WASHINGTON — You’ve heard Amy Winehouse tracks on the radio.
You’ve seen drug cartels on TV shows like “Breaking Bad.”
And you’ve read newspaper reports of Batkid out in San Francisco.
Now, it’s time to explore all three subjects through the ultimate medium — the cinema — thanks to a trio of documentaries that arrive in D.C. on Friday — “Amy,” “Cartel Land” and “Batkid Begins.”
‘Amy’
The mere mention of “Amy Winehouse” causes instant association with the musical genius of Billie Holiday and the reckless abandon of ill-fated talents like Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix.
Nearly four years to the date of her 2011 death, the dust has settled, the Grammys have been handed out, the concert gaffes have gone viral, the late-night jokes have been made, the paparazzi tabloids have been printed, and the fragile life has ended. So what are we left with?
Turns out, the cameras were rolling for the new documentary “Amy,” fusing concert footage with unseen home videos taken by Winehouse herself. The film is an intimate portrait of a tragic life, chronicling her lyrical genius and her fatal battles with bulimia, drug addiction and alcohol abuse.
The movie becomes admittedly hard to watch down the stretch, not because it isn’t compelling, but because the subject matter is so heartbreaking. Self-destruction always makes for painful viewing.
But the entire thing is presented with such visual style that you must tip your hat to its creator. British director Asif Kapadia previously won the BAFTA for Best Documentary and the Audience Award at Sundance for the Formula One racing profile “Senna” (2010).
His talents are once again on full display in “Amy,” which was nominated for the Golden Eye at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Kapadia is smart in his narrative structure, first showing grainy home footage of Winehouse’s personal life — a nasty breakup, a career stumble, daddy issues — then showing how those specific events influenced specific lyrics embedded in her work.
Look carefully at the home footage. Take in the scenery. It’s mise-en-scene in real-time cinema verite. Everything right down to her boyfriend’s Stella glass is fodder for her best songs, including “Stronger Than Me,” “Tears Dry On Their Own,” “Back to Black,” “Rehab” and “You Know I’m No Good.”
Smartly, Kapadia shows the lyrics on screen as Winehouse writes and sings them, allowing us to vicariously take part in her storytelling process — and leave the theater in awe of her talent.
But more than any of the music, the film gives us a nasty feeling that lingers long after the credits have rolled. That feeling is a renewed hatred for the paparazzi, which Kapadia exposes with a barrage of flashbulbs for a dizzying strobe effect — similar to the ones Scorsese used to blind Jake LaMotta.
More than anything, “Amy” is an indictment of our culture’s horrific bastardization of the word “entertainment.” The Indo-European root means “to hold” and “to change,” insisting we should be studying works of art and social commentary — not what celebrities do with their personal lives.
Yes, celebrities must bear the cross of media tours and red carpet step-and-repeats. That comes with the territory of wealth and privilege. But when vulture photographers hide in bushes with Telephoto lenses to film private vacations or chase celebrities into their cars, it’s a special kind of sickness.
So next time you shake your head at the “price of fame” and utter “what a shame,” know that the price is whatever you just plunked down in the tabloid aisle. And if you’re on the other end of the madness, and your “profession” involves more time writing about celebrities’ personal lives than it does exploring the significance of their cultural contributions, you’re part of the problem.
Amen, “Amy.”
★ ★ ★ 1/2
‘Cartel Land’
After exploring the tragedy of “Amy,” be sure to check out the equally serious “Cartel Land,” which played here last month at AFI Docs and opens to the D.C. public Friday at E Street Cinema.
Executive produced by the incomparable Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”), the film won Sundance’s documentary prizes for Best Director (Matthew Heineman) and Best Cinematography (Heineman and Matt Porwoll) for its gritty, fearless footage shot on a Canon C300.
In making these selections, the Sundance judges noted: “To a filmmaker who had courage to pursue a story that developed with unexpected complexity. His confident hand takes us into a world where we see both brutality and grace. … The risks a documentarian with a camera faces are physical, emotional and ethical. These cinematographers navigated all, allowing us to care deeply about people while creating images that propel us through a landscape of nightmares.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkYBbBK0qoM
“Cartel Land” tracks vigilantes who battle drug cartels on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. On the American side is Tim “Nailer” Foley, leader of the Arizona Border Recon. On the Mexican side is Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles, leader of the Michoacán-based Autodefensas.
“They’re both 55 years old, they both believe that the government has failed them, and they both are taking up arms to fight for what they believe in,” Heineman tells WTOP. “But the circumstances are quite different. In Mexico, the violence is visceral, it’s real — 80,000-plus people killed since 2007, 20,000-plus people disappeared — whereas in Arizona, the violence is slightly more theoretical. It’s a fear that this drug war will seep its way across (the border).”
While Foley and Mireles are the protagonists, neither is painted as an infallible saint. Their motives are constantly in question. Mireles uses his celebrity to woo young women in predatory fashion, while Foley hangs out with racists deemed a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“People that come down here have their own opinions on why the border needs to be secured,” Foley says, absolving himself. “I don’t always agree with everybody’s views, but I’m happy to have the help.”
While Foley expresses legitimate economic concerns of losing his carpentry job during the Great Recession, his fireside associates make cringe-worthy statements akin to Donald Trump’s recent statement on immigrants: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” One associate says, “Taller fences make for better neighbors, especially if you have conflicting ideas. You wouldn’t put two pitbulls in the same pen and expect them to get along and not fight. Why would you put two races in the same nation, and expect them to get along?”
Someone needs to inform this knucklehead of America’s place as a melting pot for all ethnicities. But no one in the film does. When such ignorant statements are made, you wish the film would immediately present a counterpoint. You wish the film would take a stance. Does it condone these statements? Or is the camera simply there to observe? We’re never quite sure.
In this way, “Cartel Land” lacks the forward thrust of an activist documentary, instead choosing to document these people, no matter how virtuous or how twisted their motives.
While the film’s moral message is vague — settling for a simple “thou shalt not kill” message — its fearless compositions are a wonder to behold.
Amid gorgeous Southwest landscapes, we plunge into the violence with cinema-verite cajones. When the bullets start flying, the camera ducks for cover in the back seat of a car, then has the amazing wherewithal to adjust exposure and find focus in the midst of gunfire!
“I never thought I would be in shootouts between vigilantes and cartels. I never thought I would be in meth labs in the dark, desert night. I never thought I would be in torture chambers as they were interrogating cartel members, but that’s where this film led me,” Heineman says.
In the end, we may not know solutions, but we’re left with a gut punch of awareness.
“In America, we don’t really recognize that there is a war that’s happening. We talk about ISIS, we talk about all of these horrible things happening around the world — which are horrible — but (Mexico) is our neighbor and this is something that we’re responsible for largely,” Heineman says. “We’re funding this war, we’re feeding this war, we’re consuming the drugs that are the basis for this war. So I think it’s something that we really need to see.”
★ ★ ★
‘Batkid Begins’
After witnessing the tragedy of “Amy” and the danger of “Cartel Land,” you’ll need an uplifting dose of inspiration to restore your faith in humanity.
Time to throw up the Bat Signal.
“Batkid Begins” is an absolute crowd pleaser, as evidenced by its Audience Award at the Dallas International Film Fest, and the reaction to its screening Thursday night at E Street Cinema.
The film follows a Make-A-Wish Foundation stunt to grant the wish of a 5-year-old leukemia patient (Miles Scott). His wish is simple in his childlike imagination — he wants to be Batman for a day.
It’s not so simple for the people trying to pull it off, but Make-A-Wish plows forward with the help of the mayor, police department, professional stuntmen, opera house costume designers, professional baseball team and an outpouring of social media.
Together, they turn San Francisco into Gotham City on one glorious day — Nov. 15, 2013 — featuring everything from Batmobiles to high-tech gadgets, from flash mobs to performers dressed as the villainous Riddler and Penguin staging crimes for the young Caped Ceusader to solve.
“He gave everybody license to just be a little absurd, a little ridiculous, and live their little dreams for a little bit,” says Hans Zimmer, composer of “The Dark Knight” trilogy, who pitched in by composing a new piece of Batman music for Miles.
Everyone from President Barack Obama to TV’s Adam West got in on the fun, tweeting their congratulations to Miles for saving the city. The social media impact was such that two middle-aged men left E Street Cinema on Thursday night in awe. “That was really all due to social media? ” one asked. “Yeah, looks like I’m gonna have to get on social media,” the other replied. #ItsAboutBatTime.
Director Dana Nachman focuses a little too much on the minutia of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, as parts of the movie feel like unintentional plugs to the various organizations donating their services. I would have liked to have seen more attention paid to the parents, who seem overwhelmed.
Still, the story itself is such an inspirational winner that only the soulless could give the movie anything but a smiling, feel-good “thumbs up” — much like Young Miles does to the crowd from the window of his Batmobile.
“People were holding up signs saying, ‘Save us, Batkid.’ I looked at those signs and I thought, you mean that literally. In helping him to live this dream, we were saving ourselves,” Mashable’s Chris Taylor says in the film. “We wonder why we’re not happy a lot of the time, and that’s because we forget this sort of thing. Here was an event that forced us to remember.”
★ ★ ★
The above ratings are based on a 4-star scale. See where these films rank among our Fraley Film Guide. Follow WTOP Film Critic Jason Fraley on Twitter @JFrayWTOP.
