The AMPAS have released yet another shortlist, this time for the category of Best Documentary feature, always a pretty unpredictable category in my books, but much like the Animated Feature shortlist released a while back, there is yet again a film that I think will have no problem taking home the gold regardless of its competition; “Man on Wire.” Having not seen it yet myself, although I will be in early December, I am going on the major critical consensus as well as the opinions of my fellow bloggers who have all expressed their high regard for it.
Having seen both “Trouble the Water,” review coming soon, and “Pray The Devil Back To Hell,” I think the former has a good shot at getting in the final five but not the latter. As of right now, I am guessing the final five will be “Man on Wire,” “Trouble the Water,” Errol Morris’ “Standard Operating Procedure,” Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World,” with either “I.O.U.S.A” or “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)” taking the fifth spot. Rather superficial predictions on my part, and it may change once I see more of the potential nominees, all 15 listed below (out of a record 94 entries). Notable omissions in my opinion are “Gonzo,” “Patti Smith: Dream of Life,” “Up the Yangtze” and “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.” And “Dear Zachery,” based on the raves it has been getting. I do think that if “Young@Heart” and “Stranded” had not aired before on television, we would see them listed below too.• “At the Death House Door”
• “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)”
• “Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh”
• “Encounters at the End of the World”
• “Fuel”
• “The Garden”
• “Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts”
• “I.O.U.S.A.”
• “In a Dream”
• “Made in America”
• “Man on Wire”
• “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”
• “Standard Operating Procedure”
• “They Killed Sister Dorothy”
• “Trouble the Water” – [Courtesy of Fataculture]
Playlist note: We must disagree with Fataculture about “Gonzo” and “Patti Smith: Dream Of Life” the former was artless and the latter was poetic, but listless, but we do think “Stranded” got robbed. We haven’t written a proper review for it yet, but it packs an emotional wallop and was an incredibly moving documentary about a harrowing survival experience some 30-years later. We also would have taken, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” over Herzog’s ‘Encounters’ (fine, but not his best work), but it is interesting to see Herzog and his “pupil” Morris go head to head in the category. We still really wanna see “Dear Zachary” too.
And we must snicker at the exclusion of Bill Maher’s “Religulous” (even if it is the highest-grossing documentary of the year so far) we’re glad that thing didn’t make the cut, and that lousy, hamfisted stinker had no business being there. Maybe God smote the film. 😉