Top Spin (film)

Last updated
Top Spin
Top Spin (2014 documentary).jpg
Poster
Directed byMina T. Son
Sara Newens
Produced byMina T. Son
Starring Ariel Hsing
Michael Landers
Lily Zhang
Edited bySara Newens
Distributed byThe Film Sales Company
First Run Features
Release date
  • November 15, 2014 (2014-11-15)(DOC NYC)
Running time
80 minutes
LanguagesEnglish
Chinese

Top Spin is a 2014 feature-length documentary film directed by Mina T. Son and Sara Newens. It follows the road to the 2012 Summer Olympics of three American table tennis teenager players: Ariel Hsing, Michael Landers, and Lily Zhang. [1]

Top Spin has been premiered at the 2014 DOC NYC. [2] The documentary has won the Audience Award and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2015 CAAMFest. [3] [4] It also won awarded for Best Editing and was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature at the 2015 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. [5] [6] Top Spin was also nominated for the Documentary Competition at the 2015 Nashville Film Festival. [7]

It has a 100% rating, with an average score of 7/10 based on 9 reviews, on Rotten Tomatoes. [8] It has a rating of 81 on Metacritic, stating "Universal acclaim based on 5 critics". [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Linklater</span> American film director, producer and screenwriter (born 1960)

Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); and the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirby Dick</span> American film director, producer, and screenwriter

Kirby Bryan Dick is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best known for directing documentary films. He received Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary Feature for directing Twist of Faith (2005) and The Invisible War (2012). He has also received numerous awards from film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival.

<i>Street Fight</i> (film) 2005 American film

Street Fight is a 2005 documentary film by Marshall Curry, chronicling the 2002 Newark mayoral election which pitted upstart Cory Booker against the incumbent Sharpe James for Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Other credits include Rory Kennedy, Liz Garbus, Mary Manhardt, Marisa Karplus, Catherine Jones, and Adam Etline. Street Fight screened at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival and was later aired on the PBS series P.O.V. on July 5, 2005, and CBC Newsworld in Canada on May 7, 2006. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippe Falardeau</span> French-Canadian film director and screenwriter

Philippe Falardeau is a Canadian film director and screenwriter.

<i>The Betrayal – Nerakhoon</i> 2008 American film

The Betrayal — Nerakhoon is a 2008 documentary film directed by Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath.

<i>Man on Wire</i> 2008 documentary film directed by James Marsh

Man on Wire is a 2008 documentary film directed by James Marsh. The film chronicles Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center. It is based on Petit's 2002 book, To Reach the Clouds, released in paperback with the title Man on Wire. The title of the film is taken from the police report that led to the arrest of Petit, whose performance lasted for almost an hour. The film is crafted like a heist film, presenting rare footage of the preparations for the event and still photographs of the walk, alongside re-enactments and present-day interviews with the participants, including Barry Greenhouse, an insurance executive who served as the inside man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marshall Curry</span> American film director (born 1970)

Marshall Curry is an Oscar-winning American documentary director, producer, cinematographer and editor. His films include Street Fight, Racing Dreams, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Point and Shoot, and A Night at the Garden. His first fiction film was the Academy Award-winning short film The Neighbors' Window (2019).

<i>Earth Days</i> 2009 American film

Earth Days is a 2009 documentary film about the history of the environmental movement in the United States, directed by Robert Stone and distributed by Zeitgeist Films in theaters. Earth Days premiered at the 2009 Wisconsin Film Festival, and released to theatres on August 14, 2009.

<i>Racing Dreams</i> 2009 American film directed by Marshall Curry

Racing Dreams is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Marshall Curry following two boys and a girl through a season of World Karting Association (WKA) racing as they compete and aspire to become professional NASCAR drivers.

<i>Marwencol</i> (film) 2010 American documentary film about the work of artist and photographer Mark Hogancamp

Marwencol is a 2010 American documentary film that explores the life and work of artist and photographer Mark Hogancamp. It is the debut feature of director Jeff Malmberg, produced through his production company Open Face. It was the inspiration for Welcome to Marwen, a 2018 drama directed by Robert Zemeckis.

<i>If a Tree Falls</i> 2011 documentary film

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front is a 2011 American documentary film by filmmaker Marshall Curry. It tells the story of activist Daniel G. McGowan of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), from his first arson attacks in 1996 to his 2005 arrest by the Department of Justice. The film also examines the ethics of the ELF at large and how terrorism is to be defined.

<i>The Square</i> (2013 film) 2013 Egyptian film by Jehane Noujaim

The Square is a 2013 Egyptian-American documentary film by Jehane Noujaim, which depicts the Egyptian Crisis until 2013, starting with the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 at Tahrir Square. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards. It also won three Emmy Awards at the 66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, out of four for which it was nominated.

<i>The Look of Silence</i> 2014 film

The Look of Silence is a 2014 internationally co-produced documentary film directed by Joshua Oppenheimer about the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66. The film is a companion piece to his 2012 documentary The Act of Killing. Executive producers were Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, and Andre Singer. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 88th Academy Awards.

<i>Seymour: An Introduction</i> (film) 2014 American film

Seymour: An Introduction is a 2014 American documentary film. Directed by Ethan Hawke, the film documents the career of Seymour Bernstein, a classical pianist who abandoned his rising career as a concert pianist at age 50 to retreat to a more modest, private life as a music educator and composer. The film premiered at the 2014 Telluride Film Festival, and was released on March 13, 2015, by IFC Films. As of May 2023, it has a 100% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

<i>Red Army</i> (film) 2014 film

Red Army is a 2014 American-Russian documentary film directed, produced, and written by Gabe Polsky, executive produced by Jerry Weintraub and Werner Herzog. It premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and was released in limited theaters by Sony Pictures Classics on January 23, 2015. The film tells the story of the Soviet Union national ice hockey team through the eyes of team captain Slava Fetisov, in particular the famed 1990s five-man unit known as The Russian Five.

<i>My Perestroika</i> 2010 American film

My Perestroika is a 2010 American documentary film directed by Robin Hessman. It examines life during and after the USSR through the personal stories of five ordinary Russians, who speak about their Soviet childhood, the collapse of the USSR, and contemporary Russia.

<i>Off the Rails</i> (2016 film) 2016 American film

Off the Rails: The Darius McCollum Story is a 2016 American documentary film about Darius McCollum, a man with Asperger's syndrome who was jailed 32 times for impersonating New York City bus drivers and subway conductors and driving their routes. The film was written, directed and produced by Adam Irving. It was nominated for a 2016 Critics' Choice Documentary Award for Best First Documentary Feature.

<i>The Biggest Little Farm</i> 2018 American film

The Biggest Little Farm is a 2018 American documentary film, directed by John Chester. The film profiles the life of John Chester and his wife Molly as they acquire and establish themselves on Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, California.

The Hand That Feeds is an American documentary film written and directed by Robin Blotnick and Rachel Lears. It chronicles the struggles of undocumented immigrant workers as they attempt to achieve fair wages and better working conditions in New York City’s Upper East Side.

<i>The Feeling of Being Watched</i> 2018 documentary film, directed and produced by Assia Boundaoui

The Feeling of Being Watched is a 2018 documentary film directed and produced by Assia Boundaoui in her directorial debut. The film stars Assia Boundaoui with Rabia Boundaoui, Iman Boundaoui, Nouha Boundaoui, Sohib Boundaoui, and Christina Abraham. The plot follows Boundaoui as she investigates rumors that her Arab-American neighborhood outside Chicago is being monitored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

References

  1. Scheib, Ronnie. "Film Review: 'Top Spin'". Variety . Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  2. "Top Spin". DocNyc.net. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  3. "Congratulations to the 2015 CAAMFest Award Winners!". Caamedia.org. 26 March 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  4. "Documentary". Caamfest.com. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  5. "LAAPFF 2015 Award Winners!". Festival.vconline.org. 1 May 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  6. "Top Spin". Laapff.festpro.com. Archived from the original on 28 March 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  7. "Announcing Documentary Films in Competition". NashvilleFilmFestival.org. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  8. "Top Spin (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  9. "Top Spin". Metacritic . Retrieved 5 July 2016.