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Reviews
The Beatles: Get Back (2021)
A life transforming movie
The Beatles to me were always a group that had a voyeuristic sense to it. You never saw them much in interviews except during their heyday and live shots from the stage. This was in a very immersive thought-provoking documentary where you saw the individual personalities of each member of the group. What started off to be a little slow quickly delved into the interpersonal relationships they had with each other and their relationship to music. I was extremely moved by seeing them create songs and the fact that they had a endless catalog of other people's music that could play at a whim was mind-blowing. The most annoying part of the documentary was literally Yoko Ono. She was almost like a parasite who could not leave John Lennon's side for a moment and for me it was a complete distraction if I were a member of The Beatles trying to create music and had to look at her face glued to her husband the entire time. She served no purpose and that rage song they did made me want to pull my hair out. I wish she would have just disappeared and they were gracious to still allow her to stay there. Overall a stunning documentary.
Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton (2017)
I think we've been trolled
I've watched and rewatched this doc at least 4 times. The last time, I got the distinct feeling Carrey not only trolled everyone who worked on the film, but the audience as well.
The tone is very reminiscent of Joaquin Phoenix's "I'm Still Here." Why decide after the myriad of films you've starred in to document this one? We knew he was a fan but my feeling is that he pulled off a Kaufman like gag and we are the punchline.
The premise is that Carrey couldn't break free from his selected role, but had no problem when he was at the Playboy Mansion and Zmuda was playing Tony Clifton. I wouldn't be surprised if Zmuda was in on this the entire time.
I've read stories about actors getting too close to their characters but this seems like a real stretch. Sasha Baron Cohen would have appreciated this effort but I truly believe that this was an elaborate scheme to troll everyone around him to think he had lost his mind.
Behind the Curve (2018)
Great Conspiracy topic but not well executed
My initial reaction is basically a shrug. There wasn't a single part of this film that stood out for me that made me think it was worth the watch with the exception of the flat earthers failed experiments that actually debunked their absurd claim that the earth is flat.
What I did find frustrating is the directors need to create salacious energy with the two main characters being Mark Sargeant and Patricia Steere. It did not add anything interesting to this film and in fact, it became a distraction. From jumpstreet, it became painfully obvious what all of the flat earthers had in common. The need for adulation and praise. Everyone of these people seemed to have a form of malignant narcissism and Mark Sargeant was the worst case scenario. A megaolmanical dolt still living with his mother who's main goal was selling his merch and trying to get into the pants of Steere. It was sad to watch.
Another common thread that seemed evident was mental illness. Many characters for example Matt Powerland and Nathan Thompson appeared to suffer from paranoid delusions where a string of conspiracy theories tagged along with them such as anti-vaxxing, government surveillance etc, etc.
What I found most egregious were some of the scientists who tried to convince the audience that we should listen and even give credence to these conspiracy theorists. One scientist, Spiros Mikalakis actually believed that there were "future scientists" that could be culled from this group and that shaming them is counter productive. What a ludicrous idea. You will have the same sad results in trying to convince these lunatics that science is a legitimate practice as much as trying to convince a Trump supporter science is real. This is a cult in every definition.
These people not only are anti-science and anti-intellectual, they are actually indoctrinating children to this absurd theory that the earth is flat and covered with a gigantic glass dome with mechanical arms holding a fake sun and moon. A 12 year old boy is brought in asking brain dead Mark Sargent "how high does the dome go?" His parents taught him this.
This is not innocent musings of people looking up at the sky asking what's out there. This is collective effort to spread dangerous disinformation about implausible realities furthering the dumbing down of this nation. Not only shame them, expose and debunk them. They are very dangerous people. This documentary had so much potential but it fell flat. Just like their earth. Hard pass.