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      ‘Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over’ Review: A Trailblazer Gets Her Flowers

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      This documentary tries to do justice to a six-decade career in 95 minutes, which proves challenging.Before a late-career revival as a Twitter powerhouse, Dionne Warwick cultivated a music career that changed the game for Black people in America. Her influence as a crossover artist is brought to light in the new documentary, “Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over.”The film’s directors David Heilbroner and Dave Wooley admiringly chart Warwick’s musical ascension from childhood gospel singer to multiple Grammy Award winner. But doing justice to a six-decade career in 95 minutes proves challenging.As the film winds down, Warwick’s experiences are presented like footnotes on a page: a little about how she scolded Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur for their misogynist lyrics, a little less about her cousin Whitney Houston’s death and a lot less about her involvement in The Psychic Friends Network.Throughout, Warwick offers amusing and amused commentary on her long history. Alongside Bill Clinton and Elton John, she looks back on her AIDS activism in the 1980s, when other stars stayed silent about the virus. Another part shows her holding up her 1963 record, “This Empty Place,” which portrayed her as a white woman on the cover in France. Hilariously, she cackles and says, “Have I changed?”Overall, “Don’t Make Me Over” gets the job done, albeit in a formulaic, straightforward fashion. But there’s pure joy in just seeing Warwick radiate the kind of charisma and grit you’d hope for from a living legend who has always stayed true to herself. In this ordinary film about her extraordinary life, it’s clear she’s not stopping now.Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me OverNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on HBO Max. More

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      ‘Love in the Time of Fentanyl’ Review: Heartbreak, Death and Hope in Vancouver

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      To combat the overdose crisis, a group that includes former and current users open a safe consumption site where shooting up does not have to mean death.In 2016, in response to record high overdose deaths in Vancouver, a group of artists, activists, and current and former drug users in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood came together to form the Overdose Prevention Society, a renegade safe consumption site where drug users could safely consume drugs. The O.P.S. staff tests the drugs for fentanyl, provides clean needles and has Narcan on hand in case of an overdose. “Love in the Time of Fentanyl,” directed by Colin Askey, tenderly documents this community’s lifesaving efforts.The film follows Ronnie, a frontline worker struggling with burnout; Sarah, an activist who opened the site and works to raise awareness about the crisis; Trey, a graffiti artist who memorializes lost community members on the center’s surrounding walls; Norma, an Indigenous elder and former drug user who cooks meals for the staff; and Dana, who is struggling with active addiction while working at the center.Despite the harrowing overdose scenes, Askey manages to infuse “Love in the Time of Fentanyl” with scenes of joy, creativity and friendship — whether it’s staff members dancing after hours, a guitarist singing an original song about O.P.S. (“O.D., O.D., O.D., Overdose Prevention Society”) or drug users chatting as they prepare their injections. A veteran talks about the trauma he endured during deployment. Another man says that he began using drugs after his girlfriend was killed by a drunken driver. All speak plainly about the challenges of quitting and the dangers of stigmatization. Though at times the film’s narrative momentum and focus on its subjects is lacking, it shows that drug users, to whom the drug crisis is more than an abstract idea, are perhaps the most capable of creating solutions to the overdose epidemic.Love in the Time of FentanylNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. In theaters now and airing on PBS Independent Lens Feb. 13. More

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      ‘Body Parts’ Review: Even Sex Scenes Have Rules

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      The documentary features performers and filmmakers discussing onscreen nudity and sex, but offers little on the subject of sexual exploitation.Cinema’s first kiss was recorded in 1896, and the American film industry has been obsessed with desire and sex ever since. The documentary “Body Parts” is an attempt to account for cinema’s prurient interests. The documentarian Kristy Guevara-Flanagan interviews performers and filmmakers — including familiar faces like Jane Fonda and Karyn Kusama — on the topic of onscreen nudity and sex. Their stories of exploitation and negotiations are supported by archival clips from Hollywood movies of the present and past.The movie is strongest when it focuses on labor rules. Interview subjects explain the use of nudity riders, contractual documents that specify what acts an actor is willing to perform. Intimacy coordinators discuss their work as liaisons between actors and filmmakers, and the documentary shows them directing actors on how to touch appropriately. In these sequences, the film helpfully elucidates the practical side of filmmaking, and personal stories demonstrate how clear contractual practices can create a safer work environment.However, the movie is limited when it comes to deeper philosophical considerations, and its use of archival footage at times undermines comments from interview subjects. They describe the frustration of having intimate scenes posted online without context, on websites intended for pornography. But this documentary also includes decontextualized clips of nudity, with no onscreen reference to the process of informing the performers depicted. And pornographic performers are not interviewed about their work rules at all.It’s not that these omissions make the movie unethical, but their absence does suggest an intellectual laziness, a lack of precision or curiosity on the complex subject of sexual exploitation and how it relates to the work of making movies. Ironically, the film mirrors the callow cinematic dynamics it critiques: It titillates, even as it scolds.Body PartsNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Pamela, a Love Story’ Review: A Frank Look Back

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      This documentary from Ryan White rewinds, to powerful effect, on Pamela Anderson’s life and fame.Are you ready for Pamela Anderson, ordinary person? Ryan White’s genuinely engaging documentary “Pamela, a Love Story” presents the sex symbol plain, wearing little if any makeup, dressed in a shift and a robe.The story she tells is of a small-town girl — she was raised partly on an island in British Columbia — who endured abuse from an early age. Speaking of the babysitter who molested her, she says, “I told her I wanted her to die, and she died in a car accident the next day.” She attributed the turn of events to “magical powers.”She did possess a kind of magic, being both very pretty and very photogenic. She was discovered via sports arena Jumbotron in 1989. After posing for Playboy magazine, she got famous before she was even vaguely ready for any such thing. “I’ve never sat across from an interview subject before and said, ‘May we talk briefly about your breasts?’” the interviewer Matt Lauer, of all people, states in an archival clip.Anderson admits a longtime romantic predisposition toward “bad boys.” In the ’90s, when she was the bombshell star of “Baywatch,” she wed one of the baddest, the rock drummer Tommy Lee.Her still indignant and hurt recollections concerning the couple’s infamous sex tape, which she has always insisted was stolen property, are bracing.This star’s personality doesn’t veer into any ideology, let alone a feminist one. But when Anderson recalls being deposed by hostile lawyers while trying to shut down the marketing of the sex tape, she remembers thinking, “Why do these grown men hate me so much?” The collision of her good-faith lack of inhibition with institutionalized misogyny makes this Canadian’s biography a very disquieting American story.Pamela, a Love StoryNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      Which Sundance Movies Could Follow ‘CODA’ to the Oscars?

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      Jonathan Majors in “Magazine Dreams” and Teyana Taylor in “A Thousand and One,” among others, could make the journey from Park City to the Dolby Theater.Over the past few decades, the Sundance Film Festival has premiered Oscar winners like “Manchester by the Sea,” “Call Me by Your Name” and “Minari,” but it wasn’t until last March — when the crowd-pleasing “CODA” won best picture — that a Sundance movie went the distance and claimed the top Academy Award.It may be a little while before Sundance pulls off that feat again, as the Oscar nominations announced last week featured no movies from the festival in the best-picture race; indeed, the only 2022 Sundance film to make a dent in the top six Oscar categories was the British drama “Living,” which earned a best-actor nod for Bill Nighy. But could the movies that just premiered at the 2023 edition of the festival, which concluded on Sunday, help recover some of Sundance’s award-season mojo?The program certainly offered a fair amount of best-actor contenders who could follow in Nighy’s footsteps. Foremost among them is Jonathan Majors. The up-and-coming actor already has a crowded 2023: He’ll soon be seen facing off against Michael B. Jordan in “Creed III” and playing the supervillain Kang in Marvel properties like “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “Loki.” And that slate just got even stronger with the Sundance premiere of “Magazine Dreams,” a troubled-loner drama in which Majors plays an amateur bodybuilder on the brink of snapping. Had the film been released a few months ago, Majors would have made this year’s thin best-actor lineup for sure, but the right studio buyer could take advantage of his newfound Marvel momentum to muscle this formidable performance into the next race.The Projectionist Chronicles the Awards SeasonThe Oscars aren’t until March, but the campaigns have begun. Kyle Buchanan is covering the films, personalities and events along the way.Meet the Newer, Bolder Michelle Williams: Why she made the surprising choice to skip the supporting actress category and run for best actress.Best-Actress Battle Royal: A banner crop of leading ladies like Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett rule the Oscars’ deepest and most dynamic race.‘Glass Onion’ and Rian Johnson: The director explains why he sold the “Knives Out” franchise to Netflix, and how he feels about its theatrical test.A Supporting-Actress Underdog: In “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” don’t discount the pivotal presence of Stephanie Hsu.Other best-actor candidates that could come from the current Sundance crop include Gael Garcia Bernal, who could earn his first nomination for playing a gay luchador in the appealing “Cassandro,” and David Strathairn, who toplines the modest, humane “A Little Prayer,” about a father deciding whether to meddle in his son’s extramarital affair. One point in Strathairn’s favor is that his film will be released by Sony Pictures Classics, which has managed to land a well-liked veteran in the best-actor lineup three of the last four years (Nighy for “Living,” Anthony Hopkins for “The Father” and Antonio Banderas for “Pain and Glory”).The top Sundance jury prize went to A.V. Rockwell’s “A Thousand and One,” which could earn best-actress attention for Teyana Taylor, who plays a defiant ex-con resorting to desperate measures to keep custody of her son. (Still, the film’s planned March release from Focus Features will require some end-of-year reminders for forgetful voters.) Also buzzed about was Greta Lee, who could be in contention for A24’s “Past Lives,” about a Korean American woman reunited with her former lover; the film was so rapturously received that a best-picture push could be in the cards.Will any of the year’s biggest-selling films crash the Oscars race? Netflix spent $20 million to acquire the well-reviewed “Fair Play,” which pits the “Bridgerton” star Phoebe Dynevor against the “Solo: A Star Wars Story” actor Alden Ehrenreich as co-workers whose affair curdles once she gets promoted. It’s not the kind of starry auteur project that usually gets a big end-of-the-year campaign from Netflix, but if this battle of the sexes becomes a zeitgeisty hit, the streamer may give it a shot. Apple TV+ paid $20 million for the musical comedy “Flora and Son,” from the “Once” director John Carney, while Searchlight shelled out more than $7 million for the Ben Platt vehicle “Theater Camp.” At the very least, these two comedies feature delightful original-song contenders.Sundance films could make the biggest splash is in the best-documentary race: All but one of this year’s Oscar-nominated documentaries first debuted at the January festival, and even if you stripped Sundance of its star-driven narrative films, the strength of its docs would still preserve its status as a top-tier world festival.This year, the most-talked-about docs were the award winners “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” about a storied Black poet; the Alzheimer’s drama “The Eternal Memory”; “Beyond Utopia,” which features compelling hidden-camera footage of North Koreans trying to defect; and “20 Days in Mariupol,” about the Russian siege of a Ukrainian port city. More

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      ‘A Thousand and One’ and Nikki Giovanni Documentary Win at Sundance Film Festival

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      Other prizes go to “Scrapper,” about a British girl and her estranged father, and “The Eternal Memory,” about a Chilean couple coping with Alzheimer’s.A mother-son drama and a documentary about the pioneering poet Nikki Giovanni won grand jury prizes at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday.Taking the top honor in the U.S. dramatic competition, “A Thousand and One,” the debut feature of A.V. Rockwell, stars the singer and dancer Teyana Taylor as an ex-con who kidnaps her boy from foster care. The festival jury — made up of Jeremy O. Harris, Eliza Hittman and Marlee Matlin — described it as “work that is real, full of pain, and fearless in its rigorous commitment to emotional truth born of oppressive circumstances.”The U.S. nonfiction award went to “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” from the directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson. The jury (W. Kamau Bell, Ramona Diaz and Carla Gutierrez) described Giovanni, now 79, as “a singular, unapologetic voice,” and said the film’s “strong directorial vision illuminates the joy and the raw reality of the Black experience.”In the world cinema dramatic competition, the top award was given to the British film “Scrapper,” Charlotte Regan’s tale of a smart 12-year-old (Lola Campbell) on her own after the death of her mother and the return of a father (Harris Dickinson of “Triangle of Sadness”) she barely knows. “A charming and empathetic film full of integrity and life,” the jurors Shozo Ichiyama, Annemarie Jacir and Funa Maduka wrote, adding, “‘Scrapper’ is a poignant study on grief.”The Chilean documentary “The Eternal Memory” took the world cinema nonfiction prize. Directed by Maite Alberdi (“The Mole Agent”), the film follows a husband and wife as they deal with his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Augusto Góngora is a well-known Chilean TV presenter, and his wife, Paulina Urrutia, an actress-director who once served as the country’s culture minister, is now caring for him. “This film opened our hearts by bringing us closer to the meaning of life and death,” the jurors Karim Amer, Petra Costa and Alexander Nanau wrote.The Festival Favorite Award, voted on by audiences, went to Christopher Zalla’s “Radical,” starring Eugenio Derbez as an elementary school teacher along the U.S. border. Other Audience Awards went to the documentaries “Beyond Utopia” (from Madeleine Gavin, about North Koreans trying to defect); “20 Days in Mariupol” (Mstyslav Chernov’s account of being trapped with other Ukrainian journalists during the Russian invasion); and “Kokomo City” (D. Smith’s look at Black transgender sex workers).Two films about Iranians abroad also won over audiences: “The Persian Version,” Maryam Keshavarz’s comedy-drama set amid a family reunion in New York, and “Shayda,” Noora Niasari’s drama about a mother and her abusive husband in Australia.The festival concludes Sunday. More

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      ‘The Mission’ Review: A Substantial Service Undertaking

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      Mormon teenagers travel to Finland for missionary service in this documentary that struggles to offer new insights.American Mormon adolescents trek to Finland for missionary service in the pallid documentary “The Mission.” Directed by Tania Anderson, the film opens with its young subjects preparing for their travels, and then tracks their two-year journeys and the challenges that attend the substantial undertaking.One hopes that such access to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would yield new insights into the religion. But as the events unspool, the film struggles to crystallize more than a handful of compelling points.The documentary spends time with four missionaries in particular: Sister Bills, Sister Field, Elder Davis and Elder Pauole. (The Church frowns upon the use of first names.) The young women are sunny. The young men are stolid. Beyond their general dispositions and their aptitude for Finnish, which each of them are asked to study, the film fails to bring them to life as individuals.Upon arrival in Finland, the missionaries receive companions who serve as their roommates and proselytizing partners. The kids are instructed not to leave one another’s sight, a rule that we later learn is meant to prime the adolescents for marriage, which awaits them at home. This vital detail is obscured, however, by our surface-level time with the pairs. We see them pray side by side and knock on Finns’ doors, but before the camera, the companions default to reticence.Being a teenager is tough enough, and living for years in a foreign city must add stress to the usual malaise. Unfortunately, Anderson’s camera feels like an outsider to this unease, less a window into a demanding time than an obstacle to our understanding.The MissionNot rated. In English and Finnish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Rent or buy on Amazon, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘Filmmakers for the Prosecution’ Review: Exposing Third Reich Atrocities

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      Jean-Christophe Klotz’s documentary retraces the steps of two men tasked with gathering evidence for the Nuremberg trials.After the military defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, evidence of its crimes still had to be systematically gathered for the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal. Jean-Christophe Klotz’s methodical documentary “Filmmakers for the Prosecution” retraces the steps of two Office of Strategic Services members tasked with this enormous responsibility: Stuart Schulberg (later a TV producer) and his brother, Budd (who went on to his own storied career in Hollywood).Part of the movie recounts the travails of documenting the Third Reich in the war’s ruinous aftermath and the challenge of tracking down Nazi records before they could be destroyed. Stuart Schulberg’s nervous letters home express the difficulty of completing the project in time for the trials, which aimed to damn the Nazis with their own imagery. To this point Klotz’s film (which has the feel of a teaching aid) largely belongs to the documentary category of archival adventure, with stories of journeys into a salt mine and encounters with the director Leni Riefenstahl and a high-ranking Soviet fan of John Ford.But Stuart Schulberg was also commissioned to film the tribunal for the U.S., and so Klotz’s documentary becomes the mother of all “making of” features. Technical ingenuity was required to shoot and light the courtroom and its infamous defendants, who watched the evidence of Third Reich atrocities during the proceedings.The trial footage became part of Stuart Schulberg’s nearly lost 1948 documentary “Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today,” which was delayed as American priorities shifted to helping Europe rebuild. It’s all a reminder of the labor and risks that go into creating and preserving essential imagery of the past, even for the most notorious events in history.Filmmakers for the ProsecutionNot rated. In English and French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour. In theaters. More