Inside Job (2010)

Overall Score: 8.75/10

Just over two years ago, the world's economy took a hit unlike anything it was prepared for. Since that time we have searched high and low for an excuse as to why we were so unprepared. Excuses, mind you. Not answers. Was it possible that we could have been prepared for what was to come? Better yet, could we have prevented it?

Traveling decades, continents, and industry insiders, Inside Job takes an uncompromising look at the near thirty year build up that lead to economic explosion. Despite the simplicity that could be had, Inside Job avoids walking party lines, and concentrates solely on the people whose decisions directly, or indirectly, impacted the 'modern economy.' At the same time, Inside Job is not afraid to call out those, some directly to their face, that have avoided any measure of responsibility for how the events unfolded. It is with that in mind, that Inside Job takes on the arduous task of explaining just what in the world these major corporations were doing with everyone's money.

The results: mind-boggling and logic defying. There's no simple way to explain what these company's were doing, but Inside Job does its best, using graphics and narration (Matt Damon!) to explain in the most abstract concepts. This works for the most part, but understanding it requires full concentration. Even then, Inside Job is packed with a variety of facts, dates, names, faces, deals, and just about anything else you can think of. It keeps the ball rolling, and minds engaged, but I worry that the frenetic "he did this, and then she did that, and then another guy did this" pacing will borrow a hollow passage in the viewer's ears for easy traveling into one and out the other.

If the viewer survives the onslaught of information, what remains is a melancholic sense of political resentment. Any, and all information left resonating in the mind of the viewer are not a collection of cheerful moments, or comical characters. Inside Job is void of comic relief. Instead, all that remains are the headaches, frustration, and downright shock at just how ignorant, disilusioned, self-obsessed so many of these people are. The efforts at those who tried to warn us feel frail by comparison to the incalcuable stupidity of those who ignored them.

Like most documentaries, Inside Job ends on a call to arms and it is unfortunate that it has to. There is no heroic knight charging on a gallant steed to rescue us from the day. As Inside Job points out, it is up to us take action, because those whose job it is have chosen not to.

Film Credits
Directed By: Charles Ferguson
Written By: Chad Beck and Adam Bolt

 

Gasland (2010)

OVERALL SCORE: 8.50/10

There are times when I watch a documentary that I find myself caught in an inner battle. There is no right or wrong in this battle, only manipulation and realization. Two often overlying attributes that many documentaries utilize as a means of imbuing their message onto the viewer. There are times when my natural skepticism casts aside the desired message in favor of a more objective viewpoint. Then, there are those other times. Times when the documentary can break down my defenses and craft the scene in a way that is illuminating, well thought out, and sincere. Gasland is one of those films.

Narrated in melancholic, cathartic tone with a love of nature that would make Werner Herzog weep, Gasland follows Josh Fox as he journeys across America in search of the truth about Natural Gas and the main mining function 'hydraulic fracturing.' Starting from humble beginnings, Josh Fox receives a letter from an unnamed oil company offering him cash in return for the right to lease his land and drill for oil. His efforts at reaching out to the company for more information are met with a plethora of answering machines and 'hold while I transfer you' phone calls. With his camera in hand, he decides to visit other nearby sites where this drilling takes place. What he quickly finds is that the deeper he goes, the worse it gets.

While I would be hard pressed to say that at no point does Gasland feel overtly aware of its agenda, that fact alone does not dilute the overall message. It has become a common place mentality these days that if one thing is wrong about something, all must be deemed wrong. However, Gasland proves that there is more to documenting than being 100% accurate. Josh Fox's journey is one of self-discovery and eye opening science. From the barren landscapes of half-dead towns where time and oil have taken their toll to the beautiful mountain ranges of long past, chopped apart in favor of new-age monoliths.

Perhaps the greatest eye opener that Gasland has to offer, doesn't come in its rather obvious attack on hydraulic fracturing, but in the surrounding components that allow it to be. Through Josh's meetings we discover just how difficult it is to learn anything about hydraulic fracturing other than its basic functionality. People in the industry don't want to talk about it, except to say it's safe. The rest is wrapped in politics, half talk, lobbyists, and more money than you or I dare dream of. But that's not the films only point. In a rather eye opening sequence, Fox examines the potential side effects of evaporation. With each of these sites there exists a lot of chemicals sitting in pools, on trucks, in pipelines, and no matter how you slice it, evaporation takes place. With no real definitive knowledge on the components, how can any of us properly judge the consequence of that chemical getting into the atmosphere?

Despite his tendency towards nature, Gasland is fully about the people these drilling practices impact. The consistency in symptoms, illness, defects, and problems spread across the states Fox visits are difficult to explain away. The inner contemplation each person Fox interviews adds a sense of real heart to the film. He makes you understand why they stay living where they do, even if we can't comprehend that mentality. Fox's eventual despondency towards the industry, and decision to not sell his land, is a feeling that can resonate with all audience members. Granted, it does help if you lean in his direction a bit to start with.

Film Credits:
Written and Directed By: Josh Fox 

Catfish (2010)

OVERALL SCORE: 7.50/10

For those of us wrapped up in the encompassing spread of social networking, it is at times easy to forget what goes on behind the screen of those individuals we never meet. Masked through avatars, random photos, and friends built entirely on the basis of those networks, you at times find yourself wondering just how well you know these people with whom you discuss the events of your life. Of course, I promise you can always trust that I will forever be an eighteen year old Hawaiian underwear model with a perfect set of abs, gentile personality, and complete lack of an ego.... what are you looking at?

In essence, Catfish, regardless of whether or not you accept it as real or fake, takes a look at people's use of social network as an escape from the world. With a little creativity, and a few carefully placed clicks, social networking presents humans with a platform to change the very things they dislike about themselves. Are you reserved and in need of an outlet for your frustration? Come on here and be an asshole! It's not like anyone's going to recognize you in your everyday life. Maybe you're dissatisfied with your life and want to be well known. No problem, pick a nice picture of yourself, paint a lovely portrait of your life, and away you go!

There's very seldom any fact checking done in the online realm. Maybe a handful of use will meet in our lifetime, and even then we're not likely to find we all act the same way in real life as we do on here. Enter the tale of Yaniv "Nev" Schulman, a photographer whose online friendship and dealings with Abby, a child painting prodigy, forever change the way he views the Internet.

Disregarding the continuous debate, I found Catfish to be a rather riveting tale of someone getting in too deep online with people they're not familiar with. Having dealt with the online forum for many years, there are quite a few aspects of Catfish I found particularly captivating. Specifically, the way we try and present ourselves online in contrast to our own personality.

Nev is shown as being a trusting and straightforward kind of guy. He accepts what is handed to him because there exists no countering evidence worth investigating. Yet, I feel as if there is a real reason he didn't do much investigating. From the start I believe Nev needed Abby to be exactly who, and what, he was told she was. It was not pertinent to the world he was constructing for her to be anything but one hundred percent real. That is, until he begins to form a viable emotional connection to her and her family.

Once that emotional connection is established, he becomes invested in the world of Abby and her family. They become prominent features of his life, love, and happiness. The inevitable fracturing of that reality becomes the catalyst for much of the stark and solemn tone that paints the second half of Catfish as a tale of much more than one man's journey for the truth.

Directors Ariel Schulman, Nev's brother, and Henry Joost do a wonderful job of capturing the events in a fashion that is as realistic as they come. At times they're shots may seem a tad bit too opportunistic, but they maintain a level of storytelling so engaging it removes the need to question the authenticity of the events at hand.

At times I felt as if the directors were reaching for more than was really there, and I wondered whether we were getting the full picture. Catfish plays out much more like a fictional narrative than a documentary. The primary difference being, everything we are shown fits into place in the sequence of events. There's hardly an important moment where the camera happened to be off, or not available. Though by today's standards, one could make the argument that Catfish plays out about as realistic as reality TV....

Film Credits:
Directed By: Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman

 

Restrepo (2010)

OVERALL RATING: 8.50/10

They say the path to hell is paved with good intentions. Well, so is the path to war, and nobody knows that better than the soldiers who fight them. Being a soldier is an arduous task. Day in and day out they must deal with ominous surroundings - the ever prevalent possibility of a life altering injury or worse, death. They're asked to be on guard twenty-four hours a day, even amidst elongated lull periods. Such is the tale of Second Platoon, sent into Korangal Valley, Afghanistan - nicknamed "The Valley of Death."

As documentaries go, Restrepo is a far cry from many of our modern endeavors. It carries with it no agenda. There lay no hidden message beneath the scenes to grasp at the viewer’s inner being. In essence it is the truest form of documentary – a film that solely documents the events as they happened. Directors Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger expertly capture the journey of Second Platoon’s fourteen month long campaign. Through respite, politics, and bloodshed, Hetherington and Junger put the audience right there in the middle of the action.

Putting the viewer right into the middle definitely has its advantages. First and foremost, you, the viewer, are not distanced from the events at hand. You become the camera’s perspective. When gunfights break out you’re moving along with the soldiers for cover. You’re looking out for enemies. During the quiet times you sit there chatting with your comrades, enjoying music and dance, manning a machine gun, or perhaps take part in the occasional exercise in male testosterone. When it’s time to speak to the locals you work with the commanders to translate, and deal with the clash of cultures. Putting you there makes you feel for the soldiers, it makes you understand them on some minute level. It embeds onto you an unforgettable experience.

Throughout the film, Hetherington and Junger maneuver through a series of events they want to spotlight. Approaching each in order allows Restrepo to carry the passage of time without constantly needing to remind you of the date. It also helps in creating a sense of progression, even in a stalled environment. Restrepo is not a traditional journey film. It concentrates on one general area, OP Restrepo (named after a fallen member of Second Platoon early on in the campaign), and occasionally reaches out to Second Platoon’s captain to supply the political backbone of the situation.

Due to this, Restrepo can at times feel jerky and underdeveloped. There’s so much going on that needs to be shown for the audience to get the full picture that it can’t all be crammed into the ninety minute runtime. Therefore Restrepo turns into a highlight package. Each moment is given its due time, but there are no fluid transitions between them. The only transitions exist in the soldiers at the heart of the film. Their constant presence, and development, becomes the glue that keeps the film and the viewer connected. Lucky for our directors, those soldiers are super glue.

By the time Restrepo reaches its finale there is little else to be said. So many different aspects of war have been examined and discussed, you would be hard pressed to find more to talk about. Restrepo does not leave you wanting; it leaves you knowing that what you’ve just seen is real. That soldiers just like these are out there dealing with situations such as the ones you witnessed every day. It is the chronicle of soldiers. Not just those in front of the camera, but all soldiers. For that alone it is a wonder to behold.

Film Credits -
Directed By: Tim Hetherington & Sebastian Junger 

The Cove (2009)

THE COVE

DIRECTED BY: LOUIE PSIHOYOS
WRITTEN BY: MARK MONROE
OVERALL SCORE: 7.00/10

In Taiji, Japan 25,000 dolphin are captured every year, while several hundred are sold to amusement parks, tens of thousands are killed for meat and the world knows very little about it. Members of the Oceanic Preservation Society, and talented film specialists, group together to capture footage of an elusive cove, where much of this takes place away from the public eye.

I'll admit I don't watch a lot of documentaries, as such when I watch one it's because I've done a lot of research into the reviews of such a film. The Cove is one in which I've heard nothing but positive feedback about, and have sense come to witness. In terms of setup the documentary reminds me a lot of last years Man on Wire. Short, about a group of people attacking a single mission, and all the complications that come with it. Where The Cove separates itself from that is in its willingness to address its message. It tackles the variety of issues with dolphin and whale hunting, the declining fish and ocean conditions, and most importantly the impact of people's standing ignorance to the issue.

These issues include mercury poisoning, the social anxiety of dolphins in captivity, and the strong relation between humans and dolphins. Perhaps my greatest fear going into the film is how would it manage to persuade us we should care any more about dolphins than we do a cow, bass, or pig, which we kill by the hundreds of thousands. To attack this the filmmakers concentrate heavily on the topics mentioned above, hoping to display the Japanese as evil bureaucrats seeking to erase an entire species for their own good. On one hand this does make for effective documentary, but alas leaves out an entire side of the argument, except for the ones that they deem comically applicable. As a film watcher this works, but as a critical thinker it hardly succeeds to discuss the larger issues at hand (which I won't go into because this is a review, not a political piece).

As for the documentary itself it is captivating, the final minutes are quite powerful when the footage is finally shown to the viewer, but at times it does come off a bit over the top and cheesy. Not always detailing the fine lines between what we should be allowed and what we shouldn't be allowed to kill, really hurts the long term integrity of the film, while it will likely rile up its already staunch supporting crowd. Of course that doesn't mean I'm not with its message, it has everything you'd want in a documentary, except for the true closure of its issue. Of course I can't help but watch this and wonder if it's really as good of a documentary as people say.

The Cove relies far too heavily on peoples' aww factor when viewing dolphins, instead of attacking real issues. Of course I regress in that as a documentary it'll likely do a good job of informing its viewer of what it deems as a crucial issue, which is at the heart of every documentary. They're not built to think for you, nor tell you what you're supposed to do, they call to arms those that are willing, but those that are not need simply turn it off once it is complete. That's what The Cove does most effectively, regardless of where you stand on such issues.

While captivating, and filled with a great message, The Cove tries too hard to be both a global statement and a single statement, holding it back from its grand potential.

Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2009)

ANVIL: THE STORY OF ANVIL
DIRECTED BY: SACHA GERVASI
OVERALL SCORE: 7.00/10

When they were 14 years old, Canadian Jewish teenagers Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner began a rock band together. Now in their 50s, and despite being heavily respected among their piers, they still struggle every day, having been one of the few metal legends to never have made it big.

I'll admit I'm not a big fan of metal rock, but after hearing countless stories and praise for Gervasi's documentary I figured it was most definitely worth a look... and it is quite good. The story of Lips and Reiner, who the documentary centers entirely around, is quite amazing, and a harsh look at the reality of the music scene. As is often alluded to in the film, you can't just be good, you have to be marketable, and unfortunately for Anvil they were neither marketable, nor had people around them who could market them. Now forced to do dead end jobs, and tour next to empty bars, the movie is subtle in sad, and yet you can't help but find yourself hoping for them to find success.

Gervasi's first time behind the camera does show a bit too often though. He knows what all to concentrate one, the family, the struggles, the music, but it always feels a bit dry, as if he's one step behind the emotion. It leads to a series of up and down events that capture your heart, and leave you hanging, and it's the strength of will of the central stars that pulls through the film. You find yourself oddly uplifted by their optimism, accepting of their heavy character flaws, and observing their ups and downs. Gervasi is great at telling their story, no matter how deep it gets sometimes, and as such the viewer is better off for it. As well Gervasi manages to catch some of the more amusing moments, each of which comes at the cost of the band... such as a 10,000capacity arena only selling 174 seats.

The sad truth of Anvil remains throughout the film, that despite their talent, they never catch a break. A sad truth that plagues millions of bands across the globe. As they describe it, hitting it big is like winning the lotto, and yet like all those millions of bands, Anvil believes it will one day happen for them. It's a true underdog story, and a fun one to follow throughout.

While it is most definitely a flawed documentary, Anvil's story is one worth telling, and one worth watching, a sad, and yet fun, tale of a band that just never hit the big time.

Sicko (2007)

SICKO
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: MICHAEL MOORE
OVERALL SCORE: 7.25/10

Michael Moore takes a harsh look at the flaws in the current American health care system, and the alternatives in the rest of the world.

Now I know Healthcare is the hot button debate topic these days, with massive ignorance on both sides of the argument failing to recognize the real issues in favor of loud screaming. That's all I'm going to say politically, if you want to know my viewpoints ask, beyond that this is a journal about film and so I'll stop my rambling now and onto film!

One of the things I admire about Michael Moore as a documentary film maker, is his ability to keep it entertaining, and light hearted even when dealing with subject matter that is often very shocking to those who have never heard it before. Lots of documentary makers go for the dark depressing nawing feel, but he's more concerned with a level of entertainment that makes you actually want to watch the entire thing.

Now, Moore's 2007 film Sicko was heavily overlooked by the public upon its release, and would probably be ran away from in terror in today's audience, but I think it does some good. It makes great points, shows real life examples of flaws in the system, and analyzes how these affect the people long term and emotionally. That's what documentaries are supposed to do, show you a side to something that you would not see in your normal day to day life without such exposure.

The problem with Moore's approach is that it's overly alienating, unless you, on some level, already agree with him, you'll find it biased, failing to truly show both sides of the argument. I find the ability to show both sides of the argument is a true gift to the audience, as they're then allowed to make up their own mind. Yet Moore decides it best to show the heavy left side of the argument, now this doesn't make many of his points any less true, to the surprise of many they actually are.

Granted as a documentary Sicko isn't nearly as bad as you might imagine. Moore doesn't skew the facts he presents, they're facts... you can't really argue with that. Moore's call to change is also back with an underlying truth I feel we can all agree on, the betterment of all is more important than any one individual. There's something to that, something that Moore seeks out, and shows in a way that'll both entertain, and quasi-enlighten those who watch it, and for that I think it's recommendable.

Sicko is by no means the definitive documentary on the current healthcare issue, but it presents some solid facts, and good information if you cycle through some of the ranting.