A multi-functioning documentary about fame, public hunger for gossip and the lengths that the media will go to to cultivate and feed it.
brilliant...
I liked the style of this documentary, which used clips, talking heads and 'sketches' to make its points. By sketches I mean pieces created for the film, with the creator running fake focus groups and job interviews to show just how crazy some people are. Such as the parents who are happy for their children to take part in a (fictional) visit to an abbatoir or drink alcohol and act drunk if it means they get on TV. Or the celebrity PA candidates who would be more than willing to break the law for their bosses, or in one case even happy to take a bullet, since they'd be alongside celebrity. There's also a long part in the second half of the documentary that looks at tabloids and how they solicit stories, without verification, to fill their pages. And finally there's a piece on how Live 8 pushed the Make Poverty History marches out of the papers and then didn't really have the impact it claimed. Oh and an excellent bit in Lithuania, where much of their parliament is made up of celebrities.
but...
Perhaps there's a bit too much going on in this documentary, and the focus gets a bit muddled. Is it about the way newspapers manipulate the news? Or about child stars? Or about public hunger for fame? It's everything all at once, and I didn't really follow how it was all supposed to be connected, other than under the massive 'media' umbrella.
briefly...
An insightful, disturbing look at the way the media controls our lives, whether knowingly or not.
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