DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: THE NEW YORKER AT 100

4/5

New York State Of Print

97 Mins. Narrated By: Julianne Moore. Director: Marshall Curry. On: Netflix.

Knickerbockers. Spike Lee. Hot Dogs on the corner. Steam rising from the grids. Yellow cabs. The same colour falling from the trees of Central Park. The Empire State Building. Firefighters. The heart of New York. The biggest of apples. Nothing is more New York than these things about the city. Oh, and The New Yorker. The bi-weekly magazine of journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, poetry, satire and those classic cartoons. Not to mention the iconic monocle of Eustace Tilley and all those classic covers that fit into frames like the artwork that they are (you should see my 'New York, New York' Pinterest board). As NYC as newsstands popping up all over the sidewalks, the most famous New Yorker may just be in print.

One-hundred years is nothing to sniff at. It actually seems like more. But in celebrating their centennial, 'The New Yorker At 100' is given a definitive documentary on Netflix. Directed by the Academy-Award winning Marshall Curry ('The Neighbors' Window', 'A Night At The Garden'), and narrated with nuance by another Oscar winner and true New Yorker, in the amazing actress Julianne Moore ('Still Alice', 'May December', 'The Room Next Door'). Backstage, like an SNL movie, this iconic institution of the Big Apple is given the shine it deserves after a century of being as commonplace as car horns and the smell of giant pretzels. Premiering at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival, after The New Yorker's own celebration exhibition that felt like a Warhol or Haring art gallery (give it to the Guggenheim).

Editor David Remnick tells it like it is. The New Yorker has never needed a photo on the cover. And you should see the beautiful one they had prepared if Kamala Harris had won. There are testimonials about the newspaper like columns, and iconic fonts from the likes of 'Mad Men's' Jon Hamm, 'Sex & The City' star Sarah Jessica Parker, Jesse Eisenberg and Ronny Chieng of 'The Daily Show', who says something profound about the magazine always being there. You only have to watch hilarious clips from 'Seinfeld', 'The Good Place', and 'Family Guy' to see how much of a cultural touchstone it is. But delving deeper and looking back at the decades upon decades of history, and you'll see how definitive it is. From dedicating a whole issue to John Hersey's landmark Hiroshima article that shocked the world and changed the way we looked at nuclear war. To James Baldwin's breakout essays on race and his place in America. Legends were born and brought here. From Molly Ringwald to Haruki Murakami. A quarter-century ago, they said magazines would be gone by now. But what do you still see piling up in the corner of your room? Happy Birthday, New Yorker! TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Pretend It's A City', 'Sunday Best', 'The Andy Warhol Diaries'.