When documentaries heart on one particular person, breadth is commonly sacrificed for depth. Fortunately, for essentially the most half, three docs at this yr’s SXSW are structured much less in a solution to speedily run via the best hits however to create an area for his or her topics to meditate and ponder at their leisure. Some are extra profitable than others, nevertheless it’s refreshing to see titles that try and decelerate and be ruminative amidst attempting to expansively educate. I’m grateful to have walked right into a theater to see these movies, understanding subsequent to nothing concerning the topics featured, and now strolling away as a brand new admirer.
Director Steven Feinartz’s “Are We Good?” is a retrospective of slapstick comedian and podcast trailblazer Marc Maron, and as one may count on from listening to Maron on his podcast, it’s equal components humorous and sorrowful, usually abruptly. Whereas Maron does recount his backstory about how he obtained into standup and the way he helped pioneer the podcasting medium, it narrows its scope to concentrate on a specific inflection level in Maron’s life.
The loss that catalyzes Maron’s existential musings is the demise of his companion, Lynn Shelton, in 2020. Lynn was a gifted filmmaker, and, within the aftermath of her passing, we see Maron craft reveals to assist course of his disappointment. He usually questions whether or not or not he ought to be doing comedy and whether it is dishonoring to Shelton to base his new routines across the agony of her passing. This exploration is what makes “Are We Good?” extra considerate than different documentaries that will have simply been tempted to play the best hits; at its crux, it’s a somber exploration of how humor might help us make peace with the ache we really feel on the earth. “Humor [makes the pain] really feel prefer it’s not wasted,” as Maron says. When it revels in that actuality, “Are We Good?” is at its most resonant, displaying how laughter is usually a dignifying method to reply to grief.
The movie tries to coast on Maron’s character to blended outcomes; Maron is caustically humorous and, if something, his distinctive streak of darkish humor is simply extra related given our world (“Let’s finish on one thing extra upbeat … there’s a cause to not have kids,” he says as concludes a dwell present). It’s additionally evident that Feinartz and Maron have a snug relationship as in lots of sequences as Maron talks on to Feinartz and jokingly questions the validity and significance of the footage that they’re taking pictures. It’s meant to offer the documentary a lackadaisical ambiance, however I obtained the sense that whereas Maron was weak, it by no means went to locations that he wasn’t already snug disclosing on his podcast or in different mediums. There’s a sense of curation, as if what we witness is being framed as an unique uncovering of Maron’s ideas, nevertheless it all feels too put collectively to be organically messy. Moreover, it isn’t a spoiler to say that within the aftermath of Lynn’s passing, he’s been capable of finding love once more in his relationship together with his current girlfriend, Package. Whereas it’s touching (and speaks to the movie’s total themes about making peace and transferring on), her inclusion within the documentary, a revelation that comes on the movie’s finish, feels a bit jarring given we’ve spent nearly all of the documentary mourning with Maron and reminiscing how Shelton’s loss devastated him so holistically.
But because the movie reminds us, grief is a course of, and I can see a documentary like this as being only one step at first of Maron’s personal outworkings of those ideas, a primary draft as he grows extra snug in letting unfastened. It’s an honor to be on the journey with him.
I want all documentaries that targeted on sports activities figures had been like Julie Anderson and Chris Hay’s “I’m Carl Lewis!” which discover methods to heart the voice of its topic but achieve this with a posture of invitation and sensitivity. Whereas so many documentaries might be content material to evangelise at you, convincing via intelligent edits and grandiloquent speaking head interviews {that a} given determine is attention-grabbing and price your time, Anderson and Hay inherently perceive how particular and interesting Carl Lewis is and construction the documentary in a method that lets Lewis’ phrases communicate for themselves, somewhat than feeling the necessity to over curate.
Lewis is a nine-time Olympic gold medalist and whereas his ability and expertise on observe and discipline had been plain, he was crucified within the public eye for his refusal to suit the preconceived notions and mildew of how a Black athlete ought to act. The exclamation level within the movie’s title is a becoming addition as properly; Lewis was somebody who was unapologetically himself and refused to play the sport of false humility that was anticipated of athletes on the time within the Eighties. His willingness to function in an area of ambiguity round his orientation and id was one other supply of rivalry; taking inspiration from somebody like Prince, Lewis operated with a fluidity and free-flowing spirit that went in opposition to a society that needed clean-cut categorizations for his or her male athletes. He paid the value for being true to himself, usually being typecast as smug, cocky, and troublesome to work inside the public eye when the truth was far more nuanced.
“I’m Carl Lewis!” represents a method for him to take again his energy and inform his story in his narrative. It’s notably vindicating on condition that the instruments of the media and display screen as soon as used to suppress his sensitivity, thoughtfulness, and character are actually the very methods the place individuals can get to know the actual him once more. The movie is not only a reintroduction however a channel for righteous rebirth for Lewis to lastly inform his story on his phrases. Hay and Anderson’s movie strikes all through the excessive and low factors of Lewis’ life, displaying how regardless of the adverse press he might have levied in opposition to him, Lewis by no means stopped being himself and by extension, helped encourage others to take action as properly.
I’ve not but been to a dwell present of “The Rocky Horror Image Present” (cue the “virgin” clapbacks within the remark part), so I went into “Unusual Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror” with an equal combine of pleasure and curiosity. Just like the present its profiles, it hums with an brisk and vivacious starvation and gratitude for all times, though given how subversive and transgressive its movie was, I want it might have embodied a few of that iconoclasm in its construction. The movie traces the individuals who have been impacted by the movie because it premiered in 1975 and everybody from present creator Richard O’Brien, musical director Richard Hartley, and stars like Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon return to offer speaking head interviews about engaged on the manufacturing. For die-hard Horror-heads, the data featured right here might be a recognized amount, however for a neophyte like myself, I discovered the journey enlivening, from leaning how O’Brien’s relationship together with his father influenced the manufacturing to specific methods the movie had an impression on the queer neighborhood (and the way it continues to stay a staple).
How “Unusual Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror” avoids being self-congratulatory is when it takes pauses from recounting the present’s lore and historical past to concentrate on the impression the present has made. Of specific be aware is an anecdote from drag queen Trixie Mattel, who shares how viewing the present gave her the liberty to discover drag although she grew up in a rural city. There are numerous anecdotes scattered all through the movie, and it speaks to why the present has been so enduring and in style. It’s not solely that it’s a rattling good time however at its core, it’s an invite for individuals to bop, be free, and discover security with a gaggle of strangers who all need the identical. Areas of transgression and security have by no means been extra vital (or in scarce provide) than now, and at its greatest, “Unusual Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror” provides that very same playground for its viewers to expertise.
