A disaster horror comedy that’s equal parts Can’t Hardly Wait and Idle Hands, Kyle Mooney’s directorial debut Y2K is often hilariously sincere in its depiction of social and technological anxieties from the tail end of 1999. Mooney remembers all too well a world where promises of connectivity had not quite caught up with the technology. For those that were not ’90s kids, your mileage may vary and the premise of Y2K might seem confounding: why would a computer system rolling back the clock to 1900 be an issue?
Of course, the anxiety was very real––as documented in Brian Becker and Marley McDonald’s recent HBO documentary Time Bomb Y2K and in stickers from Best Buy telling consumers to shut their computer off before the clock strikes midnight. Mooney’s version bursts with the absurd creativity of a teenager sketching out a wild comic book scenario with...
Of course, the anxiety was very real––as documented in Brian Becker and Marley McDonald’s recent HBO documentary Time Bomb Y2K and in stickers from Best Buy telling consumers to shut their computer off before the clock strikes midnight. Mooney’s version bursts with the absurd creativity of a teenager sketching out a wild comic book scenario with...
- 3/11/2024
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
Editor’s note: Following the publishing of our review, we received word from Brenden Dawes, who developed the generative system used by the filmmakers of Eno, that while the film teases the possibilities of AI and generative technology in an art practice, the film itself consists entirely of filmed new and archival materials with no AI-generated content.
A film of infinite possibilities thanks in part to a generative AI hook, Gary Hustwit’s Eno is partially a straightforward biopic featuring interviews and archival footage with composer Brian Eno, the experiential musician and artist whose credits include playing the synthesizer in Roxy Music to creating the start-up sound for Windows PCs. The film is assembled at random, with a set beginning and ending, inspired seemingly by a deck of “Oblique Strategies” cards that Eno and David Bowie used to create tension and contractions within their collaborations.
Of course, Eno is not...
A film of infinite possibilities thanks in part to a generative AI hook, Gary Hustwit’s Eno is partially a straightforward biopic featuring interviews and archival footage with composer Brian Eno, the experiential musician and artist whose credits include playing the synthesizer in Roxy Music to creating the start-up sound for Windows PCs. The film is assembled at random, with a set beginning and ending, inspired seemingly by a deck of “Oblique Strategies” cards that Eno and David Bowie used to create tension and contractions within their collaborations.
Of course, Eno is not...
- 1/25/2024
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
There’s a reason music legend Brian Eno has never been the subject of a music documentary: He thinks they’re rubbish.
“I always find them frustrating,” said Eno, zooming into the post-screening Q&a at the January 18 premiere of “Eno,” which is, in fact, a documentary about the musician. “Any documentary I’ve ever seen about anybody I know, I thought has missed out [on] most of the interesting things about them.”
Eno’s larger problem with biography, whether it’s a movie or book, is that even the good ones “trace a sort of single chronological path through and make everything follow from each other.”
Veteran documentary director and producer Gary Hustwit shared Eno’s concerns. So this was his pitch: The documentary would be a different film every time it screened. Rather than the filmmaker making the connections between different aspects of Eno’s life, art, and ideas, digital...
“I always find them frustrating,” said Eno, zooming into the post-screening Q&a at the January 18 premiere of “Eno,” which is, in fact, a documentary about the musician. “Any documentary I’ve ever seen about anybody I know, I thought has missed out [on] most of the interesting things about them.”
Eno’s larger problem with biography, whether it’s a movie or book, is that even the good ones “trace a sort of single chronological path through and make everything follow from each other.”
Veteran documentary director and producer Gary Hustwit shared Eno’s concerns. So this was his pitch: The documentary would be a different film every time it screened. Rather than the filmmaker making the connections between different aspects of Eno’s life, art, and ideas, digital...
- 1/19/2024
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Time Bomb Y2K Movie Review Rating:
Star Cast: Peter De Jager, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Leonard Nimoy
Director: Brian Becker, Marley Mcdonald
Time Bomb Y2K Movie Review ( Photo Credit – IMDb )
What’s Good: The documentary skillfully maintains a severe tone, reflecting the genuine anxiety of the Y2K period. The absence of narration and talking heads enhances the immersive experience, making it a true time capsule. The film’s exploration of the intersection between technology, media hysteria, and societal fears adds depth to the narrative.
What’s Bad: While “Time Bomb Y2K” effectively captures the essence of the Y2K panic, its exclusive reliance on archival footage prevents a contemporary accountability check for those involved. The absence of post-event interviews with crucial figures creates a notable blind spot, leaving certain aspects unexplored.
Loo Break: Given the documentary’s gripping nature, skipping any breaks is advisable. The constant flow of 4:3 aspect ratios,...
Star Cast: Peter De Jager, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Leonard Nimoy
Director: Brian Becker, Marley Mcdonald
Time Bomb Y2K Movie Review ( Photo Credit – IMDb )
What’s Good: The documentary skillfully maintains a severe tone, reflecting the genuine anxiety of the Y2K period. The absence of narration and talking heads enhances the immersive experience, making it a true time capsule. The film’s exploration of the intersection between technology, media hysteria, and societal fears adds depth to the narrative.
What’s Bad: While “Time Bomb Y2K” effectively captures the essence of the Y2K panic, its exclusive reliance on archival footage prevents a contemporary accountability check for those involved. The absence of post-event interviews with crucial figures creates a notable blind spot, leaving certain aspects unexplored.
Loo Break: Given the documentary’s gripping nature, skipping any breaks is advisable. The constant flow of 4:3 aspect ratios,...
- 1/12/2024
- by Hari P N
- KoiMoi
There was actually a time when we didn’t need social media to drum up mass hysteria, and the new HBO documentary Time Bomb Y2K is ready and raring to take us back there. This superbly edited dash through pre-millennial anxieties is a time capsule of archive footage — no narrator, no talking heads, no new interviews — from the years and days leading up the year 2000 that had millions worrying a computer glitch could lead to government takeover, nuclear catastrophe, cats and dogs playing together, and any other kind of mayhem you might imagine.
- 12/30/2023
- by Chris Vognar
- Rollingstone.com
The HBO Original documentary Time Bomb Y2K, directed by Brian Becker and Marley McDonald, and executive produced by award-winning filmmaker Penny Lane (HBO’s “Listening to Kenny G”), debuts Saturday, December 30 at 10:00 p.m. Et/Pt on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. As the clock counts down to the dawn of the 21st century, the world faces the largest potential technological disaster to ever threaten humanity. The problem is comically simple yet incredibly complex – a bug that could cause computers to misinterpret the year 2000 as 1900, sowing chaos throughout the world as electronic systems failed. Crafted entirely through archival ... Read more...
- 12/12/2023
- by Thomas Miller
- Seat42F
The 19th edition of the Camden Intl. Film Festival, kicking off Sept. 14, will feature a handful of award-contending documentaries fresh off showings at Toronto, Sundance, South by Southwest, Berlin and Tribeca film festivals. The Maine-based film festival will unfold in a hybrid format, with both in-person events over a four-day period concluding Sept. 17, and online screenings available from Sept. 18 to Sept. 25 to audiences across the U.S.
This year’s Ciff highlights include the U.S. premiere of Oscar-winning director, Alex Gibney’s “In Restless Dreams: The Music Of Paul Simon,” a portrait docu about the songwriter; Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck’s “Silver Dollar Road,” a documentary about a Black family’s decades-long fight to maintain waterfront land in North Carolina they’ve rightfully owned for generations against corrupt developers; Errol Morris’ “The Pigeon Tunnel,” an inventive interview with spy novelist John le Carré; and Oscar nominee Karim Amer’s “Defiant,...
This year’s Ciff highlights include the U.S. premiere of Oscar-winning director, Alex Gibney’s “In Restless Dreams: The Music Of Paul Simon,” a portrait docu about the songwriter; Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck’s “Silver Dollar Road,” a documentary about a Black family’s decades-long fight to maintain waterfront land in North Carolina they’ve rightfully owned for generations against corrupt developers; Errol Morris’ “The Pigeon Tunnel,” an inventive interview with spy novelist John le Carré; and Oscar nominee Karim Amer’s “Defiant,...
- 8/22/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
We all felt doomsday looming over us when Covid-19 spread rapidly in March 2020. HBO’s all-archival documentary Time Bomb Y2K reminds us that, pre-pandemic, the world last witnessed this level of mass hysteria in the late 1990s (even though the 2003 Sars outbreak was more directly related). In the years preceding 2000 computer engineers realized a mass-scale glitch within electronic systems would incorrectly update the year from 1999 to 1900 as the new millennium began because most computer systems only store the last two digits of a year when recording calendar data. Soon theories about how this would lead to global information systems collapsing like wildfire. Hysteria ensued, prompting businesses to go berserk over tackling this problem and civilians to panic as they sought approaches to survive.
Co-directed by debut directors Brian Becker and Marley McDonald, and executive-produced by Penny Lane, Time Bomb Y2K is a reminder to not rely too much on technology.
Co-directed by debut directors Brian Becker and Marley McDonald, and executive-produced by Penny Lane, Time Bomb Y2K is a reminder to not rely too much on technology.
- 3/6/2023
- by Edward Frumkin
- The Film Stage
One of the first major in-person gatherings for the documentary industry is gearing up in Maine, where next month’s Camden International Film Festival’s Points North Institute has unveiled the doc makers and projects selected for its artist programs.
The programs include the Points North Fellowship, North Star Fellowship, 4th World Media Lab and Lef/Ciff Fellowship. Through private workshops, screenings and industry meetings taking place both in-person on the coast of Maine and online, the four programs will support 25 documentary projects in development.
Eighty percent of this year’s new Points North-supported projects are directed or co-directed by filmmakers from backgrounds historically marginalized or excluded from the film industry, according to the org.
The artist programs are designed to connect filmmakers with mentors, funders and potential collaborators. More than 80 fellows, mentors and industry professionals are expected to attend the festival — which runs Sept. 16-26 — alongside 20 directors in the Ciff program.
The programs include the Points North Fellowship, North Star Fellowship, 4th World Media Lab and Lef/Ciff Fellowship. Through private workshops, screenings and industry meetings taking place both in-person on the coast of Maine and online, the four programs will support 25 documentary projects in development.
Eighty percent of this year’s new Points North-supported projects are directed or co-directed by filmmakers from backgrounds historically marginalized or excluded from the film industry, according to the org.
The artist programs are designed to connect filmmakers with mentors, funders and potential collaborators. More than 80 fellows, mentors and industry professionals are expected to attend the festival — which runs Sept. 16-26 — alongside 20 directors in the Ciff program.
- 8/18/2021
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
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