By Gregory Crofton “BILL W.” is a documentary about the man who founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935 with the help of Dr. Bob Smith, who Wilson had helped get sober. The first frames of the film are wonderful: Super 8…
‘THE WAITING ROOM’: Welcome But Underwhelming Look at Our Expensive, Ineffective Healthcare System
By Gregory Crofton Providing quality healthcare without bankrupting its recipient should be common place for any decent society, and it should be our practice in the United States. But it’s not. We’re very far away from that standard. Medical professionals…
UNDEFEATED: An Oscar Winner, But What Makes This Football Doc So Good?
By Gregory Crofton Coach Bill Courtney (the man hugging the player in the photo above) is what makes “UNDEFEATED” a fascinating story about a down-and-out Memphis high school football program. Football builds character, but so does he. Courtney made his…
‘BIG STAR – NOTHING CAN HURT ME’: A Sad But Uplifting Story About this Influential Memphis Rock Band
By Gregory Crofton America had its own equivalent of the John Lennon/Paul McCartney musical partnership. They were Big Star’s Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, members of a band few people other than rock musicians – and some fans, many of…
‘DIRTY WARS’: Jeremy Scahill and the Perils of Drone Warfare
By Gregory Crofton High expectations for this film left me somewhat disappointed. The slightly hokey but undeniably powerful “DIRTY WARS: THE WORLD IS A BATTLEFIELD” documents journalist Jeremy Scahill’s reporting in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia to expose terrorist kill-list operations…