backofthevan

From the first scene with the director demanding that her subjects "perform" in a certain way rather than just tell the story as it happened to them, alarm bells went off for me.

I was initially intrigued by the promise of some kind of miracle happening, an almost unbelievably serendipitous meeting of long-lost family... Sounded amazing until it wasn't.

So many questions arose that were not only never answered, the answers were never pursued! Questions arose, floated in the air, then left to drop with no explanation.

Some reviews claim this is a brilliant documentary... Maybe they watched a different version where intelligent people encountered an intriguing mystery, pursued answers and brought it all to a satisfying, fully explained conclusion. But that was not what happened in this pile of confusion and frustration.

An utter waste of time.

I waffled back and forth between watching this film and letting it pass. Read reviews - some liked it, some didn't... so, silly me, decided to give it a go. Sorry I bothered.

My goodness, this is a sad, slow little movie about sad, slow people. I like to be able to root for someone in a tale, if possible (although not always necessary: Succession, for example). Pamela Anderson's dimwitted character, Shelly, is foolish and delusional. She seems to think that her more than 30 years as a performer in a Vegas nudie show is something of value, worth losing (or, worse, giving up) custody of her child for. You got that one wrong, Shell! She goes on to show herself as a cold and selfish person who willingly closes her door in the face of a young co-worker crying out for help. Completely lost me at that point, and I stopped caring what happened to her next.

The admirable Jamie Lee Curtis continues to take roles that make every effort to show her in the worst possible light. Although just about everything looks dim in this underlit and underwhelming effort.

Why it was made I don't know. It's not like it shows us anything we haven't seen before. Yes, time passes, people age, things change. Is this news? Is this somehow revelatory? Are we supposed to feel something for these vain and foolish people?

I was trying to stick it out to the bitter (and I do mean bitter) end, but a scene near the end, which I won't elaborate on because I hate spoilers, caused me to say "That's it! I can't take any more of this nonsense!" and brought the curtain down. I don't know how it ended and I do not care.