Rounding off my catch-up on Letterboxd reviews with these four, beginning with my thoughts on the Robert Altman documentary on Netflix:
Altman feels a tad slight; 90 minutes surely isn’t long enough to survey the great director’s life and career. But to be fair, it’s a documentary that picks the man Robert Altman over the work that made his name, and tells his story via the people who were closest (or should’ve been closest) to him, his wife and children. There is a 2009 biography that likely goes into far more detail, and other sources that examine his films (Rich Hall’s fantastic doc How The West Was Lost is particularly good on McCabe & Mrs Miller); this slots in as a worthy complement.
I also watched Horrible Bosses, for shame:
So this surprised me by not being unremittingly awful, but the whole set-up is so excruciating, it undermines the funnies for the most part. Not to mention the poisonous tinge of sexism and homophobia that most would probably let slide.
Minecraft: The Story of Mojang was another internet watch:
As skilfully composed and edited as it is, 2 Player Productions’ Minecraft doc is squarely in the supporters’ stand, glossing over some major negatives (going by this, you’d never know what a disaster Minecon turned out to be) in painting its fairly cozy – if not entirely gushing – portrait of the game’s creator, behatted Swede Markus ‘Notch’ Persson.
And Rapture-Palooza was another waste of my time:
The makings of a mildly amusing 10-minute comedy sketch, dragged out over an hour and a half, with neither the budget nor the script to justify such indulgence. Not quite interminable, but hardly worth the effort, either.
I need to step up my Netflix game.