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The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young (2014)
Inspiring: a growth through pains and challenges
I enjoyed this documentary, which follows the 2012 race of Barkley Marathon, one of the toughest and wildest ultramarathons.
This movie reminded me of "Safety to Nome" about Iditarod Trail, another tough ultra marathon occurring in Alaska, in that the participants' persistence and strength were equally impressive. But this one took a lighter and less tense stance, featuring each key attendee's journey in a less dramatic (more abstract?) way, blended well with the narrative by the organizer. It was much easier to follow it, rather than keeping my palm sweated all throughout.
Nevertheless, it was not boring at all! The last few minutes were indeed full of a good drama and a small suspense.
I recommend it!
Safety to Nome (2019)
A sneak view at a totally new world of nature, solitude, and challenges
The documentary follows a few competitors on a 1,000 mile race on the historic reputed Iditarod Trail.
It is a unique and long race (taking about 2-5 weeks), and, day and night, participants confront beautiful nature, hostile weather conditions, solitude, and camaraderie in their extreme forms. The race seems ridiculously tough and fulfilling at the same time. Often times, they have to slog their way through the trail overnight, as no one can be sure of the next day's weather condition. They sleep in shelters, and sometimes in the wilderness where the temperature drops to minus 20 Celsius. About 80 people started the race in the year (options of doing it on fat bike or on foot), but passing several milestones, only a handful of people reached the final destination. The finalists include a man in his 60s who already had completed several 1,000 mile races on foot, but wanted to do it on bike; another Dutch man who, despite his mildly frostbitten fingers, decided to push forward; and two men who ended up racing together.
The film does an excellent job in intercutting the competitors' journeys with personal interviews that delve into participants' different views and stories. I feel like I am in the race with them! : )
Just as documentaries about mountaineers/climbing do, this documentary has made me ask why they decide to participate in such an extreme race, repeatedly.
In short, I highly recommend it.
Becoming Warren Buffett (2017)
Highly recommend
This was very entertaining, engaging, educational, and thought-provoking.
I avoid idolizing any human being, but there are a lot to like/adore about Warren Buffet. His life was interesting and impressive- he literally made it out of nothing. And the way his values (e.g., the game of utilities, extreme focus) and Susan's (e.g., philanthropy,broad interests in humans) collide with and converge to a degree was cool. I didn't expect the documentary to touch upon the nonconventional love/friendship among Warren, Susan, and Astrid (Something I can't fully understand), but it did well.
One's success story may not fix lots of problems in our financial systems and societies, but this was, standalone, an encouraging and hopeful story.
Betting on Zero (2016)
Educational, multifacted-- loved it
I started to watch the document mainly because I was curious about Mr. Ackman's investment style.
But, at the end, I got to learn and think about a lot more things than it.
The document stitches well different facts, people, struggles, and battles surrounding Herbal Life, a controversial but quite successful U. S. company.
Yes, it's about Ackman's challenging investment journey of shorting on the company's shares for multiple reasons (including humanitarian ones).
But it's about innocent people lured into businesses where they are mostly destined to lose and fail. This part was sad as they were real people rather than abstract numbers on excel sheets or legal documents.
It's also about flaws and loopholes in our economic, political, and legal systems (not only in the U. S. but across the world): Nearly imposed damages not being dealt because they are not illegal; controversial entities/people flourishing through connections and lobbying.
I don't want to go far by making too big an analogy. But I now keep thinking about this pyramid scheme. Maybe many more companies and societies (than the focal company) may work on similar mechanisms to a less controversial and subtler extent, or maybe not!
Touching the Void (2003)
Great but could have been less predictable
I am still scratching my head about why I found this docufilm quite bland rather than enthralling (as many reviews claim).
The true event was absolutely inspiring, and impressive. Two mountaineers & friends (Simpson and Yates), on the descent after nailing the untravelled peak of the Siula Grande (in Peru), faced a horrific accident and had to make a harrowing decision. Miraculously, injured Simpson survived the big extra intended fall and several nights on icy glaciers.
The climbing scenes (the movie part), in the first half, are also very well filmed, a lot more realistic and spectacular than similar scenes in similar movies (e.g., 14 Peaks). I enjoyed the first 30-45 mins before they got into a catalogue of disasters. And my rating is 7, because of this part.
But then the remaining 1 hour depicting the survival of Simpson felt way too long, unthrilling, and bland. I think it's mainly because of the documentary part where the real-life Simpson (looking very well in his 40s) recall and narrate about the disaster. Standalone, the interviews with the real characters were great and touching. But they just made the survival part so predictable.
As a total novice to filming techniques, maybe I should respect the original intention of the director in making it as a docufilm. But I imagine a bit of unpredictability that does not hurt the factuality of the story would have made the latter part much more engrossing and engaging.
14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (2021)
A great documentary, which yet was too plain
I enjoyed watching this documentary.
Not to mention scenic views at eight-thousanders, two stories of a collective mission on climbing top peaks and Nims' personal struggle (to find himself?) were inspiring together. In particular, the second part was rich, blending well the different angles taken by Nims' wife, mother, and brother on Nims and his risky, ambitious, and meaningful project.
But there seems to be something missing in the mountaineering part. Although delightful and well-edited (maybe too edited?), the documentary does not effectively share "real" stuggles, tensions, joys the team might have faced in nailing each top with audience. GoPro clips (cruder less edited) on climbing Annapurna would be much more mindblowing and engrossing.
I appreciate that this documentary has helped putting Sherpas more in the due spotlight. But I wished I could see more of their characters and voices in the documentary. Although it says that Sherpas matter as core members in the climbing community, it depicts Nims as a super hero like leader and Sherpas as their typical supporting roles.
Chernobyl (2019)
Highly recommend
I knew/heard about the disastrous Chernobyl explosion in my teenhood (in 1980s). But being far away from Ukraine and too young, the disaster was registered in my mind as something vague, some alien event I would read in a history text book.
Then, this sensational series showed me the details of the event as if I had been there -from the possibly preventable negligence in the safety test, the massive explosion, the USSR government's furtive and detestably poor crisis management, and the contaminated empty towns. Each episode was great, engrossing me, sometimes keeping me on toes and other times putting me in tears. The series spent a good amount of time depicting the clean up operations with focus on people in them. It was impressive how these normal people (e.g., miners, firemen, and engineers) volunteered at the expense of their own health and lives.
Having seen different authorities being so secretive in crisis management ( in movies and the real-world), just as in Chernobyl, I also started to think about the costs of lies vs truths. I don't have my own answer yet. But Valery's quote from the movie lingers: "What is the cost of lies? The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all"
Il postino (1994)
Beautiful, metaphoric, bittersweet
This was my second time watching this movie. The 26 years' gap (between my watchings) feels surreal as much as the movie itself feels so.
One thing I loved, both times, is its beautiful soundtrack by Luis Bacalov. The sweet, lovable, and innocent melody, juxtaposed with the image of the postman (Mario) cycling through scenic coastal roads, might have been somewhere in my mind since I was 18 years old.
The first half part of the movie felt almost as the same as before. I enjoyed watching the way Mario started to open up to the world of poems, which, in this story, is dotted with ticklingly romantic metaphors as well as to great loves (for Beatrice and Neruda).
But this time, the second part that intertwines Mario's tragic death with his ideology and the political trends of the time felt a bit difficult to digest. Maybe as a teenager, I had thought love or ideology is worth death. But now in 40s, his prelature death just felt too much.
All in all, one of those few movies (including Cinema Paradiso) that grow on me, and I look forward to re-watching it when I become the age of Pablo Neruda.
Dark Waters (2019)
A movie that lingers long after (some spoilers)
I loved the movie for many reasons. First, the true story of Rob Bilott, on which this movie is based on, was just inspiring.
The lawyer spent 20 years fighting to hold Dupont to account for dumping hazardous chemicals into the waters in West Virginia. The support from his law firm was encouraging. People/organisations often become more interested in defending what they have (status, success, power) than fighting for what is right. Thus, halfway through the film, I worried that his firm would fire Rob to protect their status or reputation in the field. But apparently, not, and he is still with the same firm.
Next, actings were overall great and natural. Not to mention great work by Mark Ruffalo (as Billot), I found Bill Camp (as Tennant) and Tim Robbins (as Terp) excelling in their roles. On a side note, it was to fun to learn that a couple of real characters were in some scenes as cameos.
Lastly but not least, this movie stitched different people's lives and struggles together. Apparently, it is a story about the lawyer. But the story of Tennant tugged at my heartstrings equally strong. He was not as well educated as Billot, but his strong will to protect his family and cattle put fire into the long journey to justice.