REVIEW - LIFE, ANIMATED (ROGER ROSS WILLIAMS)

Life, Animated speaks in praise of the sticking plaster, exalts the cure ahead of the prevention. It's engineered to elicit smiles, but the smiles on screen make its ploys much more palatable. It's nothing if not ironic that it depicts the search for integration and normality as a search for happiness, and it's nothing if not alarming that this is a predictably fruitful search, but it'd be disingenuous of me to deny the potency of the effect that Roger Ross Williams' film had upon me. I could rage at it if I really wanted to, but Life, Animated veers clear enough of coercive condescension as to feel like it's honestly on our side, and it's thus mightily difficult to ignite anything resembling rage while watching it. Maybe it's all a manipulative ruse, and therein the very definition of coercive condescension, but maybe not. And it's truly refreshing to witness such a plain, accurate depiction of autism on film, crucially as a mere component in a character study that is considerably more concerned with the more unique, and the more mundane, components that comprise the remainder of this sympathetic portrait. Life, Animated achieves a strange, slick verisimilitude in its polished, professional approach to fly-on-the-wall, camera-crew-in-the-room filmmaking, with the openness of its subjects never lapsing into affectation nor reticence. We really are in the real world here, and the extent to which you regard the film as straightforward exploitation, both of those on the screen and before it, will inform your opinion upon it. My opinion was informed mainly, however, by my own, natural emotional response. This sticking plaster brought me joy; for once, I'll hold off on the rage.

2016 PGA DOCUMENTARY NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

The Producers Guild of America is one of those daft institutions that likes to get in there early with its year-end nominations, at least for documentaries. They've overlooked Ava DuVernay's acclaimed 13th, which may be for distribution reasons, or it may be a surprise snub - the PGA is known for that in this category. On the 10th of January, the lists for all films and for animated films will be announced, and the award winners will be revealed for all categories at the ceremony on the 29th of January. Official nominee credits TBA.

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures

Dancer

The Eagle Huntress

Life, Animated

O.J.: Made in America

Tower

1ST EVER CRITICS' CHOICE DOCUMENTARY AWARDS: NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

Well, well, well! Who'd have expected this? The 2016-17 awards season kicks off extra early this year, as the Broadcast Film Critics Association announces its nominees for its first ever Critics' Choice Documentary Awards. Previously, the BFCA had simply handed out one award for Best Documentary at their annual movie awards ceremony; like any organization desperate to remain relevant, several significant changes have been made to the Critics' Choice awards in recent years, mainly of questionable character, but this new development is a promising one. That's one fewer award to chuck out during the commercial breaks on their hopeless televized awards ceremony, and several more awards for documentary filmmaking, ever underappreciated by audiences. As a further sign of the blurring of the lines between film and TV, these awards feature projects from both media. Award winners will be declared at a ceremony on the 3rd of November. Check it all out below:

Best Documentary Feature

13th

Cameraperson

Fire at Sea

Gleason

Life, Animated

O.J.: Made in America

Tickled

Tower

Weiner

The Witness

Best Direction of a Documentary Feature

Ezra Edelman (O.J.: Made in America)

Ron Howard (The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years)

Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson)

Keith Maitland (Tower)

Clay Tweel (Gleason)

Roger Ross Williams (Life, Animated)

Best Song in a Documentary Feature

Tori Amos - 'Flicker' (Audrie & Daisy)

Common, Karriem Riggins and Robert Glasper - 'Letters to the Free' (13th)

Sharon Jones - 'I'm Still Here' (Miss Sharon Jones!)

Mike McCready - 'Hoping and Healing' (Gleason)

J. Ralph and Sting - 'The Empty Chair' (Jim: The James Foley Story)

Sia - 'Angel by the Wings' (The Eagle Huntress)

Best First Documentary Feature

Otto Bell (The Eagle Huntress)

David Farrier and Dylan Reeve (Tickled)

Adam Irving (Off the Rails)

Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg (Weiner)

James D. Solomon (The Witness)

Wang Nan Fu (Hooligan Sparrow)

Best Music Documentary

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years

Gimme Danger

Miss Sharon Jones!

The Music of Strangers

Presenting Princess Shaw

We Are X

Best Political Documentary

13th

Audrie & Daisy

Newtown

O.J.: Made in America

Weiner

Zero Days

Best Sports Documentary

Dark Horse

The Eagle Huntress

Gleason

Fantastic Lies

Jackie Robinson

Keepers of the Game

O.J.: Made in America

Most Innovative Documentary

Cameraperson

Kate Plays Christine

Life, Animated

Nuts

Tower

Under the Sun

Best Documentary Feature: TV / Streaming

13th

Amanda Knox

Audrie & Daisy

Before the Flood

Fantastic Lies

Holy Hell

Into the Inferno

Jim: The James Foley Story

Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures

Rats

Best Ongoing Documentary Series

30 for 30

Frontline

Last Chance U

Morgan Spurlock Inside Man

POV

This Is Life with Lisa Ling

Best Limited Documentary Series

The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth

The Eighties

The Hunt

Jackie Robinson

O.J.: Made in America

Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music

Best Director: TV / Streaming

Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures)

Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn (Amanda Knox)

Ava DuVernay (13th)

Werner Herzog (Into the Inferno)

Morgan Spurlock (Rats)

Fisher Stevens (Before the Flood)

Best First Feature: TV / Streaming

Everything Is Copy (Jacob Bernstein and Nick Hooker)

Holy Hell (Will Allen)

Mavis! (Jessica Edwards)

My Beautiful Broken Brain (Sophie Robinson and Lotje Sodderland)

Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four (Deborah Esquenazi)

Team Foxcatcher (Jon Greenhalgh)