Catfish

Catfish

This film was especially applicable to our generation.  It's about a guy who starts a relationship online through Facebook and it escalates into an obsession.  The relationship exists purely online and over the phone for over 9 months.  The style of filming is mostly hand-held and so the viewers can feel like they are right there with the characters.  It also tells the story chronologically and so the viewer knows just as much as the characters of the film do at the time.  In the end, the guy discovers that the woman with whom he was having a relationship online was a complete fake and had created a completely false identity for this relationship. 

The director managed to make me care because the whole I had the suspicion that the girl wasn't completely honest with him because if that was so then there wouldn't be much of a story for a film.  Even with this suspicion, I was hoping that I was going to be wrong because I didn't want this to happen to the guy.  The reason that I cared for this guy is because I have some friends that have gone through a very similar experience with online dating as I'm sure most people of this generation know someone that has gone through something similar.  

I think the point of the film is to show the experience of online dating as it develops from the beginning and the risks that are involved with it. I feel that this goal was achieved because it made me personally feel that online dating is rarely a smart option.

Forks Over Knives

Forks Over Knives

This was a very powerful documentary.  I learned a great deal about the controversy of which foods are truly healthy for you and which foods aren't healthy for you even though you may think they are.  What surprised me most from the film was learning that many food companies that say on the box of their product that it's healthy and important for your daily diet are twisting their words and deceiving many people.  I felt that the director of the film was ethical and effective in sharing this message because it wasn't biased.  There were significant inputs from both professionals that believe meat and dairy is bad and professionals that believe the opposite.  The usage of simple animated statistics and graphs also made it not confusing and easy to understand the message of the film. 

The director managed me to make me care but since the whole film was filled with shots of food it also made me hungry and I may have eaten multiple snacks during the coarse of the movie.  Regardless of my poor eating habits I felt bad about eating what I did and I feel motivated to improve my diet but I wouldn't say I'm going to drastically change what I eat because of the film.  

The tools that the director used to present the message of the film were testimonials from individuals that experienced both the good and bad, interviews with doctors and professionals, animated graphs and statistics and also the director himself went through the process of changing his diet to gain a personal experience with the message of the film.  The fact that the director was willing to undergo a dramatic lifestyle change for the making of the film gained my respect and helped convince me of the truthfulness of the message of the film.

The Thin Blue Line

The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris)

I am so glad I watched The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris. I had always heard about this film in my classes and now I can understand why so much is said about it because it was extremely well done. I think almost every filmmaker makes films because they want to make a difference no matter if it's a small difference or a big difference. This goal is true in all types of films fiction or non-fiction. The Thin Blue Line is a prime example of a film that made a difference. The film uncovered new evidence on the case of a man that was on death row and because of the new evidence the man was released from death row and prison.

I would say that the director was very effective in his storytelling approach because of the difference his film made in that mans life. It was also exciting to watch because even though I knew the ending of the film I still felt the suspense because of the way the information was gradually revealed throughout the film. The complicated story made it a little hard to follow but it all came together by the end. The reenactments of the film were very helpful to visually see what happened make it easier to understand. I really liked how with the interviews we spent time with some of the people even after they finished speaking and we just watched them in silence. This allowed the viewer to get to know the characters on a deeper level. I highly recommend this film because its a perfect example to show how much power and affect a film can have.