I asked my wife what genre of movie is difficult to get motivated to watch even though you know that you'll probably like the film. One of the genres she listed was Documentary, so it is fitting that the first two movies reviewed are documentaries and that she was the spearheading force behind me watching both of them.
The first movie we watched was at our favorite theatre in Dallas, we went with our friend (Justin) to see "Young At Heart". Here is a link to the trailer.
"Young At Heart" is a documentary about a group of senior citizens whose average age is 80+ and who make up a choir called "Young At Heart". What makes this choir special, besides their average age, is that their song list includes tracks by The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, James Brown, The Ramones, and other various modern rock and R & B groups.
There is something good about watching a movie and realizing about halfway through that you have an enormous big dumb grin on your face and quickly wiping it off your face only to discover five minutes later that the big dumb grin has returned. That was my experience throughout much of this movie.
After the movie was over and I had just finished wiping the last vestiges of that big dumb grin off my face Elise, Justin, and I got to talking about the film. Justin brought up the point that the movie seemed a bit exploitive. Many of the shots are perhaps a little too close for comfort and you can feel the hand of the director trying to show just how cute and funny many of these people can be, but he does it at the expense of sitting back a bit and allowing the scenes and characters to play out with some distance and space. The good thing about this is that the people in the film are genuine, funny and interesting enough to overcome the (few) filmmaking flaws that are present in the film. For example, I would wish that the director had some distance from the choir when he was filming the final concert, but it is a truly moving scene when the choir covers "Fix You" by Coldplay, no matter how intrusive the camera gets. It is one of the most genuine and moving film experiences I've had in a while.
For What It's Worth Grade: Look for this on DVD soon, and it is definitely worth an immediate rental.
And speaking of moving experiences this is a good time to transition to the second documentary Elise and I watched "War Dance". You can watch the trailer here.
This is a film where instead of catching myself grinning I would catch myself not breathing. I would do a sort of silent gasp at some of the stories the kids were telling and I would just hold my breath until it was over. As I read through the reviews on rottentomatoes I found that the same critique Justin had of Young At Heart was being cited by many of the critics who negatively reviewed this film. They charged this film as being manipulative and emotionally exploitive, but in this film I did not feel manipulated. I felt that the filmmaking was in service of the subjects. There is a scene where a mother and daughter mourn at the grave of their father and husband, that is unsettling for the viewer and I honestly am still not sure how I feel about the ethics involved in capturing such a moment on film and projecting it to millions, but I can say it was extremely moving, and I still have not forgotten that scene.
The one area of this film that I wish it explored more was the faith that is evidenced in many of the children's lives. There are scenes of children praying and we hear portions of prayers, but the filmmakers never explore how faith plays into the lives of these children, or who they are praying too. The religion of the tribe and the individual families is never explored. Apart from that this movie does a good job of showing the world that these children are forced to inhabit and does help raise awareness of the reality of those who are suffering, especially children. If you are looking for a film that lets you in on the suffering in Africa that we hear so much about these days, this is a great film to watch.
What It's Worth: An immediate rental, it is out now on DVD.
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