Searching for Bill (2012) User Reviews

Flawed but well worth watching

[garsonfarm · 7/10 · 9 October 2017]

Like other reviewers, I was frustrated by a lot of half-baked elements of the film. The plot disappears about halfway through the film, leaving just an apparently random series of encounters with random people for no particular reason. And the fake documentary presentation style doesn't really work, partly because many people just crop up with no meaningful explanation to link them into what's left of the story and there is no proper conclusion when the film just stops.

But the people are fascinating with back stories which make you want to learn more, the atmosphere of wasted lives through the film is very powerful, some haunting scenery, and a superb music soundtrack by Jonas Munk. As a series of passive observations on "small people" who can't survive successfully in "the system", it is a very powerful portrait and stayed in my head for a long time. So worth watching if you can approach it with a blank canvas and can just let it unroll without looking for it to follow any particular direction or deliver something specific.

Okay

[jakobulgu · 5/10 · 16 December 2015]

Not the best i have seen, but i did like it. Some things in the movie were kind of boring and took a long time, but it also has its moments. Like the somewhat happy ending and the car journey where the main characters get united.

The recording of the movie is also well made and i noticed no big problems or disturbances. The cast were also great because they made the story much more calm my acting very casually (even in the car fire scene).

Last but not least i would have liked to see some more of the main character bobs home and how he lived back in New Orlean. there were a lot of back story on the other characters but it seemed like Bobs back story where a little shorter than the other characters. This seems weird to me since he is the main character.

From an actor's point of view...

[Avon_Maser · 25 November 2013]

Yes, I am the main character of this film. As it was explained to me, each person was chosen for their experience of being betrayed and swindled by someone close to them. We brought those experiences to this project to flavor its content.

I was told up front that this was to be a mockumentary. I don't feel that this film mocks anything. If anything, I believe it to be a dramatization of what happens, all too often, everyday in reality.

Being a film directed by a foreign director, I did not expect a happy ending. American movie goers expect a hero that rides off into the sunset. That was not to be, as this project reflected real life.

I find that the majority of American film goers/watchers have to be spoon fed a film's content. For example, I missed the first ten or so minutes of the original "Jurassic Park" release. And I thoroughly enjoyed the film. But, later, when I watched it from the start, I was sorely disappointed, as the beginning was filled with spoilers.

"Searching for Bill", also, peeks into the lives of those who are on the bottom rung of the economic/social ladder of American life. Bill is a metaphor for those who will cheat, lie and steal to feed the illusion that they are better/superior to those that extend their friendship and hospitality.

I am sorry to those that found this film disappointing, life, so often, is. The moral of the story, seeking an explanation or a reckoning of a misdeed is almost certainly a waste of time, money and effort, as this film shows.

I have not voted on this film as I feel it would be unfair to do so.

total garbage

[ThinkingMan450 · 1/10 · 2 May 2013]

This is not a documentary. The main character "bill" is completely fabricated and, by extension, everything that the numerous characters say about him and their experiences with him is fabricated. As you can imagine, the person searching for bill never finds him because, of course, he doesn't exist to be found. This movie is fiction and terrible fiction at that. Do not waste your time. I saw it at Hot Docs in Toronto and I emailed them asking for my money back. I doubt I will hear from them, but it is shocking that such a key element in a so-called documentary was fiction.

PS. The director of the "documentary" was at Hot Docs and he told the audience personally, at the end, that Bill was fictitious.

Terrible film. Worst documentary I've seen in a long time

[[e-mail] · 1/10 · 12 May 2013]

The film comes with a promise that was very appealing to me. I like conman stories and I thought that this was going to be another one. What is was, actually, is what you would call "Atmosphere Movie", trying to depict the "Real America" of people who have no money nor education, and the camera just meets a few of them, randomly, who tell us about their lives. Could have been interesting if it had anything to do with the film title or description. At one point in the movie the main character, Bob, starts contacting the other victims of this "Bill" guy, but that doesn't develop to nothing; he think he may know where Bill's aunt lives, goes there, doesn't meet the guy nor his aunt and goes further to another place. I don't know how the hell this movie was accepted to "Doc-Aviv" (Tel Aviv Spring Documentary festival), but to add insult on injury, it has also won the judges' award for foreign film. I'm really afraid to think how bad were the other movies. This film has no plot whatsoever, and it's a terrible film if I ever saw one.