Next time you sit down for an uncivilized bout of saké bombs, consider yet another reason you should be ashamed of yourself. As the trailer for Kickstarter-project-turned-arthouse-darling "The Birth of Saké" explains, making the ubiquitous Japanese rice wine is a high art, a 2,000-year-old process that can take six months to complete. Directed by a former "No Reservations" cameraman, the documentary is poised to be this year's "Jiro Dreams Of Sushi": another stunning deep dive into the highest ranks of a popular Japanese consumable. Director Erik Shirai and his team profiled a premiere producer, the 144-year-old Yoshida Brewery in northern Japan. Yoshida employees range in age from 20 to 70, and often leave behind families to perform a job they see as a calling. A team of surrogate brothers, they sleep on the ground and eat around a shared table. The film interweaves this daily minutiae with the company's struggle to survive in a market stocked with younger, nimbler and less conscientious companies.

It's a story made for film, as thick with steam clouds as with metaphor, like the titular one: that a bottle of good saké is akin to a child brought up beautifully into adulthood. No surprise, critics are pleased. It will "go down smoothly," promises Variety, in the first of likely many pun-stocked endorsements. The film has also given Yoshida plenty to post about on the company's Facebook page, which is surprisingly robust for a more-than-century-old underdog. Welcome to the future! Birth Of Sake Eric Shirai Jiro Dreams Of Sushi Tribeca 2015 The Birth Of SakeNetflix is continuing to lose great documentary titles, and it’s not adding as many essentials as it used to. Is this service going downhill? Maybe, and the big news that it’s ended its longtime deal with the cable channel Epix is another blow. Presumably this will take away the Epix original Milius as well as maybe catalog titles Cool It, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Underwater Dreams, Stories We Tell, Trekkies and Man With a Movie Camera.

It also seems to explain why some Ross McElwee and Alan Berliner docs and some others left the list last month.At least Jiro Dreams of Sushi didn’t actually leave for good, as seemed to be the case a month ago. jiro dreams of sushi what sauceIt looks like the doc’s deal expired and they renewed last minute. jiro dreams of sushi zipMeanwhile, though, I’m hearing bad news that the whole Up series is soon going away (maybe by month’s end), joining the already gone 56 Up. jogo sushi magico para celular touchBut it’s left before and come back, so hopefully that will only be temporary. sushi grade tuna memphis

That’s a bunch of slots on our Netflix 150 potentially going vacant soon.The one documentary I know for sure has already disappeared from streaming and therefore now exits our monthly guide is Gary Hustwit’s Objectified. where to buy sushi grade fish kansas cityThey finally got rid of the whole Design Trilogy. hapa sushi order onlineIn its place, I’ve added Christian Jensen’s beautiful Oscar-nominated short White Earth, which I highly recommend paired with The Overnighters, as they’re both set in North Dakota amidst the current oil boom. yo sushi menu liverpoolThe latter should have also been nominated, for Best Documentary Feature, and both should have won their respective category.Another slot opened up this month due to an error last month with The Art of the Steal, which is good since one of Albert Maysles’s final films, Iris, about fashion icon Iris Apfel, is arriving on Netflix Watch Instantly this month, on September 24th.

That’s late enough that we could hold off including it until October, but it’s a Maysles and therefore essential viewing as soon as it’s available.Now a reminder of how the titles are numerically arranged:They are mostly ranked in order of my favor with some objective authority, but there are some clumps throughout the list that obviously fit together. Some are by director, some are by genre or subject matter and some are by series — the Up installments are of varied quality, for instance, but they should be seen in order. In fact, I see this whole list as being best watched in order of the rankings. There are a few double features in the bunch (Expedition to the End of the World and Encounters at the End of the World and The Act of Killing and Camp 14, for two example sets) and some grouping where I truly think the higher ranking title is best watched before a certain title or titles below it.All Movie Guide - Perry Seibert Imagine what it would be like to be the best in the world at something.

Comprehend the devotion it takes to be recognized as the single greatest practitioner of a certain skill. That doesn't happen by luck, or just innate skill. It requires an almost monastic devotion to your chosen field. Jiro Dreams of Sushi is an enthralling look at one person who has made the sacrifices necessary to be the best of the best. David Gelb's debut feature focuses on Jiro Ono, an 85-year-old sushi chef who runs Sukiyabashi Jiro, a tiny restaurant -- there are no bathrooms -- that can seat only ten people at a time and serves only sushi. No appetizers, no desserts, just sushi. People spend a minimum of $300 for a meal that lasts less than 30 minutes, and they walk away happy. Internationally recognized as one of the world's greatest sushi chefs, Jiro has focused on his craft at the expense of almost everything else in his life. At his side is his eldest son Yoshikazu, who is Jiro's loyal second-in-command. Yoshikazu has absorbed all of his father's wisdom and is eager to follow tradition and run the family business, but standing in his way is Jiro himself -- still unable to fathom not doing what he does every single day of his life.

Gelb does a spectacular job of presenting Jiro's deep knowledge and skill. We see him go to the market to smell the fresh fish and learn how he networks with fish providers who share his own undiluted pursuit of perfection. As our admiration for Jiro grows, we feel the frustrations of Yoshikazu, although he's too obedient of a son to express them. When we meet Yoshikazu's younger brother, who has left to start his own very successful, though not as beloved, sushi eatery, we expect a fiery sibling rivalry. However, these two men are so very much of their culture, and so very much their father's sons, that any pain and recrimination remains deeply buried. As if this weren't enough material for a fascinating movie, Gelb delivers gorgeous, slow-motion shots of sushi being prepared -- a brush gliding a thin layer of oil atop a perfectly constructed roll -- that make you wish you could taste the screen. It's almost like 3D for foodies. At one point we learn about the Japanese word umami. It denotes the feeling of experiencing something so overpoweringly wonderful that you reflexively say "aaaaaahhhhhhhh."