'complaining about other people's lists' pt 426

This time Vanity Fair draws my ire.

There are a lot of really excellent films on that list- but you could pick names from a hat and get a bunch of great documentaries. Docs have more greatness per volume than other kinds of film.

Problem one:
WTF with no Errol Morris?
A 'best doc' list lacking Morris is like a H2 without the O- it's something, just not what they claim.

Problem two:
Two Michael Moore films, neither of them his best?
If he makes this list at all, it's for the very genuine Roger and Me. His other films can't hold a candle to it.

Problem three:
Leni Riefenstahl was a propagandist, which is the opposite of a documentarian.
She would make my list not as a filmmaker but as the subject of the excellent doc The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl.

Problem four:
The Maysles brothers are represented, but no Salesman?
Pah, be serious.


And a quibble- the Robert Evans doc The Kid Stays in the Picture is interesting, but far too accommodating of its subject to be great. There is a great documentary in his life, but this one is more interested in buffing its subject's tan to a bronzed gleam than exploring those fresh mounds of dirt in his basement.

IMHO the must-see docs on their list are:

- Brother's Keeper
- Sorrow and the Pity
- Crumb
- Sherman's March
- When We Were Kings
- Hoop Dreams