Catching up on documentaries
As background research for Over 50 and Out of Work, I’ve been watching (catching up on) documentaries: Paper Heart, The September Issue, Roger and Me and Food, Inc.
Quirky and fun, Paper Heart follows Charlyne Yi as she sets out across the country to interview people, searching for the answer to the question: What is love?
I was jealous when she interviewed owners of wedding chapels in Las Vegas – there was an Elvis impersonator and a clean-cut owner wearing his pants buckled way too high. They told great stories about marrying impulsive couples, but I’m sure they had many more to tell. I also wanted to know how these two got into that crazy line of work to begin with and if they could make a living at it.
In the end, I also found the entire documentary unsatisfying. Over the course of the film, Yi herself appears to fall in love for the first time, and she pledges to keep filming whatever happens. But when she follows her friend or lover (Michael Cera) to his family home in Toronto for a surprise reunion and he opens the door, she tells her crew to turn the camera off. Advised by her producer that the inconclusive scene didn’t work, she concocted an animated ending for the film that still didn’t answer the question — Did she find love? — and that also reminded me, regrettably, of Disney’s Mulan.
The September Issue is luscious and lovely. Also, fun, unless your livelihood depends on the fickle, fast-moving fashion industry. Watching Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington spar over the creation of the September 2007 issue of Vogue from the vantage point of 2010, though, was a bit painful. Making a living from fashion and art has become even dicier since then.
Saw yesterday that the fashion designer Mario Pinto, favored by Michelle Obama, is closing up shop and about to declare bankruptcy.
More on the other documentaries later in the week.