4.0 out of 5 stars
An odd, original quasi-documentary about loneliness and the search for love., 10 Oct 2011
Filmmaker Barker found four very different losers-in-love in the personal ads and got to
know them for months, writing a script based on their personalities and experiences. He
then filmed it as if it were a traditional documentary, with the people playing themselves.
The characters are always interesting, if all sad, and often pathetic as well
as pathetically funny.
Sometimes it feels exploitational - don't these people know how sad, and sometimes
crazy they come off? Yet there's something that feels like these people consciously chose
to be seen for who they were, warts and all. Better that than continue to exist in the lonely
hole of obscurity.
And a simple visual touch at the very end puts a slightly more empathetic, less cruel spin on the film.
I couldn't quite love it, but I respect it's bravery in trying something new, its dark humor,
and its unblinking eye. But I suspect an unmanipulated documentary might have
been even more powerful. Here, we're never sure how deeply to hurt for these
people, or how awful or cruel to feel at laughing at them, because we don't know
when what we're seeing is `true' - which makes for interesting debates about
`reality', but also creates a bit of emotional disconnect. But just a bit...
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5.0 out of 5 stars
ahead of its time, 8 Jan 2010
This review is from: Unmade Beds (Paperback)
I have not seen the movie, but the book is really fascinating. It was created some years ago, but its voyeristic attitude was well ahead of its time, and preceded, or better predescribed, today's common place trends in civic life, art, websiting, architecture, TV and movies, literature etc, of peeping into others people individual and collective lives, while at the same time exposing our selves to the others. Its window silent witnessing is not really a pioneer (Alfred Hitchcock definitely takes the credit) but still it offers a thrilling and sharp point of view. Well written and presented as well.
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