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    8 Documentaries About True Love and Relationships

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    These movies go beyond examining a relationship to reveal the glories, discontents and more about romance.Romance and love are oddly tricky to capture authentically in a documentary. So much of what fosters real connection — as opposed to, say, “Bachelor”-style performative love — happens away from cameras. Plus, every love story is a bit of an experiment, and the observer effect applies: being filmed tends to change the results.But you can capture something about romance in a documentary. I don’t mean the kind that ends in disaster and a true crime documentary. I mean the movies that reveal something to us about the highs and lows, the glories and discontents, and above all something ineffable about love itself, transcending just romance.You probably have your own favorites, and your list might include one of mine: “Fire of Love” (2022, Disney+), Sara Dosa’s swooner about the volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. United in love of one another and, perhaps just as much, love of volcanoes, they perished together in a volcanic explosion in 1991. Their shared interest was a fundamental part of their lives, which made me think of several documentaries about artistic couples, like Daniel Hymanson’s heartbreaking “So Late So Soon” (2021, rent on major platforms) and Zachary Heinzerling’s acclaimed “Cutie and the Boxer” (2013, Vudu), both of which delve into complex relationships that weave together creativity and partnership.Other documentaries tap into the power of love to sustain us across tragedy and hardship. I think of this year’s Oscar-nominated “The Eternal Memory” (Paramount+), directed by Maite Alberdi, about a couple navigating one partner’s deteriorating memory. Or Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee” (2021, Hulu), in which, on the verge of marriage, an Afghan refugee tells his story of traumatic displacement; his soon-to-be husband has become the only place of safety he can find, but he’s still reticent to trust any home at all. Or there’s “Time” (2020, Prime Video), Garrett Bradley’s gutting film about Fox Rich’s fight to free her husband, Rob, from a 60-year prison sentence. (This was a co-production of The New York Times.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Movies to Stream for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMovies to Stream for Martin Luther King Jr. DaySeven recent films help commemorate King’s legacy in fighting for racial justice.Martin Luther King Jr. is featured in the documentary “MLK/FBI.”Credit…IFC FilmsJan. 17, 2021With each year since it was designated as a holiday in 1983, Martin Luther King Jr. Day has carried new yet immovable significance. It did so the year following Rodney King’s 1991 assault. It did so in the years following the deaths of Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. And now, following the past year’s deaths of Representative John Lewis and the Rev. C.T. Vivian, the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, the arrival of the summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, the November presidential election and this month’s storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, the holiday carries that much more meaning. In our government, in our elections, and in our law enforcement the signs of racism still lurk.Rather than enumerate already venerated civil rights films like Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” and Agnès Varda’s “Black Panthers,” unquestionably important works, this list compiles streaming titles from this year and last that not only speak to King’s racial justice legacy, but also to the continued and immediate struggle for voting rights and equal treatment under the law.‘Time’Stream it on Amazon.Fox Rich in a scene from “Time,” directed by Garrett Bradley.Credit…Amazon StudiosFor 18 years Fox Rich, a modern-day abolitionist, filmed thousands of home videos for her imprisoned husband Rob. Because of her involvement (as the getaway driver) in a robbery conducted by her husband and his cousin in 1997, Rich served three and a half years while the court sentenced Rob to 60 years in prison. Garrett Bradley’s affecting black-and-white film documents the moments Rob lost with his six children and his dedicated wife. In an 81-minute span, a delicate edit of those heartfelt video messages chronicling missed birthday parties, impassioned speeches and letters of love, Bradley explores not only how the prison industrial complex defrauds Black citizens of much more than time, but also how one woman remained undaunted in her mission to free her husband.‘One Night in Miami’Stream it on Amazon.Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcom X in “One Night in Miami.”Credit…Patti Perret/Amazon StudiosRegina King’s feature, adapted from Kemp Powers’s play of the same name, and loosely based on a true event, concerns four of the more prominent Black cultural figures of the 1960s — Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) — meeting in a Miami hotel room after Clay’s 1964 victory over Sonny Liston. Each actor delivers enjoyable one-liners that come off as genuine. And the dialogue they speak regarding the pathways for racial justice is as heartfelt as it is powerful. In her direction, King makes us wish for a second night.‘MLK/FBI’Watch it on demand.With the many films and historical texts on King, we know that his life was well-documented. But Sam Pollard’s “MLK/FBI” shows that it was much more traced than some may have imagined. From 1963 to King’s death, in a bid to destabilize the civil rights movement, the F.B.I. recorded thousands of hours of audio surveillance on the activist. This provocative film provides more than King’s soaring speeches. It investigates the meaning behind being a moral leader. Rumors about King having multiple affairs are raised and the questionable tactics of F.B.I. counterintelligence are examined. “MLK/FBI” is a complicated portrayal of a deified hero. Yet in the thorniness of King’s personal history the humanity of the man is redefined.‘Mangrove’Stream it on Amazon.Shaun Parkes as Frank Crichlow and Letitia Wright as Altheia Jones-LeCointe in “Mangrove,” part of the director Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology.Credit…Des Willie/Amazon Prime VideoWhile you should watch all of Steve McQueen’s five-film British anthology “Small Axe,” the civil rights narrative of “Mangrove” is particularly resonant. Concerning the Mangrove Nine, a group of West Indian protesters put on trial in 1970 for inciting a riot, McQueen crafts a courtroom battle that spotlights the racism that exposed extralegal cracks in the British justice system. Powerhouse performances from Letitia Wright as the British Black Panther member Altheia Jones-LeCointe, and Shaun Parkes as the restaurant owner Frank Crichlow, propel a film that centers the unyielding fight for self-determination.‘John Lewis: Good Trouble’Stream it on HBO Max.John Lewis, the subject of “Good Trouble.”Credit…Magnolia PicturesRepresentative John Lewis’s ethos “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble,” inspires the title of Dawn Porter’s documentary about the civil rights icon. The film covers Lewis’s major accomplishments — being the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington; leading the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.; and being elected to Congress — while conveying his lifelong dedication to nonviolent resistance. And few stagings hit with greater force than Lewis watching, in astonishment, the footage from his activist life. Sentimental yet undaunted, Porter’s documentary is an essential tribute to Lewis and his struggle.‘Da 5 Bloods’Stream it on Netflix.Spike Lee narrates a sequence from his Netflix feature.CreditCredit…David Lee/NetflixSpike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” and George Floyd’s death are inextricably linked. The film about four Black war veterans returning to Vietnam to recover the remains of Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman), their fallen commander, and the C.I.A. gold they left buried, was released in the throes of protests following Floyd’s killing. Through a searing soliloquy, Paul (Delroy Lindo), the drama’s tragic lead who never recovered from losing Norman, lends voice to the generation of Black men forced into watching their friends die in a thankless war, only to return home to find civil rights leaders killed as well. “Da 5 Bloods” concludes with a Black Lives Matter chant, and it’s Paul’s belief that his Black life does matter that is the film’s heartbeat.‘All In: The Fight for Democracy’Stream it on Amazon.Stacey Abrams working a phone bank in a scene from “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” a documentary about combating voter suppression.Credit…Amazon StudiosThe woman of the hour remains Stacey Abrams. The Democratic candidate for Georgia governor played an instrumental role not only in Joe Biden’s presidential win in that state, but also in Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff’s Senate victories. Abrams’s campaigning, however, began long before the 2020 election. In this frank documentary, the directors Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés demonstrate how Abrams laid the groundwork to fight decades of voter disenfranchisement in Georgia, and how those efforts reverberated beyond the state.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      The Gotham Awards Honor ‘Nomadland,’ as Best They Can

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe ProjectionistThe Gotham Awards Honor ‘Nomadland,’ as Best They CanIn a virtual ceremony, there were glitches and touching moments alike, including a speech from Chadwick Boseman’s widow.Frances McDormand in “Normadland.” The film won the top prize at the Gothams on Monday.Credit…Courtesy Of Searchlight Pictures/Searchlight Pictures, via Associated PressJan. 11, 2021All sorts of challenges arise when holding an awards show during a pandemic, and one of them, as proven by Monday night’s livestream of the 30th annual Gotham Awards, might be the technical difficulty of cueing up remote acceptance speeches.“Am I supposed to talk now?” asked a bewildered Radha Blank, upon winning a Gotham Award for her screenplay for “The 40-Year-Old Version.”The “One Night in Miami” actor Kingsley Ben-Adir looked similarly confused when the Gothams livestream cut to him sitting in a London hotel room, patiently awaiting any sort of direction. “I think I’m supposed to be speaking right now,” Ben-Adir said as he accepted a breakthrough-actor award, “but I hear so many people talking that I can’t really understand what’s going on.”Welcome to awards shows in the era of Zoom — more glitchy than glitzy, but still capable of celebration and the occasional moving moment. Perhaps the “Time” director Garrett Bradley put it best as she accepted her Gotham Award for best documentary: “If this were a real space, there’d be so many people up here with us,” Bradley said. “But we’re living in two dimensions.”The biggest winner of the night was “Nomadland,” a Frances McDormand road drama that many expect to be a top contender for the best-picture Oscar. The film, from the director Chloé Zhao, picked up both the best-feature and audience award; Zhao’s previous film, “The Rider,” triumphed at the Gothams two years ago.Though the Gothams are indie-leaning, their presence on the awards circuit is outsized: As the first significant ceremony of the season, they’ve often been a great barometer of buzz. What films have captured the attention of the East Coast crowd and may earn enough momentum to make it all the way to Oscar? You couldn’t help but overhear all sorts of lobbying whenever you pushed through a sea of formal wear on the way to the bar.The Gothams tried to recapture some of that magic this year with “virtual tables,” where a handful of curated watchers could gossip using video chat, if they so wished. (My table stayed mute.) But there is only so much you can do virtually to recreate a starry moment like last year’s late arrival of Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez, who swanned to their table well after the show began and brought the proceedings to a near-halt. Or the time when I wished luck to “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” nominee Richard E. Grant and he said, “I read the predictions on IndieWire today. It’s not going to be me.”Still, even a virtual ceremony can produce something that feels gratifyingly real. The winners in the lead-acting categories, Nicole Beharie for “Miss Juneteenth” and Riz Ahmed for “Sound of Metal,” were both gobsmacked, and as Ahmed tried to get his footing, he summed up the moment poetically: “It feels like a very wobbly time,” he said. “But if we can all wobble together, maybe we might find ourselves dancing.”Ahmed took the prize over the late Chadwick Boseman, nominated for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” but Boseman was still honored with a special posthumous trophy. Accepting the award on his behalf was the actor’s widow, Simone Ledward Boseman.Calling the award “an acknowledgment not only of his profound work, but of his impact on this industry and this world,” his widow looked up, and a tear ran down her cheek. “Chad, thank you,” she said. “I love you, I am so proud of you. Keep shining your light on us.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More