IN THEATERS
In The Business of Being Born by Abby Epstein, producer, former talk show host and Hairspray (the John Waters version) star Ricki Lake gives birth, naked, in a bathtub. The scene is certainly an attention-getter, but critics point out that the film is a serious and informative look at the process of childbirth in the U.S. Through archival footage, interviews with experts, and graphic scenes of women giving birth, the film explores natural childbearing as well as cesarean births. The Village Voice commends the film for having crafted “an absorbing, thought-provoking inquiry into what modern birth has become and how to make it better,” but is critical of its “…obliviously upper-class, sanctimoniously yuppie-crunchy slant.” In a three-star review, TV Guide says that the film “provides a great deal of food for thought.”
ON DVD
Seth Gordon‘s The King of Kong — a tale of two very different men competing for the title of world’s greatest Donkey Kong player — showed up on a number of 2007’s best documentary lists. Despite the unorthodox topic, critics overwhelmingly found the film funny and irresistible. The reviewer for Film Threat calls it “…not just one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen, [but] it’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Period.” And The Miami Herald points out that the film is more than just a funny look at the video game subculture, calling it a “nuanced study in obsession, dedication, manipulation, ethics and how the all-American need to be the best at something — anything — can shape a life.”