Teenage Paparazzo (2010)

A documentary that examines the relationship between celebrity and society.

Adrian Grenier turns his fascination about a 14-year-old paparazzo, Austin Visschedyk, into a documentary following Austin as he tries to succeed as a boy in a mans game. He also delves into society's infatuation with celebrities.

Adrian is shunned at first from the paparazzi at first, as they think he is using Austin to make a documentary that shows them in a bad light, but they slowly start to allow him into their world. The life of a paparazzi is like living in another world. Some are hired by a company to stay outside of someone's neighborhood all day long, just waiting to see if that celebrity is going to come out. You can't leave to eat or go to the bathroom for fear that you may miss your one shot.

Austin has become famous with celebrities because most of them are surprised to see a small boy trying to take their picture and some even let him get the pictures that others cannot get. At the same time he has to deal with the mob of paparazzi, grown men, pushing and shoving trying to get the picture, when he is only half as tall as most of them.

The documentary is a great social commentary on our obsession with celebrities. People want to live like celebrities, but since most of us will never be movie stars or professional athletes, we have to live out our dreams through these people. That is why we care with Brad and Angelina are together or not, or what Britney was wearing the other day, its an escape from our own reality. That need fuels our urge to buy these magazines and watch TMZ, thus making a high demand "The Photo or Video Clip".

A lot of paparazzi get a bad rap for what they do, but in all honesty they are just doing a job that pays good, trying to support their own families. One of the great points of the movie is that celebrities can't complain that they are having their picture taken out on the street all the time, as soon as they hired a publicist they wanted to have their name out there. If it weren't for these magazines a lot of them would lose their celebrity status and the perks that come with that.

This documentary was very entertaining and makes you really think about our addiction to celebrities, especially since we all know that one person that always has the latest US Weekly or can't miss an episode of TMZ.

When to Watch Rating: Makes You Think

Now Playing on HBO

Waiting for "Superman" (2010)

The fate of our country won't be decided on a battlefield, it will be determined in a classroom....


Director Davis Guggenheim's look into the public school system. How is it that more and more money is being pumped into the school systems and laws are being passed so that "No Child is Left Behind" but the reading and math scores have flat-lined since the 70's and the rates of students failing has only gone up.

Guggenheim follows 5 children that are all enrolled in public school around the country that are trying to get into prestigious charter schools with high success rates of students throughout high school and college. With such high rates of success though there are to many applicants for the available spots, some as low as 10 spots for over 100 applicants. To get into these schools you have to win a spot through a lottery.

He also goes inside several school systems that have tried reform, including following Michelle Rhee who did dramatic cuts in the District of Columbia. Her efforts though have her going up against the teachers union, which have the teachers first and studens second approach it seems.

Guggenheim does a good job at pointing out many out the many flaws of our academic system but does not give a lot of solutions for it. He shows how we got here, and how a couple of public schools have overcome being in low income neighborhoods, and shown that the right teaching strategies can produce successful students from any neighborhood. The problem is that these are the schools that only a handful of kids can get into every year and have to get the luck of the lottery to get in.

I think that Guggenheim does an excellent job in this documentary and really makes you wonder who is fighting for the youth to succeed. Will there ever be enough schools that aren't "failure factories"? Is there enough Geoffrey Canada's in the country to make a change? I think this is a must see for anyone with children in school.

When to Watch Rating: Makes You Think

Now playing in Select Theaters

Catfish (2010)

****SOME SPOILERS*****

In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel's brother... 

The word about Catfish started building at Sundance, a stranger than fiction documentary that follows the internet relationship of Nev Schulman, a photographer in New York, and a family in Michigan. After one of Nev's photographs is published in a magazine he receives  a painting of the same picture by an 8 year old girl, Abby. Nev begins talking to Abby over the internet, and soon becomes friends with her mom Angela and sister Meagan.

Nev continues to receive paintings from Abby, who he is told has been selling paintings for up to $7000 dollars and is just about to open her our gallery. Nev's relationship with her older sister Meagan starts to become romantic as they talk though instant messaging and text messages daily. 

One night while Nev is chatting with Meagan online he asks her to record a specific cover song for him, he is surprised when she comes back 20 minutes later with a beautiful recording. Nev starts suspecting something is up when he finds the exact recording on youtube by another singer. When he goes back and starts looking up her old songs she had "recorded" for him he starts finds that they are all other singers she had just taken off the internet. That is when Nev starts looking into all the things she has been telling him to see if any of them are true....

The filmmakers said they started recording the events because they thought it would be a good short film about a prodigy 8 year old artist, that Nev had somehow stumbled across and built this internet friendship with. They never could of guessed where this film would lead them.

All of the reviews coming out of Sundance were saying that "you will not believe the last 40 minutes of this film." So I went in with very high expectations on a huge twist. To me, the movie didn't deliver that. I won't give away the ending but there was really no surprise in what happened for me. It was still a fairly entertaining movie, that really makes you think about the power of the internet and Facebook, but was not the shocking documentary that I was expecting.

When To Watch Rating: Makes You Think

Film is playing in theaters now.

Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

Capitalism: A Love Story examines the impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans...

I am not a fan of Michael Moore at all. I think he manipulates people into believing his opinion in his movies by using information that isn't true, faking news headlines and doing over the top antics to "prove" his point. A good example would be to watch Fahrenhype 9/11 after your watch Fahrenheit 9/11. That being said, I this was his first movie that I watched and actually ended up being mad with him instead of at him.

The over the top antics are still there. Michael Moore tries to go into bank corporation buildings and do a citizens arrest of the people running the banks. He of course can't even get into the building so he ends up just telling the security guard why he is there and then has to leave the building. Was this really necessary for me to see how corrupt these companies are?

Capitalism does seem to ask the right questions though of what has happened to our country. When the people that run the banks also are the financial advisers to our country it makes you wonder if there is any hope for the little guy, or are the rich just going to get richer.

Moore interviews members of congress about the bank bailout bill which gets some very surprising and shocking answers on how it all happened. It's kind of funny that Michael Moore talks about the Governments scare tactics to get things passed, but in reality his movie is a scare tactic to his audience.

This movie is very effective at pushing your anger at the government and the banks, and I feel would be even more effective if Michael Moore didn't do it, I look forward to "An Inside Job", which looks to touch the same subject without Michael Moore.

When to Watch Rating: Makes You Think

Available on Netflix Instant View