Doc Watch: Person to Person

FACES PLACES (B) - French film legend Agnes Varda teams up with 30-something activist photographer JR for this playful romp through rural villages in this ode to the creative spirit.

Both are credited as writers and directors, but it is Varda's sensibilities that drive the whimsical narrative that tracks the deepening of their friendship and collaboration. There are echoes of Varda's career-capping "The Beaches of Agnes" (2008) and the scrappy "The Gleaners and I" (2000).

JR always appears in dark sunglasses, and Varda, whose eyesight is failing as she pushes 90, yearns throughout the film to look into his eyes, perhaps hoping to glimpse the soul of an artist. At other times, she is distracted by the past. She name-checks her famous ex, Jacques Demy ("The Umbrellas of Cherbourg"), and tries to hunt down reclusive old friend Jean-Luc Godard.

The 89 minutes zip by pleasantly as Varda and JR compete jovially to most imaginatively capture the locals (JR is partial to generating giant prints that cover entire sides of buildings). "Faces Places" (it even rhymes in French: "Visages, Villages") is charming and touching, but it has a certain evanescence that fizzes away days later.

STREET FIGHT (2005) (B-minus) - This no-frills documentary embeds itself in the race for Mayor of Newark in 2002, in which future political star Cory Booker took on the city's Democratic machine.

Scrappy filmmaker Marshall Curry clearly sympathizes with the young underdog here, and he quickly gets on the bad side of the four-term incumbent, Sharpe James and his band of toughs. Curry seems like a one-man operation, capturing the poorly organized campaign of Booker, then a junior city councilor, and constantly getting roughed up at James rallies (to the point where he finally sends another cameraman to film the incumbent unrecognized).

Booker comes across as an idealist and a good guy. (He would go on to win the Mayor's seat in 2006 and springboard to the U.S. Senate 2013.) James is a classic machine pol, using the city's administrative muscle to threaten individuals and businesses that would dare oppose him. He's also a double-dipper, serving in the state Senate while running Newark.

Curry puts in the time and effort to capture the rough and tumble of New Jersey politics. The James campaign slanders Booker every chance it gets, deriding him as a carpet-bagger and college snob who might be white and Jewish. (Booker's parents, both black, were pioneering executives at IBM.)

The David-vs.-Goliath story has its appeal. But Curry doesn't have much imagination in his first outing behind the camera. He has a workmanlike manner that at times seems to be overwhelmed by the street brawl he found himself in the  middle of.