The Oscars

I will admit, I haven't seen 20 Feet From Stardom. I'm sure it's a very good documentary about backing singers - I hear from reliable reviewers that it is.

But, um, it's a documentary about backing singers. I've seen a lot of documentaries on a lot of subjects over many years, and I haven't seen one that got me in the gut and shook my world more than The Act Of Killing. How exactly is it possible to make any documentary about backing singers that is better than the astounding innovation of a film-maker who spent six years getting to know a group of mass murderers, so that they would not only tell him exactly what they had done and how they felt about it, but enthusiastically act it all out for the cameras? Oh, and while he was there, he also got the government who told them who to kill not only to admit to it, but also to send their paramilitary wing to join in the re-enactments.

I think I can say with a fair degree of certainty that if I watched 20 Feet From Stardom, I wouldn't still be telling people about it a year later.