Picture Character
Directors: Martha Shane & Ian Cheney
Submarine Entertainment / Documentary Edge Festival
“Emoji” is Japanese for “Picture Character” – so this documentary takes a occasionally probing, mostly light hearted look at the world/s of picture characters that have sprung up and seemingly threatened to take over language since emoji creator, Shigetaka Kurita set out to make “something that would make people happy”. Read More
This Is Not A Movie
Director: Yung Chang
National Film Board of Canada (NFB) / Documentary Edge Festival
Subtitled Robert Fisk and The Politics of Truth – This Is Not A Movie is both portrait of Fisk and his working methods and a reminder of how journalism has changed, perhaps how far it’s fallen; certainly the way the world works now is different – can you apply the same standards and discipline to a changing medium? Read More
Saul & Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band
Director: Tod Lending
Nomadic Pictures / Documentary Edge Festival
Did you follow through with that lifelong artistic dream during the recent paid 8-week vacation of Lockdown? Did you pick up the drum-sticks for the first time, or first time in years? Did you write that novel, or paint a picture or fix the leak in the tap? Read More
Archie Shepp/Raw Poetic/Damu The Fudgemunk
Ocean Bridges
Redefinition Records
Raw Poetic – aka Jason Moore – is a hip-hop MC who has always been interested in rapping over anything but the generic hip-hop beats. When he was learning the game he was far more interested in trying to flow freely over a Radiohead tune or some metal or jazz…he even once jammed with jazz legend, Archie Shepp. His uncle. Read More
#UNFIT: The Psychology of Donald Trump
Director: Dan Partland
Spectrum / Documentary Edge Festival
The current sitting president of America – their 45th – is a horrible, uncaring, negative, double-speaking piece of shit. Or, in psychology-speak, a malignant narcissist. Yep, there’s a term for his brand of bullying and gaslighting – mixed with fear, arrogance, delusion and, well, almost every conceivably awful trait you can think of; you might have already guessed all this and might wonder why we need a documentary – another documentary – on the subject. Read More
Amber Preston
Sparkly Parts
Stand Up! Records
Amber Preston has been mentioned as one of the best up and comers by a few comics of note – and she sure proves herself as a consummate comedian with this full-set comedy record. Read More
Who Let The Dogs Out
Director: Brent Hodge
Journeyman Films / Documentary Edge Festival
That annoyingly catchy hook – one of the best (and therefore worst) earworms – is now 20 years old, or is it 25…or is it 30? Who Let The Dogs Out was recorded and released by the Baha Men and won a Grammy and has appeared in TV shows, movies and as a sports anthem. But who wrote it? Read More
Ruthie Foster Big Band
Live At The Paramount
BLUE CORN MUSIC (ORCH)
Ruthie Foster has been releasing great gospel and blues music across the last three decades – always with hints of pop-song writing, jazz and folk too –if Cassandra Wilson is “jazz” but branching out to see and gather from there, then Foster is the “blues” version of Wilson – you could compare her to Bonnie Raitt and Gladys Knight; hints of Mavis Staples and Bettye LaVette are in there too. Read More
Mark Isham & Isabella Summers
Little Fires Everywhere [Original Soundtrack]
Hollywood Records, Inc.
Little Fires Everywhere was a fantastic TV mini-series; loved it. Great writing, acting, the works – brilliant use of score to heighten the dramatic tension in scenes and a nice little idea of playing with covers, basically doing them all in a modern version of a torch-ballad style but taking songs from the 80s and (mostly) 90s (the show is set, very specifically, in 1997). Read More
The Trip To Greece
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Revolution Films / Baby Cow / Small Man / IFC Films
If you were ever wondering just how many times Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon could play hyper versions of themselves as reluctant travel-buddies on an all-expenses paid nosh-fest the answer – we now know – is four. Four times. The Trip To Greece is the final instalment of a decade-long journey that has gone from belly laughs to dad-joke groaning, from water-cooler moments and YouTube extract revisits to…well, to many people wondering if this is the first, second or third sequel… Read More
Rickie Lee Jones
Kicks
THE OTHER SIDE OF DESIRE
I love Rickie Lee Jones so much – and yet I always play catch-up, let a few years slide by and have an album or two (or three) to catch up with. I’ve just got to this – her fourth album of covers. Anyone else and you might think they no longer had anything to say or no new ways to say it – but the idiosyncratic journey of Jones, since being catapulted to fame as a boho beatnik Coolsville kid that was all things folk and jazz and all at once, has shown plenty of great original songs, so many new colours being added to the palette constantly and she does the best covers – both in selection and execution. Read More
Jean-Louis Matinier & Kevin Seddiki
Rivages
ECM
Jean-Louis Matinier (accordion) and Kevin Seddiki (guitar) first worked together as part of a supporting trio a decade ago – this marks their first work together as a duo (and its Seddiki’s debut for ECM). Read More