Spotlight Reviews

FILMbutton Review – When The Garden Was Eden

FILMbutton Review – <em> When The Garden Was Eden</em>

by shael stolberg for FILMbutton When The Garden Was Eden is Michael Rapaport’s love letter to the 69- 73 New York Knicks teams, who played in the new Madison square gardens and, wholeheartly, captured the attention of “the city that never sleeps”. The team had, at least, 5 basketball hall of famers, one senator, one […]

Review – Wildhorses

by shael stolberg In recent years their has been a proliferation of “issue” docs or films that want you to care and/or act for a “cause” in which they care deeply. Whether or not we believe in the cause, nobody truly wants to feel lectured to even if its in their best interest. To Stephaine […]

Capsule Review: Muscle Shoals

by allan tong for FILMbutton “There’s something in that mud,” says Bono about the Fame recording studios in this swampy hamlet in Alabama. Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, The Allman Brothers, The Rolling Stones and many others have recorded some of the best songs of the past 50 years here. Contemporary interviews and archival photos bring […]

Capsule Review: Finding the Funk

by allan tong for FILMbutton It’s a surprise no one has made a major film about funk music until noted historian Nelson George with this one. He scores key interviews with bassist Bootsy Collins, George Clinton and the late, great James Brown, but the jewel in the crown is the reclusive and eccentric Sly Stone […]

Capsule Review: Blackfish

by allan tong for FILMbutton In 2010 at the Seaworld amusement park in Orlando, Florida, trainer Dawn Brancheau was mauled and drowned by Tilikum, a 12,000-pound orca whale. That horrific moment was no mere accident, claims this terrifying film. In fact, Tilikum was long suspected to be a dangerous whale and likely killed another trainer […]

Capsule Review: Downloaded

by allan tong for FILMbutton Downloaded could be called The Rise and Fall of Napster. In 1998, some teenage kid from Boston named Shawn Fanning created a software to share his favourite tunes easily over the internet. Fanning partnered with buddy Shaun Parker (who would later join the Facebook team) to create the Napster website. […]

Capsule Review – Good Ol’ Freda

Capsule Review – <em>Good Ol’ Freda</em>

by allan tong for FILMbutton Freda Kelly had a job in the sixties that millions of girls around the world would have killed for: she ran The Beatles’ fan club. A fan, but not a fanatic, Kelly was just 17 when she landed the coveted job right before The Fab Four launched into super stardom […]

Capsule Review: As Time Goes By…in Shanghai

by John Davidson for FILMbutton Bottom Line: An age defying romp through some great musical standards, as seen through the eyes of those who have really seen it all. Set against the skyline of a very opulent, modern and polluted Shanghai, a group of octogenarians and lifelong friends make beautiful music together, all the while […]

Capsule Review: 15 Reasons to Live

Capsule Review: <em>15 Reasons to Live</em>

by Lisa Santonato for FILMbutton 15 Reasons to Live is the most recent film by Toronto-based documentary filmmaker Alan Zweig, best known for his Genie-award winning documentary, A Hard Name. Based on Ray Robertson’s book entitled, Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live, the film is a collection of personal stories inspired by Robertson’s reasons including […]

Review – We Were Here

by James Olsen for FILMbutton We Were Here Director: David Weissman Cast: Eileen Glutzer, Paul Boneberg, Guy Clark, Daniel Goldstein, Ed Wolf In We Were Here, Weissman introduces us to five people who were in San Francisco when the AIDS epidemic began. In one way or another, each was affected with the changes to the […]

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