As is ever the case with film festivals, there aren’t enough hours, or days, to see everything, or even everything on my to-watch list. This despite making my way through screening links in the week prior to even setting foot in California.

I tremendously enjoyed my time at the 38th Palm Springs International Film Festival, interviewed some amazing filmmakers

Mia Hansen-Løve’s “One Fine Morning” ("Un beau matin" in the French original) is an intelligent and warm ode to the sorrows and joys of parenting. 

A marvelous Léa Seydoux is Sandra, a widow and single mother confronted with a father (Pascal Greggory) who has a disease that is causing the decline of his mental acuity. Sandra is sad, as her father can no longer

With “The Pale Blue Eye” director Scott Cooper has found his mojo again.

Ever since his excellent 2009 directorial debut “Crazy Heart” and his 2013 sophomore effort “Out of the Furnace,” Cooper had struggled to find a strength in his follow up projects.

2015’s true story of Whitey Bolger “Black Mass” was underwhelming.

The documentary filmmaker Dror Moreh doesn’t let his view of our species sneak up on you. Speaking on a video call from Tel Aviv recently, the director of “The Corridors of Power” minces no words.

“It’s a dark world,” he said, “and the human being is a horrible beast.”

Moreh would know. He’s spent the better part of the last decade making the documentary

With artistry and imagination “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” arrives in theaters as one of the most stunningly original and pleasing films of 2022. With a marvelous and inventive screenplay from Patrick McHale, Matthew Robbins, and del Toro, the tale is moved to 1900s Europe as fascism takes hold. Woodworker Geppetto (David Bradley) is a beloved citizen

Even attempting to describe the plot of “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” is essentially undoable.

This being the latest film from Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu, the “rules” of narrative, such as they are, are tossed out the window from the first moment, when we behold the shadow of a man (maybe?) from high above as its unseen owner apparently takes

Darren Aronofsky is a divisive filmmaker, his latest film, “The Whale,” will be a divisive film.

Brendan Fraser stars as Charlie, an obese man (weighing close to 600 pounds) who is eating his way to an early grave. 

Charlie is a teacher who keeps his camera off for his online class, as he doesn’t want his students to see his girth. He lives alone and is

If only I’d had more time. It’s a common refrain I tell myself whenever a top-drawer festival such as DOC NYC comes along. I didn’t get to nearly as many films this year as I would have liked (it’s always that way), but what I did see was a firm reminder that truth is not only stranger than fiction, it’s often braver.

Here’s a look back at some stellar documentaries, which you should watch, too.

Andrew Bujalski's “There There” has the rarest of abilities to capture the natural conversations between people who are moving through their life journeys, seeking self-worth, and looking to define themselves. This is an honest and organic film, impeccably performed by its excellent cast.

Filmed during the pandemic lockdown, Bujalski’s experimental work is a series of six two-character segments with each

The hypocrisy of religion, the bigoted truth about the moral majority and the bawdy sexual proclivities of Jerry Falwell Jr. and his swinging wife are front and center in Billy Corben’s sharp documentary “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal that Brought Down a Dynasty."

The film dives right into the nasty business of yet more disreputable goings-on in the American Christian community, thanks to its