Morgan Neville – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

BREAKDOWN: 1975 – Review by Lynn Venhaus

December 18, 2025December 21, 2025 Lynn Venhaus al pacino, Albert Brooks, Blaxploitation, Breakdown: 1975, documentary, Ellen Burstyn, jack nicholson, jodie foster, Josh Brolin, martin scorsese, Morgan Neville, Oliver Stone, Patton Oswalt, Robert Altman, robert deniro, Saturday Night Live, Seth Rogen, Steven Spielberg, Wesley Morris

In this Wayback Machine, called Breakdown: 1975, we travel back 50 years to a pivotal year that defined daring, imaginative filmmaking, and how coincidentally, it happened between the resignation of President Nixon and the Bicentennial birthday celebration. In Morgan Neville’s well-intentioned documentary, he puts the chaotic 1970s in perspective, touching on how young talented filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman and Steven Spielberg were inspiring a cinematic revolution. Studios took risks, and moviegoers responded in this heralded New Hollywood. As exuberant as this fertile time was, in real life, America was going through dismal days post-Watergate and Vietnam.

Reviews

PIECE BY PIECE – Review by Diane Carson

September 26, 2024September 29, 2024 Diane Carson animation, documentary, LEGO, Morgan Neville, Pharrell Williams, Piece by Piece

Piece by Piece delights in an animated LEGO film about Pharrell Williams. When I heard that documentarian Morgan Neville’s animated film made entirely with LEGOs would chronicle the life and career of Pharrell Williams, I couldn’t believe or embrace the idea. Was this a joke? Well, one screening later, count me in as an enthusiastic fan of Piece by Piece, which interprets Williams’ inspired idea in surprising and informative ways.

Festivals

Ebertfest 2019: A Glorious Celebration of Cinema – Jennifer Merin reports

April 21, 2019April 22, 2019 Jennifer Merin 0 Comments carla renata, Chaz Ebert, ebertfest, Gina Gershon, jennifer tilley, jenny lumet, maja Komorowska, michael barker, Morgan Neville, nate kohn, nell minow, pamela powell, rita corburn whack, Roger Ebert, roger eberts film festival, scott wilson, thrumbs up

Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, aka Ebertfest, is unique in its pure and glorious celebration of cinema. The annual four-day program, which just completed its 21st edition, consists of but a dozen films. Ebertfest is quite compact, as film festivals go. But, this joyful movie event has enormous heart, and it emanates influence and inspires empathy far beyond Champaign, Illinois, the college community in which it makes its home and has found its soulmate.

Reviews

WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR — Review by Susan Granger

June 24, 2018August 14, 2018 Susan Granger 0 Comments Morgan Neville, mr rogers, wont you be my neighbor

Admittedly, it’s too early to talk Oscar, but I’d be stunned if Morgan Neville’s uplifting documentary about TV’s Mister Rogers

General Archives Reviews Women on Film

20 FEET FROM STARDOM – Review by Jennifer Merin

April 2, 2014 Jennifer Merin 0 Comments 20 Feet from Stardom, documentaries, Morgan Neville

Morgan Neville’s Oscar-winning music documentary follows the ups and downs in the careers of several exceptionally talented backup singers, and

General Archives Reviews Women on Film

20 FEET FROM STARDOM – Review by MaryAnn Johanson

February 27, 2014March 20, 2014 MaryAnn Johanson 0 Comments 20 Feet from Stardom, Morgan Neville, oscars

Who are the colored girls who, as Lou Reed sang, go “do do-do do-do”? Who is the woman behind that spine-chilling refrain of “Rape, murder / It’s just a shot away / It’s just a shot away” on the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”? This fantastic film — from veteran music documentarian Morgan Neville, and a must-see for any fan of modern pop music, from rock to R&B to soul — introduces us to the extraordinary women you didn’t know were behind some of the songs you know by heart.