This stunning, sublime visual accomplishment is must-watch television even for those with jam-packed DVRs and no time. A decade ago when Planet Earth hit television screens in the United States, it was nothing short of a revolution in nature documentary filmmaking — a breathtaking, high-definition work, a magisterial moment that had people slack-jawed while learning about life […]
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I admit – I am a techno optimist: I believe that overall technology makes our lives better. But I also have the utmost appreciation for and am often mesmerized by the beauty of nature. Our so called “dumb” universe is a marvelous, mesmerizing and stupefyingly beautiful place. It is also pretty clear that to get where we […]
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The film HOME by Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a beautifully shot panorama of the Earth and the damage done to it by modern humanity. It includes a moving narration about the evolution of the Earth, nature, agriculture, humans, and the crises of habitat destruction, energy depletion, climate disruption, degradation…of the environment, health, economic disparity, and more. […]
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You know you’ve made it when BBC marketing includes your name in the title of a book, let alone a TV series. The Power of Art might seem a catchy title in its own right, but by assigning the ownership of the concept to Simon Schama, the publisher is admitting that the cult of personality is a greater […]
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When the Chinese documentary series A Bite of China debuted in 2012, its bucolic scenes of mushroom gathering, mud fishing, and family reunions sparked something deep in the Chinese psyche. The food safety crises of the past decade were still fresh in the mind, along with the idea of urbanization robbing the country of its rich food […]
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There’s so much intriguing information, possibility and daring inside the modern-day version of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which updates Carl Sagan‘s epically important Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, that there’s also a risk of overlooking the simple parts of it. Case in point: The series kicks off with a creative, visually impressive 45 minutes built around rock star astrophysicist Neil […]
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Netflix’s innovative and stylishly presented cooking series Chef’s Table takes us into the minds and inspiration behind some of the best chefs in the world. Through a mixture of interviews, archival photos and a healthy dose of classical music, Netflix whips us up on a culinary journey through the world of rich cuisine and innovation. […]
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This strange but overlong docudrama explores the workers and clients of a company who rent family members. Werner Herzog’s Family Romance, LLC looks terrible. It’s a film that opens, unashamedly, with credits rendered in the Times New Roman typeface and camerawork with the amateurish feel of your dad’s ’90s home video footage. Yet, wonky production values aside, […]
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A portrait of a wounded solider serves as a rallying cry for veterans with PTSD in this sad and necessary documentary from Netflix. Here is an important and quietly harrowing documentary about the toll of war on both individuals and their families, released by Netflix and directed by New York Times journalists Catrin Einhorn and Leslye Davis. It […]
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