Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project

Stokes is a fascinating, elusive protagonist - she was a recluse who enjoyed daily martinis and felt a kinship with Steve Jobs. Yet Wolf treats her archive with reverence, rather than writing her off as an eccentric.

Dips in the second half but well worth your time.

Obsession, intellect, consumerism, conspiracy, all are here - and encompassing them is the white noise of the mass media, the bedlam hum of 24-hour television news.

This documentary shows Stokes to have the fanatical energy of a hoarder, the zeal of an evangelist and the intensity of a visionary.

"Recorder" shows the link between Stokes' brilliance and her craziness, and the damaging effects of obsessive behavior to the quality of a life lived. She was documenting the story, but "Recorder" shows how, in a way, she became the story.

In Recorder, Wolf paints a compelling portrait of a woman whose unambiguous hoarding tendencies made it difficult to identify her enormously valuable media archival project as anything beyond yet another obsession

It is, of course, of immense archival value, but the effect of the sheer weight of such a vast store of media, layered upon itself like an enormous cake of pure information, is far more metaphysical than mere archival utility.

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, which is skillfully directed by Matt Wolf, is an example of the type of documentary that can be a true hidden gem.

The documentary is at its best when it contrasts how Stokes's recording was received at the time versus how the value of her work has appreciated.

Recorder could have easily withstood the inclusion of an additional 25 minutes of material, if only to make these two disparate half-movies into a more complete profile of an under-appreciated mind.