Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
A Cop Movie (Alonso Ruizpalacios)
There has never been a less auspicious time to make a “cop movie.” As scrutiny abounds from both within (content warnings on streaming services) and externally (social media) towards the past output of media producers, also suspect are the bevy of films and series that glamorize law enforcement, or see the police as uncomplicated arbiters of justice. Of course, last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests initiated all kinds of brave new thinking about a potential world devoid of cops. Like the Western genre, perhaps all police thrillers in future will be revisionist ones. Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios’ new Netflix-produced quasi-documentary, A Cop Movie, has thus arrived right on cue. – David K. (full review)
Where to...
A Cop Movie (Alonso Ruizpalacios)
There has never been a less auspicious time to make a “cop movie.” As scrutiny abounds from both within (content warnings on streaming services) and externally (social media) towards the past output of media producers, also suspect are the bevy of films and series that glamorize law enforcement, or see the police as uncomplicated arbiters of justice. Of course, last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests initiated all kinds of brave new thinking about a potential world devoid of cops. Like the Western genre, perhaps all police thrillers in future will be revisionist ones. Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios’ new Netflix-produced quasi-documentary, A Cop Movie, has thus arrived right on cue. – David K. (full review)
Where to...
- 11/5/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In a twisty new documentary, a Holocaust survivor’s staggering story turns into a cautionary tale of secrets and lies
At the Temple Beth Torah in Holliston, Massachusetts, congregant Misha Defonseca bared her soul on Holocaust Remembrance Day in 1989, or perhaps 1990. As is the case with most aspects of the episode she’d set in motion on that January morning, the particulars are murky.
Related: ‘It was just such a maze’: the twisty story behind Enemies of the State...
At the Temple Beth Torah in Holliston, Massachusetts, congregant Misha Defonseca bared her soul on Holocaust Remembrance Day in 1989, or perhaps 1990. As is the case with most aspects of the episode she’d set in motion on that January morning, the particulars are murky.
Related: ‘It was just such a maze’: the twisty story behind Enemies of the State...
- 8/11/2021
- by Charles Bramesco
- The Guardian - Film News
Netflix documentary Pray Away, exec-produced by Ryan Murphy, traces the history of conversion therapy with regretful leaders of the “ex-gay” movement
Julie Rodgers was 16 years old when her mother introduced her to Ricky Chelette, the “singles minister” at a Baptist church in Arlington, Texas, who coached LGBTQ+ youth on how to “change” their sexuality. The high school junior had recently come out to her parents; Chelette, a man with “same-sex attractions” married to a woman, was brought in to fix what was seen as a problem. As Rodgers recounts in Pray Away, a new Netflix documentary on the “ex-gay” movement within western Christianity, and her book Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story, Chelette preached an enticing, insidious gospel of change: that Rodgers’ attraction to women was due to an insufficient bond with her mother as a child, that such attractions could be neurologically altered by committed study, that to do...
Julie Rodgers was 16 years old when her mother introduced her to Ricky Chelette, the “singles minister” at a Baptist church in Arlington, Texas, who coached LGBTQ+ youth on how to “change” their sexuality. The high school junior had recently come out to her parents; Chelette, a man with “same-sex attractions” married to a woman, was brought in to fix what was seen as a problem. As Rodgers recounts in Pray Away, a new Netflix documentary on the “ex-gay” movement within western Christianity, and her book Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story, Chelette preached an enticing, insidious gospel of change: that Rodgers’ attraction to women was due to an insufficient bond with her mother as a child, that such attractions could be neurologically altered by committed study, that to do...
- 8/3/2021
- by Adrian Horton
- The Guardian - Film News
Sony Pictures Classics’ sci-fi drama Nine Days starring Winston Duke opens in four theaters in a specialty market buoyed by recent releases like Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain and Pig. New York’s arthouse scene, outpaced by LA of late, is perking up, distributors say (Ailey numbers were super there) and moviegoers are rewarding unique films and strong stories.
(The slow reviving specialty scene is keeping its head down as day-and-date tensions in wide release blockbuster-land explode.)
Nine Days hits NYC and LA today before rolling out nationwide August 6 in 250-275 theaters, said Jason Michael Berman, a producer, and president of Mandalay Pictures — of course depending on how it does. He’s upbeat after 800 people turned out for LA screening this week at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel with EP Spike Jonze introducing the film, written and directed by Edson Oda,...
(The slow reviving specialty scene is keeping its head down as day-and-date tensions in wide release blockbuster-land explode.)
Nine Days hits NYC and LA today before rolling out nationwide August 6 in 250-275 theaters, said Jason Michael Berman, a producer, and president of Mandalay Pictures — of course depending on how it does. He’s upbeat after 800 people turned out for LA screening this week at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel with EP Spike Jonze introducing the film, written and directed by Edson Oda,...
- 7/30/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Enemies of the State (Sonia Kennebeck)
This ambiguity is where Enemies of the State becomes a must-see because it exposes how skeptical we’ve become about the truth. As soon as you admit systems can be manipulated for selfish gain, there’s no denying that it isn’t happening right now in ways that make you the victim. Donald Trump epitomizes this phenomenon because he’s akin to God to his sycophants. They won’t even look at proof of his lies because they’ve decided that anything refuting his words has already been fabricated. So when DeHart earns the backing of other whistleblowers and the media, his story gets spun as one of a maligned hero to everyone that believes the government can’t be trusted.
Enemies of the State (Sonia Kennebeck)
This ambiguity is where Enemies of the State becomes a must-see because it exposes how skeptical we’ve become about the truth. As soon as you admit systems can be manipulated for selfish gain, there’s no denying that it isn’t happening right now in ways that make you the victim. Donald Trump epitomizes this phenomenon because he’s akin to God to his sycophants. They won’t even look at proof of his lies because they’ve decided that anything refuting his words has already been fabricated. So when DeHart earns the backing of other whistleblowers and the media, his story gets spun as one of a maligned hero to everyone that believes the government can’t be trusted.
- 7/30/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
It’s a busy weekend at the box office, with three new wide releases: Jungle Cruise from Disney, Stillwater from Focus, and The Green Knight from A24. Jungle Cruise should have a steady lead this weekend, while the other newcomers, which offer solid counterprogramming as adult fare, will likely be in the single digits, with some of the previous weeks’ holdovers likely coming in between. With Covid-19 cases at their highest point since April and projected to keep increasing, we may see lower openings and bigger drops than expected, though the box office remains hard to predict either way.
Based on the beloved Disneyland ride, Disney’s long-in-development Jungle Cruise stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in a hopeful franchise starter in the mold of Pirates of the Caribbean, with the plot centered around finding the Tree of Life. The adventure film takes the low-key charms of the ride and...
Based on the beloved Disneyland ride, Disney’s long-in-development Jungle Cruise stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in a hopeful franchise starter in the mold of Pirates of the Caribbean, with the plot centered around finding the Tree of Life. The adventure film takes the low-key charms of the ride and...
- 7/29/2021
- by Sam Mendelsohn <mail@boxofficemojo.com>
- Box Office Mojo
This review of “Enemies of the State” was first published after the film’s debut at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
Was hacker Matthew DeHart a whistleblower, a spy or a child pornographer? Or some combination of the above? Watching the provocative new documentary “Enemies of the State,” your opinion may shift more than once, as director Sonia Kennebeck (“National Bird”) pursues both the elusive nature of truth and the seductive qualities of conspiracy theories.
Featuring interviews with the key players alongside dramatized re-creations — the documentary pioneer of this method, Errol Morris, acts an executive producer here — Kennebeck takes us deep inside one family’s harrowing ordeal and pulls the rug out from our assumptions and prejudices, offering an array of contradicting experts whose judgment and assertions shift in their credibility.
The facts are these: Air National Guard veteran Matt DeHart, who purports to be involved with on-line whistleblowers Anonymous and Wikileaks,...
Was hacker Matthew DeHart a whistleblower, a spy or a child pornographer? Or some combination of the above? Watching the provocative new documentary “Enemies of the State,” your opinion may shift more than once, as director Sonia Kennebeck (“National Bird”) pursues both the elusive nature of truth and the seductive qualities of conspiracy theories.
Featuring interviews with the key players alongside dramatized re-creations — the documentary pioneer of this method, Errol Morris, acts an executive producer here — Kennebeck takes us deep inside one family’s harrowing ordeal and pulls the rug out from our assumptions and prejudices, offering an array of contradicting experts whose judgment and assertions shift in their credibility.
The facts are these: Air National Guard veteran Matt DeHart, who purports to be involved with on-line whistleblowers Anonymous and Wikileaks,...
- 7/28/2021
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
In an Errol Morris-produced documentary, the strange story of a ‘hacktivist’ whose life gets turned upside down is brought to life with more questions than answers remaining
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Oscar Wilde’s arch observation raises the curtain on Sonia Kennebeck’s new documentary film Enemies of the State, exec-produced by Errol Morris. Winston Churchill’s summary of Russia – “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” – would be no less apt.
Viewers are invited to join Kennebeck’s investigation into the bizarre case of Matt DeHart, a former member of the US air national guard who worked on the drone programme. He played online games, joined the “hactivist” group Anonymous and was an alleged courier for the whistleblower site WikiLeaks.
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Oscar Wilde’s arch observation raises the curtain on Sonia Kennebeck’s new documentary film Enemies of the State, exec-produced by Errol Morris. Winston Churchill’s summary of Russia – “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” – would be no less apt.
Viewers are invited to join Kennebeck’s investigation into the bizarre case of Matt DeHart, a former member of the US air national guard who worked on the drone programme. He played online games, joined the “hactivist” group Anonymous and was an alleged courier for the whistleblower site WikiLeaks.
- 7/27/2021
- by David Smith in Washington
- The Guardian - Film News
After offering up our picks for the best films of the first half of the year, we enter the second half with a strong release slate. Arriving this July is a stellar set of documentaries, a few promising wide releases, new films from some of the century’s most prolific directors, and much more. Check out my picks below.
15. Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) (Arie and Chuko Esiri)
Before an eventual Criterion release, Janus Films will bow the debut feature by Nigerian-raised, New York-educated twins Arie and Chuko Esiri, which recently played at Berlinale, New Directors/New Films, and more. David Katz said in his review, “Fatih Akin’s The Edge of Heaven and Wong Kar Wai’s Chungking Express have been directly cited by the filmmakers as inspirations for Eyimofe, and I would also mention Amores Perros for its interleaving structure and top-to-bottom dissection of a megalopolis, teeming with...
15. Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) (Arie and Chuko Esiri)
Before an eventual Criterion release, Janus Films will bow the debut feature by Nigerian-raised, New York-educated twins Arie and Chuko Esiri, which recently played at Berlinale, New Directors/New Films, and more. David Katz said in his review, “Fatih Akin’s The Edge of Heaven and Wong Kar Wai’s Chungking Express have been directly cited by the filmmakers as inspirations for Eyimofe, and I would also mention Amores Perros for its interleaving structure and top-to-bottom dissection of a megalopolis, teeming with...
- 7/1/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Some stories seem too strange to be true — Matt DeHart‘s is one of them. “Enemies of the State” is finally telling his story. The hacker, whistleblower, and son of Cold War spies found himself wrapped up in a government conspiracy. The documentary combines all-access interviews with key sources from the real-life case with dramatic recreations of events in order to blur the line between reality and paranoia.
Continue reading ‘Enemies Of The State’ Trailer Blurs The Line Between Truth & Fiction For A Real-Life Hacker at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Enemies Of The State’ Trailer Blurs The Line Between Truth & Fiction For A Real-Life Hacker at The Playlist.
- 6/24/2021
- by Brynne Ramella
- The Playlist
"Truth does not matter." IFC Films has unveiled an official trailer for the investigative thriller documentary titled Enemies of the State, about a family caught up in a government conspiracy. This first premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year, and also stopped by Cph Dox and the Tribeca Film Festival. An average American family becomes entangled in a bizarre web of espionage and corporate secrets when their hacker son is targeted by the U.S. government. Enemies of the State is a timely and compelling media and legal case study, showing how conspiracies can be created, evolve, and be perpetuated with the help of the web and aided by lack of transparency by the government. At the same time, this film examines the transformation of a local criminal case to an international media story, and the trust – or blindness – of completely devoted parents who will protect their son, literally at all costs.
- 6/23/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The first all-virtual edition of the Doc NYC festival of nonfiction films announced its 2020 lineup on Thursday, with 107 feature documentaries about everyone from John Belushi to Jamal Khashoggi and Pope Francis to Frank Zappa,
The lineup for the festival, which runs from Nov. 11 through Nov. 19 and will take place completely online, includes 23 world premieres, among them Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s “The Meaning of Hitler,” Nancy Burski’s “A Crime on the Bayou,” Gong Cheng and Yung Chang’s “Wuhan Wuhan” and Jeff Daniels’ “Television Event.”
Doc NYC, which launched in 2010, is the largest festival of nonfiction films in the United States. This year the festival transitioned to a completely online event separated into 14 themed sections, two of which are competitive sections that will award prizes.
The competitive Viewfinders section consists of 11 films, including films set in Venezuela (“A La Calle”), Puerto Rico (“Landfall”), the Dominican Republic (“Stateless”) and...
The lineup for the festival, which runs from Nov. 11 through Nov. 19 and will take place completely online, includes 23 world premieres, among them Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s “The Meaning of Hitler,” Nancy Burski’s “A Crime on the Bayou,” Gong Cheng and Yung Chang’s “Wuhan Wuhan” and Jeff Daniels’ “Television Event.”
Doc NYC, which launched in 2010, is the largest festival of nonfiction films in the United States. This year the festival transitioned to a completely online event separated into 14 themed sections, two of which are competitive sections that will award prizes.
The competitive Viewfinders section consists of 11 films, including films set in Venezuela (“A La Calle”), Puerto Rico (“Landfall”), the Dominican Republic (“Stateless”) and...
- 10/15/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
We live in a time that fetishizes a post-truth. In our post-fact world, suspicion of institutions is at an all time high, and citizens on both left and right find ways to pretzel themselves into believing in grand conspiracies as the mundane facts of incompetence and hubris feel too constrained for the magnitude of our […]
The post ‘Enemies of the State’ Review: A Conspiracy Theory Becomes a Family Affair [TIFF] appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Enemies of the State’ Review: A Conspiracy Theory Becomes a Family Affair [TIFF] appeared first on /Film.
- 9/25/2020
- by Jason Gorber
- Slash Film
They say that "truth is stranger than fiction" and while that's sometimes hyperbole, the saying certainly applies to Enemies of the State latest documentary.
This sometimes bizzare thriller unpacks the drama of Matt DeHart, a former intelligence analyst for the US Air National Guard who in 2010, found himself in the middle of what he claims, was a false investigation into child pornography charges. DeHart was convinced that the investigation was a ruse to take him into custody on charges of national security for his involvement with Anonymous.
Enemies of the State begins as a story of family love and devotion - until it's not. The film's first half introduces Paul and Leann DeHart, loving parents who would do anything to help and protect their beloved son Matt, a sm...
This sometimes bizzare thriller unpacks the drama of Matt DeHart, a former intelligence analyst for the US Air National Guard who in 2010, found himself in the middle of what he claims, was a false investigation into child pornography charges. DeHart was convinced that the investigation was a ruse to take him into custody on charges of national security for his involvement with Anonymous.
Enemies of the State begins as a story of family love and devotion - until it's not. The film's first half introduces Paul and Leann DeHart, loving parents who would do anything to help and protect their beloved son Matt, a sm...
- 9/18/2020
- QuietEarth.us
Sonia Kennebeck’s documentary film “Enemies of the State” is a film about the “elusive nature of truth,” as TheWrap’s review describes it, made even more complicated by the remarkable re-enactments that work to blend the fact and fiction of the story.
Kennebeck’s film tells the story of Matthew DeHart, a hacker seeking asylum in Canada claiming to being hunted and investigated by the FBI, only for the film to unravel a much deeper conspiracy involving a child pornography ring and accusations of government torture.
But when the filmmakers obtained access to the real audio file of DeHart’s asylum hearing, it proved to be too good of an opportunity to pass up.
“There was a full asylum hearing in Toronto, and we actually were able to get access to the real audio recording where the family and particularly the lead character Matt DeHart is retelling his own story,...
Kennebeck’s film tells the story of Matthew DeHart, a hacker seeking asylum in Canada claiming to being hunted and investigated by the FBI, only for the film to unravel a much deeper conspiracy involving a child pornography ring and accusations of government torture.
But when the filmmakers obtained access to the real audio file of DeHart’s asylum hearing, it proved to be too good of an opportunity to pass up.
“There was a full asylum hearing in Toronto, and we actually were able to get access to the real audio recording where the family and particularly the lead character Matt DeHart is retelling his own story,...
- 9/16/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Films include ’Ammonite’, ’Notturno’, ’New Order’ and ’Penguin Bloom’.
New work from Francis Lee, Werner Herzog, François Ozon, Gianfranco Rosi, Regina King and Mira Nair are among the line-up for the 45th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
As previously announced, Spike Lee’s David Byrne’s American Utopia will open this year’s edition, which runs from September 10-19.
The festival will close with Nair’s A Suitable Boy (pictured), a six-part TV drama that debuted on the BBC in the UK last Sunday (July 26). Netflix has online global rights, excluding North America and China.
Scroll down for full line-up...
New work from Francis Lee, Werner Herzog, François Ozon, Gianfranco Rosi, Regina King and Mira Nair are among the line-up for the 45th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
As previously announced, Spike Lee’s David Byrne’s American Utopia will open this year’s edition, which runs from September 10-19.
The festival will close with Nair’s A Suitable Boy (pictured), a six-part TV drama that debuted on the BBC in the UK last Sunday (July 26). Netflix has online global rights, excluding North America and China.
Scroll down for full line-up...
- 7/30/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
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