Tag: Documentary

Back in the day, the early 2000s, The Amazing Race was a great reality show. Us couch potato heads got to live vicariously through teams as they traveled across the globe, from the USA to the USA, competing in local culture based challenges. Then, like most reality shows, it started to get really shitty. They added to many new things to it and the focus was no longer on awesome culture challenges, but really just fucking with your competitors.

But hey, there were other nature/foreign race things out there. I mean, there was a whole season of Cannonball Run on USA! And there was one season of something called Eco-Challenge!

Alright, maybe no real shows other than The Amazing Race exist. Whatever. There are still tons of races around the world that exist for the same purpose, they just don’t normally get put on TV. Take for instance, the Rickshaw Challenge Mumbai Xpress! It is a 12 day challenge of nearly 2,000 km (1250 miles) across a lot of India. Sure, that doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you are traveling in a tiny rickshaw, which can’t go very fast. Well, it is something else.

Hit The Road: India is a documentary of two friends who decide to record their journey. For the lols, I guess.

Also for all the Shaws and all the Ricks of the world.

The two friends, Ric Gazarian and Keith King know close to nothing about rickshaws, but just want an adventure. Needless to say, things don’t go terribly well for the couple. They don’t use maps, they don’t speak the language, and they care more about sweet tunes than winning. On the plus side, the music selection for the documentary is one of the best parts. Great and diverse amount of songs.

On the other upside, the camera work was also quite excellent. Often times, I am disappointed with how shitty the guy holding the camera is when a documentary is going. Yes, good information is important. So is a compelling argument. But there is still room for amazing scenes, which the documentary produces both while driving down windy Indian roads and of the landscape in general.

Unfortunately, that is where the praise ends. The two leads are regular average folk, which means they are like me, which means they also aren’t that entertaining. The documentary rushes through a few days, making sure we get scenes, but a lot of it isn’t interesting. What is interesting is their numerous rickshaw/car problems, their late night or rain driving, and their few and far between moments of success. But the editing job doesn’t seem to mind what is boring and what is exciting. What we may get is a more truthful account, but overall it isn’t at all exciting.

But hey, if you like some cool scenes, the documentary is only 80 minutes long, so it can bet quickly watched and then later forgotten.

Do you love me? You don’t have to say you love me. Love me tender, love me do, will you love me tomorrow?

Love me for a reason, love me again, love me like you do.

That is the best my google-fu can do for now about hit songs in the past with Love Me in the title. But it is enough to prove the point, people really want to love and be loved in return.

But what happens if you’ve got so much love to give and can’t find anyone to take your love? Well, you either become a criminal and a despised human being, or you can look outside of America, and potentially become a despised human being. That’s right. I’m talking mail order brides.

The men come in flavors other than stereotype, thankfully.

The documentary is about several gentlemen who are looking for love in Eastern Europe. I have been told that Ukraine has a large female population, more so than the male population. According to one girl, they also are all heavy drinkers, and a lot of ladies would like to get out of there to meet a nice man and raise a family. You know. Without being with an alcoholic. So these international dating sites are big business, both for the lonely men in the USA and the lonely women over there.

And just to be clear, this isn’t actually spending like, $15,000 for a woman to fly over and marry you. It is a dating site, that you have to pay to message (because they will translate for you). The ensure that that women are real, and even do international trips where they bring guys over to set parties, that end up with 70-80 women and only 10-20 guys at. Pretty crazy.

Love Me was entertaining in many ways. For instance, I learned a lot about the industry and how these types of sites are set up / how they make money. I learned that the women aren’t forced into anything crazy. I learned that it can also be incredibly sad. They told a few stories over time, 3 months, 6 months, and more later. Some ended in happy marriages where they moved to America and got pregnant. Some had marriages that didn’t end well, and some only got to the engagement step or worse. Some people get led on, and others find true love.

And shit. Seriously, it got really sad and awkward at times, but I guess that is just how normal relationships go.

Love Me is on Netflix, and totally worth the discomfort.

It has taken me awhile to watch Twenty Feet From Stardom, which is silly. It has kind of been sitting on my “reserve list” on Netflix for when I really had no idea what to do for a review that week. I had no reason to delay watching it either, given that it totally won Best Documentary Academy Award for 2014. Pretty fucking baller.

But hey, I am glad I did wait. Because everyone knows for the most part that backup singers are women. Yes, men are backup singers are men too. Sure. But the most famous ones, the most influential ones, they are women. Why not honor them with a spot in my Yay Women Week, I say? Yay women who can sing and don’t always get the spotlight!

This documentary talks to several women who are in the industry. Women who were there when the idea of a backup singer started with rock and roll music. We have women who are back up singers now. We have women who wanted to just stand behind the stars and those who tried to make it big on their own. And we get to hear all of their stories.

And the colored girls say, “Doo do doo do doo do do doo…”

Darlene Love is probably the main focus of this movie. She is a pretty well known name, started as a backup singer, released some albums with some success, got screwed over by contracts. But in 2011 she got put in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so people knew about her talents and her abilities. That is the good thing.

Twenty Feet From Stardom refers to two things in this documentary. Literally, like standing on a stage, pretty dang close to the stars topping the charts. And of course referring to a few of these women’s journey as they usually get very close to their goal of being a super star, but landing right outside of it in the backup singer spot.

I basically explained everything that happens in this already and the types of stories we get. And most of them are sad. But they all have hope and it is pretty inspirational.

What I liked more is that in this documentary it is constantly playing music. All of which feature the background singers of course, either the recorded version or live concert versions with video of them going to town. It made the entire documentary just fly by as I got to jam to the music. And it had new performances from the background singers singing together even though a few of them are quite old.

A few touching moments as well, although this one didn’t make me cry personally. I liked the stories told and the music and it is an easy way to pass the time overall.

Alright, I am kind of cheating here. Day 4 of Blackweek means documentary day, and well the documentary day is always the hardest to fit the theme. And I clearly reviewed Blackfish about two years early because it was the perfect fit for this moment. And a documentary about The Black Panthers isn’t out yet.

So no, I am stuck with Black Friday. A 35 or so minute documentary done by an indie lady about shopping. So a pretty short one, which makes me feel like I am cheating. Is this really an appropriate time investment for anyone? Nah. It is taking me more time to write this small review than it took to watch the short thing.

This documentary is brought to us by Cora Berchem, someone who is on a lot of tech crews, and her first shot at directing something. It is on Vimeo. I watched it here. You know, just so you know it is real.

Well, glad we have that descriptor of one of our interviewees. Very helpful!

Here is what the doc covers. Very brief history on the term Black Friday. Why it is good for business/the economy. And then it has a whole bunch of people getting interviewed, mostly people from the NY/NJ area. Definitely doesn’t branch off there.

These people are literally just complete randos. Maybe all friends or coworkers of the director, I don’t know. Maybe one person was qualified to really talk about anything in this documentary outside of personal opinions and experiences with the holiday.

And that is about it. It is literally just a few people spouting mostly just their opinions on what they like or don’t like about Black Friday shopping, the traditions. Documentary over.

Fuck, what a waste of time. I don’t know what I expected from such an indie first time effort. But I figured it would try to make a point about…something. Something at all. Oh well. Let’s call this a filler review for a not real thing.

I don’t care who you are. Where you’re from. What you did. You know the fucking Backstreet Boys.

The biggest boy band technically of all time. Not by number of members, but by album sales. Yeah, bigger than N’Sync, even though some of their members may be more successful now. And some of them branched out into other fields.

Hell, the Backstreet Boys have been making music since their decline from fame. Sometimes as four people, but now back again as the original five. Now they are making their own music, making their own decisions, not being owned and operated by a label. Backstreet Boys: Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of is about their renunion, their past, prepping for a 20th anniversary as a band, and more. They are showing us all they have to give. They are showing us when they were larger than life and when they were an unknown group of kids.

But now, Backstreet’s back.

Alright.

Technically I wasn’t super interested in a Backstreet Boys documentary. It seems strange to come out so late after the fame, but maybe their contracts and stuff wouldn’t allow them to be frank about anything. For most of these recent musician/tour documentaries, they aren’t very different. Mostly happy moments of the artists with fans, filled with concert performances in between behinds the scene footage. Usually a token sad moment or two to make you cry (The Katy Perry one was legit super sad). But they are all marketing by the record companies to increase sales for the movie, for concerts, and for CDs.

Is that what this one is? Sure. Kind of. If people realize they have newer music, they might seek it out. But at the same time, they opened up a level at a level I have never seen before in a concert based documentary. The members speak like real people and argue and multiple F-bombs are thrown around. They also go to all of their home times to tell stories of their lives before the band and see old teachers/friends. Some members have to deal with not being up to par with their younger selves.

They also get to talk openly about their starts in the band, the good and the bad. The bad is public knowledge, sure, thanks to lawsuits and bad contracts, but it seemed refreshing to talk about how shitty their label and managers were, and how manufactured they were early on.

This documentary also doesn’t have a lot of filler of just the band performing songs on their 20th anniversary concert. They have some at the end, during the credits. And sure, we get some very old footage of singing and footage of them making songs for their latest album. But a lot more of this documentary is spent dealing with the five individuals and just them, for the most part. No Aaron Carter.

Comparing this documentary to the other music based ones, I would say this one is better. Yeah. I want it that way. And it was definitely a step up from a VH1 music documentary. I was worried it would feel like Behind The Music, but again, way better.

Fuck N’Sync and fuck Justin Timberlake for leaving them.

Documentaries about telephones are in right now. Just look at the Oscars from earlier in the year. The Phone Call won Best Live Action Short and Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 won Best Documentary Short Subject. That doesn’t explain Hotline, however, which came to fruition thanks to Kickstarter.

And honestly, if it was nominated for Best Documentary, we might have had a very strange trifecta of victors if Citizenfour wasn’t so dang good.

It wanted to just examine the lives of many people who work at a hotline. All the hotlines too. Not just the sexy sex ones, although it definitely talks to two people in the field. No, we get LBGT based hot lines, suicide watch, homework hotlines, lonely based hotlines, and of course psychic hotlines. And they don’t just go completely for randos. No, we get some big named interviews with people about how they got in the business, stories, and more. And they also got the biggest name from all of this.

OH MY GOD MISS CLEO I LOVE YOU I CAN’T BELIEVE IT OHMIGOOOD

That’s right, Miss Cleo is in this documentary. She tells her whole story, how she got big, how the company abused her image, and how she got out of any lawsuits. And she is still doing her thing and doesn’t seem super scammy, so that is good.

We also get Jeff The Lonely Guy. I have heard he was famous for being a one guy friendly dude who just wanted to talk to people and be friendly, no strings attached. I never knew about him, he seems like a cool dude.

And really, this documentary is just a bunch of stories about people who answer phones for free or for cash, and their life. For whatever reason, that subject was actually a lot more fascinating than I figured it would be, and not just because of the star power of this documentary. It is pretty dang simple too. But sometimes simple things end up being kind of great.

Sometimes, you hope a documentary allows some amount of surprise. But other times it is impossible. With The Woman Who Wasn’t There, as soon as you find out who we are talking about, you know exactly what happens.

But that makes sense. There is no way to surprise someone, because if it was about just some woman, Tania Head, who happened to be a 9/11 survivor, you’d wonder why you were watching the documentary.

So of course, Tania Head is not really Tania Head. She is instead Alicia Esteve Head, from Barcelona, Spain. This documentary talks about her 9/11 claims, her story, what she did, and how she got found out.

But she did get to meet famous people along the way!

Needless to say, she wasn’t even in the USA during 9/11. That didn’t prevent her from starting a 9/11 Survivor support group on the internet, where she fabricated a well researched story. She had a job in the building, she had a fiance/husband in the other one (who totally existed), she had a hero in there that existed, and she had good information.

Just you know, all pieces of other real stories and put hers together making it a big grand tale of sadness, grief, and luck.

I hadn’t heard of this woman before hand, nor did I hear about this scandal in 2007 when it was found out. But hey, a nice relatively short documentary summed it up decently.

The documentary tried to play it out like a creepy thriller, but that is silly, since again, we know how it ends by the end. Despite old interviews with Tania and Tania’s old friends, it still just felt like a waiting game of “Oh did she screw up here?!!? Nope…”

The biggest let down of this documentary/story is just how quickly it ends after the aftermath. Tania did a good job of hiding from the internet and trying to bring her life back together. It ends with only one sighting after the fact in the documentary, but if you go to the wiki page above you can see some more detailed after math information that came out post documentary.

A fucked up story and an okay documentary.

I wouldn’t be lying if I didn’t say I was excited to see this documentary. I heard about it months ago, and my body was super ready. It just was ready too early, and then I forgot about it for a month or so…

But hey! Now it is out and watchable. An HBO documentary, so you know they could put money towards it.

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief is a powerful title already pulling no punches. Obviously, this 2 hour documentary is about Scientology, like, the whole thing. From its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, to its start, to its current people in charge. And of course, their shady practices.

Shit, did I just describe the whole thing? Man, this was a quick review.

But I forgot to talk about celebrities!

In a way, it looks like this documentary was made and put together specifically for one person. John Travolta. When you think of Scientology, you think of two celebrities, him and Tom Cruise. Travolta used to be their poster child, now Cruise is. Cruise apparently is way too deep right now to be touched and is much newer in the group comparatively. But Travolta has had friends and close companions in Scientology who have now left and speak out in this documentary, about the travesties of the group, and what had to be done to keep the message from spreading.

So if he could hear it and believe, he would have a strong enough voice to help change a lot of people away from the cult and make a difference. But he has already said no thanks to that and defended it some more. Oh well, must have a lot of blackmail on him and Cruise.

Instead our biggest celebrity is Jason Beghe. And the documentary doesn’t get into the super hardcore rumors that you hear about. I guess that is because they didn’t want to get sued. So at the same time, while this documentary is super informative, if you saw the South Park episode on the same topic, you would know a lot of it already.

Here at Gorgon Reviews, we like to break the mold. We like to consider ourselves on the cutting edge of reviews. The only thing we are really lacking is those press credentials. But that is not what we are talking about.

No! Instead, we are just going to look into genre-defying films. Yes, on Documentary Thursday of all days.

Charlie Victor Romeo is about plane crashes. Straight up. Not a fun topic for anyone. Everyone should know what a black box is. It records whatever goes on in the cockpit, creating an audio record in case shit hits the fan.

Charlie Victor Romeo, in a nutshell, is six different blackbox recordings before six different airplane accidents/incidents.

Black boxes. White pilots. Who’d have thought there’d be no grey area in a cockpit.

Obviously, you have to be in the right mood to want to watch a movie like this. Now, it isn’t just the actual blackbox recordings. This is a documentary, not some audiobook. But when it comes to the genre defying characteristics, this is a theatrical documentary.

This is why we have some actors. A few people at a time recreate what the cockpit might have felt like during these moments, with the exact same conversation as it went down/almost went down and that is the entirety of it. It makes sense that this started out as a play, a pretty intense one at that. And then it became used for pilots in training! And then this movie.

It might help them discuss decision making, or whatever.

But assuming you are in the right mood for a movie like this, I would say overall it is still just okay. Some of the situations were good and tense. Some felt too long, maybe too boring, or just too confusing terminology wise. Some were a good length, intense, and great. It varies. But some might love its overall simplicity.

But hey, because it is acted, here are our actors! Sam Zuckerman, Debbie Troche, Nora Woolley, Patrick Daniels, Robert Berger, Noel Dinneen, and Irving Gregory!

Either way, this guy is on Netflix, and probably not leaving any time soon.

Drugs! Have I tackled any documentaries about drugs in any way on my website yet? Looks like I haven’t.

Me and drugs have an interesting relationship. Or at least a lack of one. I don’t understand them, have no desire to do them, yet also, don’t care if other people do them. I know the basic things. Like pot. Pot is definitely less dangerous than smoking and alcohol, and I support people’s right to do those things. I am the kind of guy who thinks people should be able to do whatever they want, for the most part, as long as it doesn’t endanger others.

The Culture High is about that, but at the same time, way way way more.

Like. Literally everything. The documentary is at 2 hours length, and it has so much dang information in it. It isn’t just about marijuana, and its health benefits or lack thereof. No, it is about the entire drug industry, pharmaceutical to the war on drugs. It is about for profit prisons and incarceration rates. It even touched on the Kids for Cash thing. It is about lobbying groups and bribing politicians to follow corporate interests. It is about how sweet the Internet is and how the government would rather it be controlled.

I mean. Shit. It is probably secretly about your mother as well.

It is apparently also about my fifth grade science project.

Did I mention this was about everything? Because holy shit, it got around and I really want to emphasize this point. I can’t even begin to talk about all the people they had talking. From news correspondents, to people who have earned PhDs, to Joe Rogan, to everyone in between.

Despite all the great info, most of which I have seen before in documentaries focused solely to one topic, it felt like the documentary overall seemed to lack focus because of it. The flow was off. I kind of forgot every once in awhile that this was about marijuana legality in America!

This is the type of documentary that would be good for someone’s first ever documentary if they had no idea some of the shady shit that went down in America. But for me, it could have had a stronger focus. I technically don’t care if pot gets legalized or not. Like I already said, I am all for rights.

But my main con is that it just smells super damn terrible. Makes me almost vomit.

Febreeze yourself, please.