Released in 2025, Alex Braverman’s documentary Thank You Very Much provides footage and interviews that attempt to shed more light on the life and career of comedian Andy Kaufman. Even if you are already familiar with Kaufman’s work, there’s a lot of rare and fascinating archival material here. The film covers his childhood and family life in an attempt to find out who he was at his core. What’s more interesting is watching a performer who wasn’t afraid to take risks and alienate both his audience and the people around him, and to wonder what kind of work he would make today.
In 1999 Jim Carrey portrayed Andy Kaufman in the biographical film Man on the Moon. He remained in character throughout the filming, both onset and off, even claiming that Kaufman himself was behind his performance. In 2017 Netflix released the documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, which includes interviews with the cast and behind the scenes footage. It explores Carrey’s method acting, as well as what seems at times to be him using this behavior to work through his own personal issues.
Both films highlight how difficult it is to really know another person and their motivations. Was Andy Kaufman more than a provocateur looking to get laughs? Was Jim Carrey channeling him in his performance? Ultimately, these films leave you to decide for yourself.
In 2024, brothers Owen and Quentin Reiser attempted a “Big Year”, which for birdwatchers entails identifying as many different species as possible in a single calendar year. Traveling in a 2010 Kia Sedona van, the pair learn a lot about birds and other birdwatchers— including the competitive ones. Environmental issues, technology, and the competition’s impact on the hobby are also explored throughout the film.
The documentary is filled with beautiful footage of the birds and lots of funny moments, but seeing this seemingly random idea create a new appreciation for something previously overlooked also feels surprisingly inspirational. It may even have you thinking about things in your own life that might be worth a deeper dive. Either way, you’ll probably find yourself taking a closer look at the birds around you.
The story in the 2024 documentary Secret Mall Apartment, feels relatively straightforward at first. In 2003, a group of eight artists built an apartment in a small, unused space in the Providence Place shopping mall in Providence, Rhode Island. They continued to use it until they were discovered a few years later. But the film takes you on a journey beyond the creation of the apartment. It’s also about gentrification, urban development, and artist housing; mall culture and consumerism; the artists’ work outside the apartment; and, by the end, even the question of what makes something art.
Artist Michael Townsend was no stranger to art installations. He had previously created one inside a drainage tunnel, allowing only a select few with keys to see it. When local artist venue and living space Fort Thunder was torn down, the idea of living in the nearby new mall began. He remembered noticing an odd extra space while the mall was still being constructed. After searching and finding it with his then-wife Adriana Valdez Young, friends and fellow artists Colin Bliss, Andrew Oesch, Greta Scheing, James Mercer, Emily Ustach, and Jay Zehngebot joined them to build the apartment. Luckily for viewers, the process was also documented with a Pentax Optio (even if the footage is low-res). Furniture was added, along with a video game system, and eventually a wall.
While their new home provided a break from the outside world, it also became a place for the artists to plan their tape-art installations. These included a five-year portrait series in NYC for 9/11; a mural on the site of the Oklahoma City bombing; and creating work with kids on the walls of Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Rhode Island. Townsend continues to make tape-art projects today.
The documentary is fun to watch and at times, even inspirational. It’s currently available to watch on Netflix and other online platforms.
In Andrei Tarkovsky‘s 1983 film, Nostalghia, a Russian author finds himself lost in memories of home while traveling in Italy researching the life of an 18th century Russian composer who committed suicide after returning to Russia from Italy. The film initially follows the author, Andrei Gorchakov, and his relationship with his attractive interpreter. Drifting between dreams of his family in Russia shot in black-and-white and the present day in color, he later becomes fascinated by a local man, Domenico, who struggles with complicated issues of his own.
Nostalghia features motifs Tarkovsky used in many of his films including reflections, mirrors, water, and birds. There are also several scenes reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman‘s work, including the dream scenes of his wife and the interpreter (seen below). Tarkovsky’s feelings while living in Italy, away from his homeland, are also mirrored by those of Gorchakov.
It is in the character of Domenico (played by actor Erland Josephson who was also in several Bergman films), his past, and his connection to the author, that the film takes a more interesting and tragic turn.
Through Domenico’s moving speech, given from on top of a statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, Tarkovsky comments on a culture he sees headed in the wrong direction.
“What ancestor speaks in me? I can’t live simultaneously in my head and in my body. That’s why I can’t be just one person. I can feel within myself countless things at once.
There are no great masters left. That’s the real evil of our time. The heart’s path is covered in shadow. We must listen to the voices that seem useless in brains full of long sewage pipes of school wall, tarmac and welfare papers. The buzzing of insects must enter. We must fill the eyes and ears of all of us with things that are the beginning of a great dream. Someone must shout that we’ll build the pyramids. It doesn’t matter if we don’t. We must fuel that wish and stretch the corners of the soul like an endless sheet.
If you want the world to go forward, we must hold hands. We must mix the so-called healthy with the so-called sick. You healthy ones! What does your health mean? The eyes of all mankind are looking at the pit into which we are plunging. Freedom is useless if you don’t have the courage to look us in the eye, to eat, drink and sleep with us! It’s the so-called healthy who have brought the world to the verge of ruin. Man, listen! In you water, fire and then ashes, and the bones in the ashes. The bones and the ashes!
Where am I when I’m not in reality or in my imagination? Here’s my new pact: it must be sunny at night and snowy in August. Great things end. Small things endure. Society must become united again instead of so disjointed. Just look at nature and you’ll see that life is simple. We must go back to where we were, to the point where we took the wrong turn. We must go back to the main foundations of life without dirtying the water. What kind of world is this if a madman tells you you must be ashamed of yourselves!
O Mother! The air is that light thing that moves around your head and becomes clearer when you laugh.”
Although written in the 1980s the speech feels relevant today, perhaps more than ever. Below is the re-release trailer.
In Andrei Tarkovsky‘s Mirror (1975) we follow the history of a dying poet, told through his dreamlike memories. It’s one of Tarkovsky’s most personal films and is semi-autobiographical. His older mother appears in the film, and he includes poetry by his father, Arseny Tarkovsky. Alternating between black-and-white and color film, as well as Russian archival footage, the film is nonlinear. Different characters are at times played by the same actor, like the younger version of his mother and his wife.
The visual poetry of the film captures something universal that is hard to describe in words, but is very affecting. Mirrors, reflections, flooding, fire, a gust of wind- even just watching the condensation from a cup disappear from a table- there’s so much to take in and contemplate.
Filled with his famous long takes, time moves more slowly in Mirror, and provides a much-needed break from our often too fast-paced world.
In Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, his thriller starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak, issues of power, control, obsession, and identity loom large over the mysterious plot. Stewart plays Scottie, a former San Francisco detective who retired when a traumatic incident left him with a debilitating fear of heights and vertigo. He is hired as a private investigator to follow an acquaintance’s wife, Madeline, played by Kim Novak, who has recently been acting strangely.
Shot in Technicolor, Hitchcock uses the vivid colors to represent the characters. Below, a hotel sign fills the room with an eerie green light, and Scottie’s head floats in red within a dream sequence that includes colorful animation.
There are also several recurring motifs throughout the film. One of the strongest is the various spirals present throughout the film- the tree rings, Madeline’s hair and the hair of the woman in the painting, and the staircase in the mission. Of course, spirals can be dizzying, and when someone is feeling overwhelmed by their thoughts it is often referred to as “spiraling”- which Scottie is doing as the film progresses. They can also represent the cyclical nature of time.
Madeline and Scottie among the Redwood trees in Muir Woods
Madeline points to two lines marking her life.
Northern California is the backdrop and the scenes in and around San Francisco in the 1950s are stunning.
Vertigo received mixed reviews at the time of its release, but is now considered one of the best films ever made. Through his unique personal vision, Hitchcock created a world to get lost in, with new things to notice on each revisit. The film can also serve as a reminder to struggling artists to stay true to their own ideas- sometimes it takes time for a work to gain appreciation.
This song is from Radiohead’s third album, OK Computer, which was released in 1997. The video was directed by Grant Gee, who also followed the band on tour after the release of the album. The result was Meeting People is Easy, a combination music video/documentary from which the clip below is from. Thom Yorke’s struggles to hold his breath through numerous frustrating takes gives a new appreciation for the video’s visual success.
David Bowie’s work as an actor varied throughout his career, from playing a vampire with Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon in The Hunger, to a goblin king in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. But he also had a great sense of humor which can be seen in his cameo in Zoolander and this moment playing himself in Ricky Gervais’s Extras.
Thinking of staying in this Halloween? You can still enjoy the spirit of Halloween from the comfort of your home, courtesy of two films currently streaming on Netflix.
The first, The American Scream, is the story of three families in Fairhaven, Massachussetts and their personal quests to turn their homes into Halloween haunted houses. The perfectionism and creativity of the attraction creators combined with the support and help of their families, make for an incredibly touching film with plenty of humor mixed in. It’s also a portrait of the community, and it’s a joy to see people come out in large numbers to see the finished work on Halloween.
Part love story, part vampire film, part Western, Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut feature, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, takes place in the fictional, often seemingly deserted Bad City in Iran (it was shot in California). With its ghostly oil rigs and a mysterious pit full of dead bodies, it’s also a place with a lot of bad things going on beyond just the local vampire. The Girl spends her nights wandering around town doling out justice and interacting with the troubled locals. One night she ends up making a connection with a young gardener who has done some bad things himself. Although less a traditional horror movie and more a surreal look at isolation and loneliness with horror themes, it is also beautifully shot with a great soundtrack.
This video for Beirut’s song from 2007 was directed by Alma Har’el who also directed the famous Sigur Rós video Fjögur píanó which stars Shia LeBeouf (seen below). She also directed the documentary film Bombay Beach which takes place in the community near the Salton Sea.
