The thesis that gives Bowling for Columbine its title is striking: is there a connection, somehow, between bowling and school shooters? Really, though, that’s just a fragment of Michael Moore’s sprawling doc, unpacking America’s fetishistic obsession with guns, from free hunting rifles given away by banks to the suburban arms factories that facilitate violence. Moore’s conspiratorial Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) — still the highest-grossing doc of all time, for now — is better known, but also falls victim to Moore’s salacious truth-stretching. Bowling for Columbine, while also controversial for a level of inaccuracy, balances hyperbole and stranger-than-truth reality — and, in an America still ravaged by gun violence, is more loaded than ever.
Close-Up (1990)
The first sign that Close-Up isn’t like other docs: it’s still unrated in the UK. But if you can get your hands on a copy, it’s well worth the hassle. This cult Iranian classic follows Hossein Sabzian, a beleaguered cinephile who impersonates a well-known filmmaker, Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Conning Makhmalbaf’s family, he’s charged with fraud. In a bizarre coup, Close Up’s director Abbas Kiarostami gains access to the trial and encourages those involved to re-enact the events in a sort of meta-play. You’ll have to put down your phone for this one — it’s a head-scrambler. But as the tantalisingly cryptic tagline puts it: “A real-life situation. Based on a real incident. In actual locations. With actual people involved.” What’s true and what’s not? And can we really see everything?
