Brief thoughts on Properties of Metal (2023) Berlin 2023

An American scientist goes to a small village where a young man who can bend metal lives. The pair become friends as the young man slowly comes of age.

Lyrical coming of age film about life in a small Italian town is a sweet little film. Its full of nice characters and a sense of a life that’s lived. It’s so nice on it’s own terms that I’m not sure it needs the McGuffin of the metal bending. While it is there as reason to bring in the scientist( surrogate father) and serves to set up thematic elements the film doesn’t need it.

What a real joy.

Recommended

UNDER THE SKY OF DAMASCUS (2023) Berlin 2023

A group of women in Damascus come together to put a play together  about the treatment of women in the country. 

The idea behind the film is that the women are going to put a play together but the misogyny in Syria. The film is lays bare the abuse of women at the hands of men and by the structures of power. What starts out as a large group of women slowly dwindles as the subject matter takes its toll on their lives. Then a series of unexpected events occur which cause everything to fall apart.

This is an atypical film. The film was put together by Heba Khaled who is living in exile in Berlin. She directed the crew remotely in Syria.  The film is bookended by the story of Sabah Al-Salem an actress who was tossed into prison and broken by the abuse she suffered there. Through the women's research and their own stories the full extent of the abuse of women in Syria is revealed. 

It's also very messy in that things happen unexpectedly. The films final third is a series of events which are stark reminders that life sometimes gets in the way. By the time the ending comes things are not fully resolved, and some of what happens is not concluded. However I was still left staring at the screen feeling beaten up by what I had seen. Life, messy as it is has a way of punching you square in the face.

Because of the rough edges and bumps I loved this film. Because of them this film is closer to life and felt more connected to the whole story. I loved the strength of the women in it. I loved the way the film shows us a side of Syria that is not what we typically see. It is not all bombed out cities, but a place of life. I also love that the film goes full bore on the misogyny that is running rampant in the country (and in other countries as well) it's a clear indication that the relationship between men and women in many places, is a war geared toward the destruction of one side by the other. 

The full on revelations of the misogyny echoes out from the film. As the stories come out we see begin to see that it is not just in one place but everywhere. There are parallels to the world outside Syria.  It's something that we may intellectually have know before, however this film brings it to the fore front.  If you doubt that consider how some of the stories of control mirror efforts to limit the right for women to control their lives and bodies even here in America. 

Make no mistake this film is an absolute gut punch. It’s a film that opens your eyes and rips out your heart concerning the treatment of women in the world. If you had any doubt about how bad the misogyny is this film will set you straight. As the film makes clear the abuse is the result of the abusers having control issues, as well as being sadists.  

I was rocked.  The audience I saw this with was too, as it fell unnaturally silent during several portions of the film.

This is a great film. It's the best film I've seen from this year's Berlin slate. It may be one of the years best as well simply because I can’t shake the film and I’ve been discussing it and rewriting this review ever since I saw it. .

Happy Birthday Unseen Films

 

Now we are thirteen.

Unseen Films is now officially a moody anti-social teenager who would rather sit in their room talking to friends than hang out with their parents.

The sad truth is that I’m a moody anti-social adult locked in  his room trying to meet a deadline.

It’s been a wild and crazy ride that has not gone remotely as expected.

After doing twelve previous Happy Birthday To Us posts I’m not quite sure what to say that hasn’t been said before.

A huge thank you to the entire crew of friends/writers who have come along on this crazy ride. I love you all.

While time had caused many of us to go separate ways, and one of us to be lost to the sands of time, I’m hoping to reconnect with a lot of you this year (I’m talking about you Mondo, JB and the terrible twosome from Jersey). Hopefully we will all be able to break bread or eat popcorn or get BBQ in the next few months.

Actually what I’m hoping is that in addition to reconnecting to the core of Unseen Films I can get to meet a large number of the friends who I’ve made since covid crept in. There are a bunch of us who have been talking on line and who have never met in person and it would be nice to have a physical presence with the words and images.

Beyond that I don’t know. I’d say I’d like world peace and sanity to return in the next year but I don’t want to provoke laughter.

As for the future of the site. Who knows. After thirteen years I don’t know anything. Every time I think things are going to break one way they go another  and then go back again. What ever is going to happen will. If nothing else you’ll have things to read until at least the end of October….maybe longer if I start to move things forward.

And with that I’m going off.

There will be no more posts today.  I could lie and say that I’m taking a break to just chill but I’m writing this two weeks in advance and I know the odds are I’m going to be watching some film or other for some festival or other.

Thank you all for coming along.

Big hug and bags of popcorn to everyone

Silver Haze (2023) Berlin 2023

When Jacky was a child she was severely burned when the pub she had fallen asleep in burned. Years later she is still haunted by the events of the day and looking for closure. Meeting a young woman in her job at a hospital she begins toward getting closure.

Marking the glorious return to the screen of Vicky Knight, an actress who rocked the pillars of heaven in director Sacha Polak’s DIRTY GOD, Silver haze is an emotional rollercoaster. A trip into the depths of a pained soul the film carries us along as Knight shows us the pain and suffering caused by a painful event almost two decades earlier. We are carried along as we follow one woman tries to find  redemption and peace. Knight is again working at the highest levels of her profession and if the gods should deem it she should be in the mix for yearend gold.

As much as I am willing to follow Knight anywhere, I kind of wish the script was a little more surprising. While there is nothing wrong with what happens, there was a point somewhere along the way things seemed to be falling onto paths we’ve seen before. I felt a little too much that I knew how some of this was going to play out.  I fully blame Knight and the rest of the cast being too good for the material. Everyone on screen push their characters right off it and into the realm of real people and watching them go through a movie plot makes it a little hard to accept.

On the other hand they are all so good that by the time we get to the final blackout there are some tears shed.

Recommended for the excellent cast and made a must by it’s star Vicky Knight

The Harvest (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

Based on writer and star Doua Moua's experiences, THE HARVEST is the story of a Hmong son who returns home to help his ailing father. This sets up a clash between his traditional parents who fled Southeast Asia and himself. It is a story of life and family and things we don't always recognize bind us together.

While nominally a "family drama" THE HARVEST is much more.  It  is an example of why we need to have diverse voices making art in the world. On the most basic level it shows us something new. I say this because until I saw THE HARVEST I had never heard of the Hmong people. I didn't know their story or anything about them. However because this is their story I had to look things up and see who they are. In doing so I opened a door to a group I don't think most Americans know anything about. 

More importantly THE HARVEST artistically makes it clear that there are more stories waiting to be told. While the story in film is on the face of it the story of a family and the "prodigal" son, the film doesn't behave like a typical Hollywood or even American Inde film. The rhythms are slightly different. the world view is different. We are looking at the characters in a different way. Moua by focusing on the life he knows is showing us a family in different light. The dynamics are different and as a result we get a better understanding of not just the life of the characters on the screen but the lives of everyone everywhere. This new view gives us insight and wisdom.

This is a wonderful film. It's a beautifully moving story acted by a fantastic cast who seem more entwined than most casts. There are times when you will wonder if they aren't all related and not just actors since there is a naturalness to their interactions. They behave like family in small moves and gestures that clue us into the bonds between them.

I really like THE HARVEST a great deal. I wish I had seen it at the start of the festival so that I could have directed you to it's small wonders. As it is, please put the film on your must see list and catch it at it's next stop on the festival circuit.

Teachers Lounge (2023) Berlin 2023

When things begin disappearing in her school and a student is accused of doing it a teacher begins to look into the matter and ends up causing all sorts of problems as she tries to negotiate between various groups.

This very mannered film walks the fine line between drama and uncomfortable comedy as a do good and principled teacher finds the way she sees the world is not compatible with the way things are. The drama comes from the situation and the dark humor comes from the way things just don’t quite play out the way out heroine wants them to. It’s not really funny as such but it’s in that uncomfortable place where bad things happen to good people and you laugh lest you squirm.

While everything in the film is really well done I found that I never connected to what was happening. I blame it on the tone which really didn’t connect to me. I’m not really a fan of cinema of discomfort and I usually need something to hold on to in order to make the connection. Here I didn’t have it and while I could intellectually appreciate everything on screen there wasn’t any emotional connection.

Because there is enough good here and because several other reviewers loved this I think this is worth a look.

Mutt (2023) Berlin 2023

Fena, a trans man living in New York City has a trying 24 hour period. His ex-boyfriend from before his transition reappears, his half sister wants to spend time with him and his father is coming in from out of town.

I really like MUTT a great deal. Its a solid drama with good cast. Lio Mehiel is great as Fena. They are on screen for the entire film and they carry the film on their back. While the rest of the cast is just as good, Mehiel is the one doing the heavy lifting and is the reason that we remain fixed at what is transpiring on the screen.

If there is any weakness in the film it is the single day construction. While setting the film in a single 24 hour period drives the film, X,Y and Z have to happen so Fena can pick up his dad, it creates a sense of artificiality. We know everything will be resolved by the fade out because the structure that the script is using requires things to end in closure. 

Reservation about the structure aside the film still moved me. Yes it's artificial at times, but Mehiel is so damn good that they carry the film and your emotions to a misty conclusion.

Recommended.

Golden Cage (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

 Golden Cage is a beautiful film. It’s a film whose final shots are utterly beautiful and heartbreaking.

The film is the story of a mother and son going to meet each other after years of not seeing each other on either side of the US/ Mexico border. Both are looking forward to the meeting and both are afraid that the other will not recognize them.

The end of this film is the very definition of bittersweet. It’s the film that is full of the happiness of a mother and son reconnecting in person and heartbreaking in how it occurs. It’s a film that had me talking to the screen in the best way.

I truly love this film. There is a simplicity to it that hides a brick.  This is a simple film with and emotional punch. It’s not flashy or showy or anything like that. It’s just a story that creeps up on you then pounces.

I can’t recommend this film enough.

Sea Sparkle (2023) Berlin 2023

After her father, a sea captain, is killed at sea, a young girl becomes convinced that he was killed by an undiscovered sea creature. Wanting to clear his name she begins to hunt the beast.

This is a good coming of age story that is not what you expect. I thought this was going to be an adventure instead I got a film about dealing with the death of a parent and the things we do in order to make sense of them. Yes there is the quest for the “beast” but the reality is this is about the part of us that can’t let go.

I really like this film a great deal. It feel like it’s an honest portrait of todays kids. I got lost in the girl‘s quest and I felt like I was watching a real kid and not a movie kid that was working from a script. Actually this was the sort of thing that I could imagine my friend Randi or her friend Janni going through when they were the same age.

This film is definitely worth a look. It’s good enough that I fully expect the film to be playing the festival circuit for a good long while before finding a home on home video.

Recommended.

American Outlaws (2023) Santa Barbara International FIlm Festival 2023

After the cops threaten to throw one of the Dougherty boys in prison for the hell of it, the three siblings decide to leave and go to Costa Rica. Unfortunately things don't go as plan and it turns into a running crime spree.

Based on a GQ story, AMERICAN OUTLAWS is a ripping crime drama. One of the best crime films I've seen recently the film manages to entertain as it roars along. There is a real weight to the proceedings and  the fact it's a true story keeps us on edge.

Going into the film I thought the film was going to be a lighthearted romp with guns. I was quickly corrected as things played out and you realize that everyone is in over their head. It's an attitude that's reflected in the dialog when two FBI guys come to the conclusion that you really can't win any more because it's all stacked against us. It's clear the Dougherty's have it all stacked against them.

What a great film. 

I love that the film is more than just a crime film. I love that we have a film that is doing more than  being a bang bang shoot 'em up. You can take it as that if you want, but you don't have to.

Finding films like this is why I love festivals.

Recommended.

Quiet Migration (2023) Berlin 2023

A nineteen year old adopted Korean man ponders his future on the Danish farm where he was raised. He wants to see what is out in the world and in the country (South Korea) where he was born.

Beautiful and lyrical film about how we see ourselves and how we struggle to find our place in the world.  It’s a film that ponders the age old question of where do we belong and what makes us who we are.

A film of stunning beauty, I really wish I had seen this on a big screen, I found I was moved by the very human story. I liked how the film gave us people we could really feel for. What is it that makes who we are the place of out birth or the people who raised and loved us? There is a shot late in the film of mother and son toward the end of the film that seemed to answer it and which made me misty.

What a delight.

If I may digress for a moment - in some ways the film would make an interesting double feature with the recent award winning RETURN TO SEOUL, which is also about a Korean adoptee from Europe trying to come to terms with her heritage.  While the course of both films are completely different some of the themes are similar  and seeing them presented from different perspectives had my mind working over time.

Worth a look, especially on a big screen.

The Legend of Mexman (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Portrait of Germán Alonso as he works on his first feature film, MexMan while grappling with his crew and himself.

Told in such away as to parallel Alonso's own film called OB THE CAT about a cat that makes a Faustian bargain with a comic book writer, we watch as Alonso makes a deal to make his own film and has things spiral out of control.  It's a crazy tale of a filmmaker in over his head.

I liked this film. I liked it's portrait of very talented man in way over his his head. It's clear that Alonso has the drive, but he doesn't really have the ability to put it all together. As one of his friends said he told him he would only return to working with him if he took a course on how to direct a film. I don't know if it's a simple as that since it's clear Alonso has other issues as well. (Being OCD being chief among them)

If you love films about films, and particular stories where the film project goes horribly wrong this film is a must.

Vishniac (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

This is an excellent look at ROman Vishniac and his family who went on to achieve things int their own right. Filled with interviews, films and recreations the film fills in the blanks on a man who most people know only through his photographs. Its a film that wonderfully reveals a living breathing man to be behind some amazing images.

What I knew of Vishniac going into the film was that he took hundred of photographs on the eve of the Second World War and preserved a record of a way of life largely wiped out by the Nazis. I didn't know that at time he was making  scientific films which millions of students for decades. I also didn't know  about his children's role in all of this.

Giving full breath to the man behind the images VISHNIAC  does what all good biographies should do which is not only give us a fuller appreciation of the subjects achievements but also reveal them as a person. The highest praise I can give the film is that Vishniac comes across not as some mythic figure but someone just like us. He's someone we'd want to hang out with because he isn't that far from us.

I was delighted. I was moved.

This is a super film.

Recommended.

KILLING ME SOFTLY WITH HIS SONGS (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

This portrait of Charles Fox had me smiling from start to finish. Fox may not be a name you know but you know his music which runs from hit songs to film scores to TV theme songs. This is a wonderful celebration of the man and his music.

I really liked this film a great deal. Fox is an engaging man and listening to him talk about his life to his friends and family is a great deal of fun.

Actually the film really kicks into high gear about a half an hour in when we finally move from his early life and time as a musician to the point where he starts writing the music we all know (Happy Days, Lavern and Shirley and Wonder Woman theme songs, Killing Me Softly and I Got a Name are just some of the hit songs he wrote). Its at this point you will start singing along until the end credits roll.

What an absolute delight.

Unless have lived under a rock for the past half century and never listen to the radio or turn a TV  you will want to see this film and you will fall in love with it.

Highly recommended

Nate Hood on WOMEN TALKING (2022)

 

[Trigger Warning: This review involves discussion of sexual assault.]

In 2014, the Christian film studio Pure Flix Entertainment released the movie God’s Not Dead. Though the studio had been producing and distributing movies since 2004 to moderate success within evangelical circles, God’s Not Dead—the story of a Christian college student debating and ultimately defeating his belligerent atheist professor—unexpectedly broke into the mainstream. Despite critical revulsion and noted disgust by many non-Christians for perpetuating ugly stereotypes of atheists, the film made over $62 million on a $2 million budget and gained enough word-of-mouth to become a shorthand for a specific strain of Christian media. Chances are you know the kind I mean—films with confrontational titles like I’m Not Ashamed, Do You Believe?, and War Room where faith is frequently paired with eyebrow-raising Christian nationalism. Over the last two decades, these movies have become a genre unto themselves, simply labeled “Christian films.”

I personally find that term a misnomer. Certainly, these represent a kind of Christian film. But the idea that these are the only films that can be called “Christian” spits in the face of over a century of filmmaking that has piously (and sometimes impiously) struggled with what it means to follow in Jesus. These are films that embrace the ambiguity of faith, acknowledge the true fallenness of the world, and refuse to shy away from the darkest historical crevices of organized religion. Whereas Pure Flix-esque “Christian films” reassure believers with one-dimensional victories against straw man opponents, to watch this second species of film is to feel one’s faith tested, tried, stretched, yet ultimately strengthened. These are films like Roland Joffé’s The Mission (1986) which interrogates the Catholic Church’s complicity in the colonization and genocide of indigenous South Americans. These are films like Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), a devout work of pious imagination that dares to grapple with what it meant for Jesus Christ to face the earthly temptations of the spirit and flesh. These are films like Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life (2019), the biography of a real-life Austrian farmer whose faith led to his murder in a Nazi prison.

And these are films like Sarah Polley’s Women Talking. Not only is it one of the best films of 2022, but I’d also argue it’s destined to take its place as one of the most theologically nuanced and morally courageous films ever made about Christianity. It takes as its inspiration the horrific true story from 2011 where seven men from the Manitoba Colony—a community of ultraconservative Mennonites in Bolivia—drugged over 100 of their neighbors with animal tranquilizers and raped them. These men were eventually caught and surrendered by their community to the secular authorities where all but one of them were sentenced to decades in prison. This film, however, takes a different approach. Describing itself as a work of “female imagination,” it relocates the narrative to the American countryside and wonders what might happen if the men of the community closed ranks around the rapists and gave the women with an ultimatum: forgive their attackers or be excommunicated and exiled from the community.

Sounds farfetched? Hardly. Consider the bombshell report from 2022 that revealed the Southern Baptist Convention had covered up hundreds of their pastors being accused or found guilty of molesting children. In each of these congregations, powerful men—Christian men—had cudgeled the victims and their families into silence and submission, sometimes with threats of excommunication, sometimes by using Jesus’ command to forgive one’s enemies to guilt them into not pressing charges. But one need not think of this most recent scandal; ask any group of women from any congregation and chances are at least one of them has at least one story tucked away where they were told to shut their mouths, look away, and keep quiet when some man was found doing something they shouldn’t.

Women Talking, then, wonders what might happen if the women of this Mennonite community called the men’s bluff and seriously considered leaving. After an initial vote results in a tie between those who want to stay and fight and those who want to leave, eleven of the women are elected as representatives to meet, debate, and ultimately decide their collective fate. Most of the film is comprised of these deliberations where they weigh the pros and cons of staying or leaving. Some of the arguments are practical: how are they supposed to survive outside the colony if—being forbidden to receive any education—none of them can read or write? Having never left the borders of the colony, many of them literally can’t imagine the outside world. Are there mountains out there? Rivers? Other groups of people who might help or hurt them? And what of their prepubescent sons? Should they be brought along or have they already been poisoned by their fathers’ misogyny so that one day they might pose a similar threat?

But what truly makes Women Talking special are the moments when the film turns towards the theological. As stated, the film is based on a true story, but it’s also an adaptation of a novel by Miriam Toews, a now excommunicated Mennonite who grew up in a community not dissimilar to the one in the film. As such—despite its director Sarah Polley being an atheist—it never once questions the existence or providence of God. The result is a film of devout Christians navigating an impossible situation with their faith, not in spite of it. For example, one of the women named Salome (Claire Fox) reveals that if she stays in the colony she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from killing the man who raped her four-year-old daughter. Would it be more “Christian” for her to refuse forgiveness and leave the colony if it meant saving the rapist’s life? Is forgiveness even forgiveness if the offending party remains unrepentant? Could one even call their community “Christian” if the women remained and allowed their men to continue raping with impunity? What if, instead, as one of the women named Ona (Rooney Mara) suggests, by leaving they might forge “a new religion, extrapolated from the old but focused on love.” 

Entire books could (and should!) be written on the theology of Women Talking, but what makes it a truly great “Christian film” is how it gives Christians the language and a model for how to address such scandals within their ranks. Early in the film, the narrator reveals that sex and the discussion of women’s bodies was so taboo among the community that the rape victims literally didn’t have the language to describe what happened to them. It was their confrontation with an unknown—indeed, an unknowable—cruelty that made their situation so existentially and spiritually horrific. But no more. These terrors have been named. They have been confronted. And in God’s name, may they never force victims into silence ever again.

ALAM (2022) Santa Barbara International FIlm Festival 2023

A young Tamer is a Palestinian Israeli who is typical teenager, trying to deal with school, parents and girls. When a beautiful new girl arrives he falls hopelessly in love...and becomes more politically awakened as his new love causes him to take a stand politically.

This is a wonderful mix of teen life and politics. Normally in similar films from Israel or its neighbors films like this lean heavily into to politics of the situation. The filmmakers want to make a political point and focus on that forget that the characters don't live in a vacuum. Here director Firas Khoury never lets us forget that while Tamer is growing politically aware he is also growing up as a human. He is still trying to  find his way and looking for guidance from the people in his life. Additionally he doesn't stop being himself. We are watching him become a man. It's a simple thing that many filmmakers forget to do. By giving us rounded characters from start to finish ALAM is a film that we love with our hearts and not just our heads.

Recommended.

21 Miles in Malibu (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

A look at the city of Malibu and the 21 mile stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway that runs through it. Because the high speed highway has to slow down, the 21 mile stretch has become super deadly taking the lives of hundreds of people over the last few years.

Good but a bit unfocused look at a serious problem in one of the most famous parts of the state 21 MILES IN MALIBU wants to be two things the same time. First it wants to be a look at the very real and very serious problem of traffic fatalities in the beach community. At the same time much of the film is angled toward being a memorial for one of the victims Emily Shane.  While I have nothing against the family for making a film that focuses on their daughter the film should have been expanded to include more stories of the loss and devastation the PCH is causing in people's lives.

While not a bad film it should have done more to make people really feel the danger.

North Circular (2023) Santa Barbara International FIlm Festival 2023

NORTH CIRCULAR is the story of Dublin’s North Circular Road, from the Phoenix Park to Dublin Port. Shot in moody black and white and full of fantastic music and stories the film is a trip across the city and through time.

I really wish I had seen NORTH CIRCULAR on a big screen. The images are truly breath taking. This is a film that absolutely would not work had it been in color.  The duotone is everything and it puts us into the land of dream where the world of past and present merge.

This film is wonderful.  As I said this film full of great stories. If you ever wanted to know why we are always influenced by the past this film will give you a good idea since through the songs and stories we see how the course of out lives and those around us affect us all.

The truth of the matter is that this film is not a film to read about or discuss. This is a living breathing cinematic trip. You have to travel the road from start to finish to understand why it’s so special.  You have to see and hear it all. Yes some of it may not be your pint of beer, but I’m guessing most of it will be. I’m also guessing that there are going to be times when the words/music and images come together to into a glorious transcendent moment that brings tears to your eyes.

Highly recommended, NORTH CIRCUAR is a must.

THE LEGEND OF GATOTKACA (2023) hits Yi-Ha! 2/17 before hitting home video March 21

Yuda is a college student who doesn't believe in the old legends. When a masked assassin begins killing people he discovers that he has superhero like powers and must use them confront an ancient evil looking to take over the world.

That's a simple retelling of the plot, but it is enough to get you started with this insane film from Indonesia.

Wild and crazy superhero action film is exactly the sort of thing that Marvel would never do, namely leaning into the darkness (they kill kids) while going big with the crazy action sequences. Basically this a balls to wall crazy ass action film that is going to delight those with a love Asian style action.  Seriously no American studio would try to do something like this, or if they did they wouldn't succeed.

Or more simply put I had an absolute blast watching this film. It pretty much goes from the first frame to the last. Sure the film is probably a bit over long at 130 minutes, but it's not because the film isn't trying. There is a lot going on here  and it takes time to spell it all out. The film also manages to mix the serious with humor in a perfect balance that manages to keep things on an even keel.

If you are tired of the same old same old superhero nonsense from places like Marvel and DC , or just need to fill time until the next Hollywood release then THE LEGEND OF GATOTKACA will keep you happy.

Actually if you just want a good action film this is for you

Recommended with a big bowl of popcorn.

SAVOY (2022) Santa Barbara International FIlm Festival 2023 (2022)

 

Story of the 1975 terrorist attack on a hotel in TelAviv as told by Kochava Levy a hostage who survived the attack.

One part recreation and one part conventional documentary the film recreates the attack via the descriptions of Levy’ diary. The aftermath is told through news footage of what happened in the aftermath.

This is a very good film. It’s a film that not only reveals what actually happened in the attack but also how the media bent things in the aftermath, resulting in Levy‘s reputation being destroyed as a result. It’s a cautionary tale  for the modern media obsessed age.

As good as this film  is, and it is a must see at SBIFF, I kind of wish the whole film had been a recreation. Its not that there is anything wrong with the documentary sections, rather we are so invested in the “characters” I wish we could have ridden all the way to the end of their story for a bit more instead of marching to the end.

As it is this is a fil  that will grab you and hold you.