Doc Corner: 'The Territory' at EarthX Festival in Dallas

By Glenn Dunks

The 2022 EarthX Film Festival is four days of film, music and interactive environmental programs and events set in the heart of Dallas Arts District, May 12-15. We were able to watch a couple of the titles including big ticket Sundance winner The Territory as well as Tigre Gente.

The first thing to notice in The Territory (tickets here) is its beauty. Filming within the Amazon rainforest will do that, of course. As will having a cinematographer for a director. But Alex Pritz’s first feature documentary as a director very quickly transcends whatever lush imagery is immediately front and center, bursting quite early with rage at the situation its Indigenous subjects are being forced to endure. New images emerge, those of burning and destruction and greed as those who live independently defiantly take protection of their block of land into their own hands.

This is an environmental film set within an increasingly small patch that—as the film begins—is the land of the Uru-eu-wau-wau people, provided under rights agreements with the Brazilian government. But the impending election threatens this life of serenity when anti-environmental rhetoric from Jair Bolsonaro threatens to bring chainsaws, bulldozers and forest burning to this idyllic slice of paradise.

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Streaming: "Grace and Frankie" Walk Off Into The Sunset

Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin say goodbye to "Grace and Frankie" after seven seasons on Netflix.By: Christopher James

Grace and Frankie was designed in a lab to be perfect comfort TV before bed. Living legends Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin have delivered elevated TV-Land-without-censors gold for 94 episodes over seven seasons. Unfortunately, the time has come for our titular odd couple to say goodbye, making Grace and Frankie the longest running Netflix show of all time. 

Even after all this time, our favorite ladies have kept it fresh and fun until the very end. Grace and Frankie never set out to reinvent the wheel. However, they earn points for consistency as they keep things funny and emotional all the way to the bitter (and star studded) end. We’ll miss seeing Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin on our screens regularly. However, the show is charming and lighthearted enough to be the perfect rewatchable comfort food...

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Review: "Ozark" Comes to an End with Season Four

By Christopher James

Will Marty and Wendy Byrd's actions finally catch up with them in?I didn’t think Ozark would be my latest binge. The Netflix crime drama was well lauded by the Emmys, winning 3 awards from 32 nominations over its past 4 seasons. In many ways, it seemed like the saturation point for “prestige TV,” an ultra-serious thriller with movie stars brooding in barely lit rooms. From the episodes I watched for Emmy coverage, it seemed like my suspicions were confirmed. However, when doing a fresh binge, the show’s personality and verve shone through the murky cinematography. The pilot sums up the central conflict the best, Ozark is about the clash of two worlds: the upper class city finance family and the brash locals they undermine at their own risk.

It all comes to an end with the final seven episodes of season four, which just dropped on Netflix. As the poster claims, the end revolves around one question: can the Byrds officially go clean?

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Doc Corner: 'Navalny' is the first Oscar contender of '22

By Glenn Dunks

What luck it is to be a filmmaker in the room at such moments of historic opportunity. Canadian director Daniel Roher has made one previous feature, a music bio-doc about The Band, which probably isn’t the sort of bellwether for somebody who is about to capture evidence of the plot to assassinate the political rival of Vladimir Putin. But here we are.

Because of that luck and whatever directorial smarts got him there, Roher and his film Navalny are surely very real contenders for the documentary Oscar, the first such major title of the year.

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Doc Corner Catch-Up: White Hot, The Automat, and ¡Viva Maestro!

By Glenn Dunks

White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & FitchYou may have noticed that the Doc Corner column has been a bit quiet. I have been unfortunately quite slack with the reviews in the first four months of 2022. It is usually a quiet period at the beginning of the year in general, but fatigue (awards season + life) means I have unfortunately missed the chance to talk about some of the titles that have come along. And then added onto that, I had COVID and despite being in mandated isolation for the week, my brain was living strictly on a diet of Harrison Ford movies and television catch-up (Shining Vale, Abbott Elementary, Troppo among them).

But we are here on the first of May. And so before we get back into regular coverage of some pretty big titles (some of which will be angling for Oscar's attention), we’re going to play a little bit of catch-up today. We have war-torn Ukraine, the history of American dining and fashion institutions, and globe-trotting philosophers...

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