By Gregory Crofton I was listening to “Rocket Hour,” Elton John’s weekly podcast-radio show, when he told his audience that the new documentary about XXXTentacion was really good. No one knows pop music better than Elton, so I believed him.…
Cider Soaked ‘Peter and the Farm’ is a Generational Take on Farm to Table
By Gregory Crofton With a mangled left hand and bushy white beard, organic farmer Peter Dunning makes a striking image on camera. Once you tune in and listen, you’ll find his irascible controlling tendencies, his functional alcoholism, his days as…
‘The World’s a Little Blurry’ Shows How Fast Billie Eilish Became a Teenage Superstar
By Gregory Crofton Director R.J. Cutler (The War Room, The World According to Dick Cheney) took a cinema verité approach once he was granted access to the day-to-day of rising superstar Billie Eilish in 2018. That meant Cutler didn’t ask…
Mystery Revealed: How the Deadly Action Park Stayed Open for 18 Years
By Gregory Crofton If you grew up in the Northeast in the 80s, and you haven’t heard about the HBO documentary “Class Action Park,” you should be sure to check it out. I lived in Connecticut and was six years…
‘COW’: The Movie You Never Wanted to See
By Gregory Crofton “Cow” is painful to watch for a number of reasons. The documentary is shot in the dry style of cinéma vérité or direct cinema, which means there’s no narrator or any interviews. It’s just the camera and…