‘The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist’ Review: Oscar-Winning ‘Navalny’ Director Confronts His Hopes and Fears About Artificial Intelligence in  Lively Doc

‘The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist’ Review: Oscar-Winning ‘Navalny’ Director Confronts His Hopes and Fears About Artificial Intelligence in Lively Doc

Artificial intelligence may be the ultimate moving target. By the time this film arrives it will probably already be out of date, one of the many experts in The AI Doc tells Daniel Roher. The technology is morphing that fast. Fortunately, the film’s directors, Roher and Charlie Tyrell, are less interested in the details of…

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‘Cookie Queens’ Review: Girl Scouts Hit the Streets to Sell the American Dream Via Baked Goods in Irresistible Doc

‘Cookie Queens’ Review: Girl Scouts Hit the Streets to Sell the American Dream Via Baked Goods in Irresistible Doc

At one point in Cookie Queens, a highly engaging documentary about four Girl Scouts selling cookies, the film’s smallest moppet, five-year-old Ara E., meets a prospective client who — given his diabetes — wonders if he should be buying cookies at all. Ara, who has type-1 diabetes herself, empathizes enthusiastically and later bakes some sugar-free…

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‘Zi’ Review: Writer-Director Kogonada Shakes Off a Misfire With a Loose-Limbed Mood Piece That’s Too Weightless to Resonate

‘Zi’ Review: Writer-Director Kogonada Shakes Off a Misfire With a Loose-Limbed Mood Piece That’s Too Weightless to Resonate

The South Korean-born video essayist turned filmmaker who goes by the mononym Kogonada emerged in 2017 as an assured new voice with the exquisite contemplation of physical and emotional architecture, Columbus. He confirmed that promise four years later with After Yang, a soulful reflection on identity and connectedness, not to mention a refreshingly open-minded view…

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Will Poulter and Adam Meeks Discovered Something About Addiction By Using Non-Actors in Sundance Drama ‘Union County’: “It Blew Me Away”

Will Poulter and Adam Meeks Discovered Something About Addiction By Using Non-Actors in Sundance Drama ‘Union County’: “It Blew Me Away”

Adam Meeks is living a dream Sundance experience — long before he arrived in Utah. The Brooklyn-based writer-director and graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts made his feature directorial debut on the indie drama Union County and promptly received what could be the best news of his career thus far: He got into…

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‘The Incomer’ Review: Domhnall Gleeson Gets Hurled Onto a Rocky Shore and Pelted With a Deluge of Aggressively Quaint Quirk

‘The Incomer’ Review: Domhnall Gleeson Gets Hurled Onto a Rocky Shore and Pelted With a Deluge of Aggressively Quaint Quirk

The British Isles can be treacherously vulnerable to twee overload in movies, though last year’s The Ballad of Wallis Island showed that it can be avoided, remaining a minor-key charmer even while it embraced every oddball eccentricity that writer-stars Tom Basden and Tim Key could concoct. Louis Paxton’s The Incomer is not so resilient. Set…

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How Doc ’Kikuyu Land’ About Land Restitution in Kenya Became a Personal Story for Director Bea Wangondu

How Doc ’Kikuyu Land’ About Land Restitution in Kenya Became a Personal Story for Director Bea Wangondu

Kenya may be famous around the world for its wildlife safaris, marathon runners, and tea and coffee. But there are also dark sides, as Kikuyu Land, a new documentary from journalist and Bea Wangondu and U.S. co-director Andrew H. Brown, who also handled cinematography, shows. The doc, which premieres in Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition…

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