This last weekend I happened upon three “documentaries.” I put the word in quotation marks because out of the three, only one looked and performed like what I’d consider a traditional documentary. Here’s what I saw:
Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives
Actually, you can watch this documentary online. I’ll even embed it here, so go nuts because it’s great and relatively short (one hour).
PARALLEL WORLDS, PARALLEL LIVES from EELS on Vimeo.
If it’s not working or if you’d prefer to know what the documentary is about before getting into it, I’ll tell you. It’s about Mark Oliver Everett’s quest to find out more about his father. That’s a pretty standard storyline, but in this case Mark is the founder of the rock band The EELS (one of my all-time favorites), and his father was a quantum physicist who came up with the theory of parallel universes. Seriously. It’s a strange concept but its results are excellent and entertaining. And you may even learn something.
Mark Oliver Everett, better known as “Mr. E” or simply “E,” contemplates the mysteries of physics.
Oh, and by the way, today The EELS came out with a new album. From what I’ve heard of it, it’s quite good. And at least while I’m writing this, it’s available to download from Amazon for only $5 here. You can also stream it on the band’s site.
I give the movie a 16/17 for soundtrack (using almost exclusively EELS songs), a 13/17 for thought-provokingness (it’ll take me longer than an hour to understand quantum physics, apparently), and a 15/17 overall.
Waltz With Bashir
Here’s yet another movie from my “List of Movies to Check Out,” but like so many entries, I have no idea where I heard about it. It could have been a recommendation from a trusted friend, or I may have written a note only containing the movie’s title, simply because I read an article in National Geographic that said the movie mentioned Lebanon. The world will never know the mysterious ways of my “List of Movies to Check Out.”
The world may also never know exactly what happened during the events that this movie depicts. It’s an Israeli movie, told from an interesting perspective. All the people in the movie are real (or at least composites), and it’s all based on real events. But the main character (and the movie-maker) has forgotten his memories of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. This is critical, since he thinks he may have taken part in a massacre of Lebanese civilians. This concern leads him to interview friends and other soldiers that were with him in the early 80s to see what they remember. Adding to the film’s unique perspective, the whole movie except the last two minutes or so is animated in a “looks like Rotoscope but isn’t Rotoscope” effect.
The movie gets a bit surreal at times. Unless a giant naked blue woman carrying off one of the main characters doesn’t count as “surreal” these days.
The movie is engrossing despite its often disturbing subject matter (and implications). I’d give it a 17/17 for originality (at least for me), a 15/16 for thought-provokingness, and an overall score of 15/17.
Devil’s Playground
First of all, it seems that there are about a dozen or so movies with this same title, although most of the others look a lot more messed up than this one. This is the one about the Rumspringa, the Amish rite of passage in which the community allows their youth to live like “English” (non-Amish) people for a while, normally for a year or two. During that time, the kids can dress how they like, do what they want, use electricity, date, and do all sorts of other things that aren’t allowed in the Amish community. The idea is that there shouldn’t be compulsion to get baptized, and that it should be each member’s own free choice. Of course, that choice can’t be made until they’re mature, hence the Rumspringa.
It’s a pretty cool idea, if you ask me, and I learned a lot more about the Amish than I ever thought I would. The movie also dispelled a lot of misconceptions I had about them (once you see an Amish teenager who sells crack, you also might experience a paradigm shift). This movie clocks in at about an hour and a half, so you should be able to add it to your next documentary marathon with no sweat.
For the Special Achievement in Bonnets and Beards category, I award this film a 17/17. For thought-provokingness, I give it a respectable 15/17, which means that its overall score works out to about a 15/17.
That’s it from me, at least for now. Has anyone else seen any of these, or does anyone have any good documentaries to recommend? It’s kind of fun to go on a “Docu-bender” now and then.
Thanks for reading!
I didn’t even know about Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, but that sounds amazing. Win win with an intriguing subject, but also with a guaranteed to be awesome soundtrack. I’ll have to check that out.
Also, I really liked Waltz with Bashir, and agree that it was pretty creative, especially in terms of doing a doc.
On a third note, did you ever see Senna? I generally recommend it to anyone when we’re on the topic of documentaries, but it’s probably one of the greatest docs I’ve ever seen, even though I’m not a huge F1 guy. It’s a great history lesson to catch everyone up on the sport, but it also has themes which are relevant to a lot of sports and, well, almost any hierarchical organization around today. You should check it out if you haven’t already.
Hey Paul!
Did the embedded video work? I know sometimes it depends on the country.
I’ve put Senna on my list and will have to check that out, too. Thanks for the rec!
Ryan
I haven’t seen any of these. I think the Amish one would be really interesting!
I hear Senna is great! I’d like to see it. I think it might be on Netflix, but I could be wrong.
Yeah, Senna is on instant stream.
Man, Costa Rican Netflix is a drag.
There might be a place to download it or stream it online, but I haven’t really checked.
I’ve been wanting to watch Waltz With Bashir for a whole now but haven’t gotten around to it. I get weird with documentaries sometimes since I was forced to watch so many for school (I’m the same way with silent films). Devils Playground sounds interesting too.
I’m super fascinated by Rumspringa!
You’d dig it the most!
Well, not necessarily, but I like that phrase.
Loved Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives. Fascinating concept which is getting a lot of traction. Wish i could trade places with one of my alternate selves because i’m sure he’s living it up.
The Eels really lend themselves to soundtracks; I mean who better to do it, really.
Do you like the new album? I’m on the fence; need to listen to the stream again. Going to buy the CD eventually. Was going to go to a concert but it’s a little pricey.
Have to check out the other two docs.
I have some doc suggestions but I think I will lay those out in another review.
I’m happy with having gotten the new CD for $5, so maybe the price is affecting me. But I do like it. The only issue I’m hearing is that there aren’t as many songs that jump out at me. I don’t really mean “singles” or “hits,” since that doesn’t really seem to be how The EELS work, but in almost every album there are one or two songs that really stick with me.
I’m talking “Fresh Feeling,” “Saturday Morning,” “Flyswatter,” etc. On this one, the only one that stands out so far is “New Alphabet.” The same goes for the last three albums. They work together as a whole, but nothing lights a fire under my ass, as … well, as nobody says. But you probably get what I mean.
I would definitely like to see them in concert again, though. I’ve seen them live and really loud, and live and really subdued (with strings), and both were excellent.
And I’d like to hear your doc ideas.
I really enjoyed the doc, and it was only as long as it needed to be. It’s tough to pitch a one hour long movie since it’s kind of an in between length, but it was good to watch and listen to while I was cooking, which took about an hour.
E’s story is really compelling to me, especially after reading Things the Grandchildren Should Know (also one of my favorite songs from them), which you lent me, Ryan. I love that he doesn’t sugar coat his music at all. It’s very straightforward and very sincere, often at the cost of being pretty damn depressing. But that’s life, I guess. When I think about rock stars that I could actually relate to, he’d probably be at the top of that list. Not that my life is all that depressing, but he just tells it how it is.
As for the new album, you’re kinda right. Nothing immediately jumps out at me, but I’ve found that if you put the entire Eels discography on shuffle then it fits right in. But I still need to have a few more listens straight through as well.
That book IS great… do you happen to know if you still have it? I’d like to re-read it sometime.
PS- some of my students say you should come back to visit CR.
Yeah. I still have the book. It’s sitting in my “already been read” shelf next to Cloud Atlas and Oh, The Places You’ll Go.
I can only imagine which of your students want me to go back there, but I’m not entirely opposed to the idea. Good thing the money is FLOWING in right now… Yeah….
Everyone wants you to come visit.
Maybe you can set the book aside and/or take it to The Fort…