Tickled đ
Plus, your guide for getting into experimental documentaries and the trailer for a new political thriller on Netflix.
âïž Happy Thursday! Hope your week has been great.
I got some feedback that I should be recommending more obscure movies. Ask and you shall receive. Todayâs movie recommendation is an underseen documentary about an even more underseen⊠sport? hobby? Plus, your guide to experimental documentaries and the trailer for a new political thriller on Netflix.
Also: There will be no newsletter on Monday as Iâll be at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah for the next few days. Follow my (frigid) journey on Twitter and Rotten Tomatoes.
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Today's movie //Â
Streaming on Hulu
Tickled
Pop Culture reporter David Farrier, whose beat focuses on âthe weird and bizarre side of life,â stumbles upon a video featuring competitive endurance tickling. However, as he digs into the company behind the videos, he begins to receive harassing messages. [Trailer]
Why you should watch it: What begins as a pretty standard quirky documentary about an even weirder âsportâ quickly turns to a conspiratorial thriller that delves into places you wonât expect. For a time you even question whether this is a mockumentary. Itâs almost unfathomable that itâs real â it very much is.
As the movie dives further into the twisting conspiracy of competitive endurance tickling, it turns from tongue-in-cheek investigative documentary to an actually compelling investigative documentary with the same twists and turns youâd expect from one about a more serious subject.
Directed by David Farrier & Dylan Reeve
Runtime 92 mins
Year 2016
Genre Documentary
đș Buy or rent: Prime Video // iTunes // YouTube
Recommended if you like...
Experimental documentaries
Every week, Iâll take a genre, director, or actor you want to see more of and give you three movies to get started with that arenât available for streaming just yet or Iâve recommended in the past. Today is experimental documentaries.
What are experimental documentaries? Usually, documentaries are pieced together using archival clips with interviews and narration to piece it all together. Experimental documentaries use other methods â reenactments, animation, etc. â to tell their stories.
đ The Act of Killing (2012): Originally recommended here. The Act of Killing may be one of the greatest exercises in experimenting with the documentary form as a group of filmmakers give the men responsible for the Indonesian genocide in the 1960s resources to stage dramatic reenactments of their crimes. Streaming on Prime Video. [Trailer]
đș Buy or rent: Prime Video // iTunes // YouTube
đč Stories We Tell (2012): Documentaries are about truth. However, Stories We Tell is about lies. So much so that you donât exactly know whoâs telling you the truth. Director Sarah Polley tells her family history through family videos â both real and fake â and interviews with her siblings to uncover deep secrets. [Trailer]
đ« Tower (2016): Tower combines archival footage with rotoscope animation (see the GIF above) to tell the stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors of Americaâs first mass school shooting at the University of Austin. The effect heightens the tension and danger and is somehow even more effective than if we just saw straight archival footage. [Trailer]
đș Buy or rent: Prime Video // iTunes // YouTube
One trailer you should watch
The Last Thing He Wanted
From Netflix: âA veteran D.C. journalist (Anne Hathaway) loses the thread of her own story when a guilt-propelled errand for her father (Willem Dafoe) who is dying, thrusts her from byline to unwitting subject in the very story sheâs trying to break.â
My take: Netflix laid it out for you in that tweet â Dee Rees (Pariah, Mudbound), Anne Hathaway, Willem Dafoe. Plus, the trailer looks like the best version of a heart-pounding political thriller. However, the fact that they havenât announced a theatrical release and early release date next month give me cause for concern. I believe in Dee Rees, though.
Directed by Dee Rees
Runtime 120 mins
Year 2020
Genre Political Thriller
đș Availble to stream on Netflix on February 21st
Thanks for reading! Please continue to share the newsletter with your fellow movie lovers. Have a terrific weekend!
See you next week!
Karl (@karl_delo)