Film Fest 919: Dispatch 1

Following the lead of Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 1/2, this cinematic year of renewed interest in space exploration continues with the delightful Good Night Oppy. The latest documentary from populist director Ryan White (Ask Dr. Ruth; Serena) centers on twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, chronicling their development and history in entertaining and informative fashion. ILM’s animated recreations of the robots’ adventures on The Red Planet are stunning, but the recollections of the range of NASA scientists who shepherded the rovers’ journeys over the years are just as heartwarming. If you can set aside the somewhat icky feeling that Elon Musk (Netflix’s Return to Space) and now Jeff Bezos have documentary film connections to their gazillionaire space race, it’s a fun view.

Grade: B-plus. Rated PG. Screens Oct. 20 at 5:30 p.m. at Silverspot

Apple Studios

Documentaries on the musical genius known as Satchmo and Pops are nothing new, but Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues is so energetic and insightful that one would be excused for thinking it’s the first. Director Sacha Jenkins (Bitchin': The Sound and Fury of Rick James) employs basically the same potent combination of archival footage and unseen interviewee voices as Meet Me in the Bathroom, along with scattered modern-day clips of locations and items relevant to the jazz great’s life. Ratcheting up the energy are scrapbook pages come to life and hip-hop legend Nas’ lending his own iconic voice to narration of Armstrong’s letters. However, it’s often difficult to discern other scratchy interviews and, while generally chronological, the film’s largely aimless structure can leave viewers feeling out of sync with its tempo.

Grade: B. Rated R. Screens Oct. 22 at 1 p.m. at Lumina

Neon

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Laura Poitras’ portrait of photographer Nan Goldin, is a frustrating mix of potential and incompetence. Fascinating as the modern-day scenes are of Goldin’s activism in convincing NYC art galleries to cut ties with the notorious Sackler family — the key complicit party in the opioid impact — they’re outweighed by the director’s depiction of Goldin’s past. Presented via a slideshow of old photographs, interspersed with decades-old footage, and dryly narrated by Goldin, this history is a chore to endure and derails the film’s contemporary flow. But the results shouldn’t come as a surprise: similar to the incredibly overrated Citizenfour, Poitras is so focused on what she’s presenting that she puts little thought into how she’s presenting it.

Grade: C. Not rated, but with adult themes and language. Screens Oct. 21 at 5:45 p.m. at Silverspot

(Photo: Amazon Studios)