. The documentary is about the actors and actresses who were in the controversial film and disturbing film that released in 1995 and how they were treated terribly, felt used and taken advantage of by Larry Clark. Before I say anything about the documentary…Kids will always be one of my favorite films of all time, it was one of my major influences of getting into photography and I really appreciate what it did for indie films back in the 90s. HOWEVER I am willing to call out disgusting behavior from directors who take advantage of people and treat them horribly like what Larry Clark did in this case (Harmony Korine isn’t much better either he never stood up for the cast and pretty much abandoned them as well) the documentary itself has Hamilton Harris and a lot of other cast members talking about what happened behind the scenes and so much more. It’s a very disturbing documentary that I almost guarantee will make you very angry and question why people were actively ignoring this. The documentary goes over the deaths of Justin Pierce (who won Best Debut Performance at the Spirit Awards in 1996) and Harold Hunter the lack of never reaching out to these kids to make sure they are okay or anyway trying to help is truly gross. The kids struggled to find work and Larry Clark did nothing to help them at all, Harris ultimately does find peace with Korine and Clark’s decision not to be interviewed in the documentary. A lot of the cast members now have families of their own (Harris included) but that doesn’t erase how disturbing this whole situation was. As far as filmmaking goes the documentary is nicely crafted with tons of information that you definitely need to know about the topic, it’s truly one of the best films so far this year. I truly hope this releases soon.
A rare and transcendent journey into the life and films of the legendary Stanley Kubrick like we’ve never seen before, featuring a treasure trove of unearthed interview recordings from the master himself.
Kubrick By Kubrick is pretty much a tribute to Stanley Kubrick, it’s a very straightforward documentary that doesn’t linger long on a certain topic. It’s about his legacy as a filmmaker and the films he directed, there’s fun little facts about some of the movies, some interviews that are quite neat to listen to and it all comes together in this pretty well crafted documentary. The major flaw this documentary does have is it’s 72 minute running time, I said before how it doesn’t linger on things for too long which is a very good thing but that comes with a negative as it does speed through some topics very quickly. It really doesn’t matter too much anyway since a lot of what is talked about in Kubrick By Kubrick is very common knowledge especially to people who are a huge fan of Kubrick, there really isn’t much else to be said here! It’s a really solid documentary that Kubrick fans will definitely like as well as movie fans in general!
Jerome Reviews... 