Characters like Bill Cunningham were made for documentaries.
He would otherwise be unknown to me, as I don’t follow the New York Times photo columns. But the 2010 documentary Bill Cunningham New York is giving me the opportunity to get acquainted with this fascinating man, who lives a monk-like existence devoted to seeing and chronicling the fashion of others.
Slate, as happens quite often, has already covered this movie better than I could hope to. Their Culture Gabfest podcast had a fine discussion of the film, and Nathan Heller’s review glows: “Using the low-key approach that shapes Cunningham’s column, [director Richard] Press works up a portrait that’s as raw, gentle, funny, and – in the end – irresistible as the pictures themselves.”
I’ve a few twists of the movie revealed to me and while I’m still eager to see it, maybe you should just go to the movie knowing that you’ll be seeing something good, a film so loved it got a 98% rating at Rotten Tomatoes out of 47 reviews. (The one naysayer being Armond White, which essentially tells you this should be a 100% rated film on RT.)
Bill Cunningham New York is playing at the Regina Public Library Film Theatre at 7 p.m. tonight and runs through the weekend. Look up other show times here.
