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5.5/10
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A group of suburban Muslims attempt to reconcile the disappearance of a close friend and must learn to live with the consequences of his actions.A group of suburban Muslims attempt to reconcile the disappearance of a close friend and must learn to live with the consequences of his actions.A group of suburban Muslims attempt to reconcile the disappearance of a close friend and must learn to live with the consequences of his actions.
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- 3 wins & 4 nominations total
Jennifer Julian
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- (voice)
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Zero point to this "documentary". No information about what he did or what he was saying he believed in.. why would you end it like that? The whole thing was pointless speculation and it ended with one fact that should've been elaborated on and would've made it good. Totally pointless. Really irritating. I was very interested in knowing what happened.
"Suburban Muslims have to learn to live with the consequences of a close friend's actions." That's the official synopsis, yet the documentary is purely just a pointless discussion among uninformed individuals speculating what happened of the 'close friend', without even exploring anything substantial.
The only thing interesting about this documentary is that the interviewees wear superhero masks - supposedly to 'protect' themselves. That too is rendered pointless as it's not like these people are divulging any sensitive information that would affect themselves negatively. Plus, the ill-fit masks are poor disguises and ultimately ineffective without any voice-modulation.
The whole mask thing just seems like a gimmick to incite our inherent excitement and intrigue of controversial topics.
The documentary fails to inform us audiences about what really happened (how and why the friend became involved with ISIS and its extremism), and the whole topic is guided by the interviewed subjects who themselves are very uninformed and are pointlessly speculating about the friend and his fate.
The filmmakers glossed over several aspects and information that would've made this documentary more interesting, especially about the involvement of FBI informants in American Muslim societies and the possibility of the friend being an informant himself.
How this ended up being a winner at Sundance, I have no idea. At the end, this uninformed documentary doesn't attempt to look deeper into the truth or reveal anything pertaining to case. Neither does it really show how the Muslim Americans are affected by the incident discussed. It'll just make you scratch your head at what the point watching this incredibly short documentary was.
The only thing interesting about this documentary is that the interviewees wear superhero masks - supposedly to 'protect' themselves. That too is rendered pointless as it's not like these people are divulging any sensitive information that would affect themselves negatively. Plus, the ill-fit masks are poor disguises and ultimately ineffective without any voice-modulation.
The whole mask thing just seems like a gimmick to incite our inherent excitement and intrigue of controversial topics.
The documentary fails to inform us audiences about what really happened (how and why the friend became involved with ISIS and its extremism), and the whole topic is guided by the interviewed subjects who themselves are very uninformed and are pointlessly speculating about the friend and his fate.
The filmmakers glossed over several aspects and information that would've made this documentary more interesting, especially about the involvement of FBI informants in American Muslim societies and the possibility of the friend being an informant himself.
How this ended up being a winner at Sundance, I have no idea. At the end, this uninformed documentary doesn't attempt to look deeper into the truth or reveal anything pertaining to case. Neither does it really show how the Muslim Americans are affected by the incident discussed. It'll just make you scratch your head at what the point watching this incredibly short documentary was.
I had never heard about this, but it reminded me of an article talking about radicalized teens/young adults in the states. It was pretty good for a 20 min film.
Most of the reviewers who left negative reviews did so because they expected this to be a documentary that vilifies Mark and provides all the saucy and morbid details of everything that they assume he's done. But this documentary is not about that. This documentary is about the hurt that he caused in a community that is already heavily targeted, and how his friends are coping and trying to understand his actions. It touches on how a fairly normal kid can go rogue given the right circumstances and it humanises that fact. After reading some of the reviews it seems that a lot of people are not interested in knowing how terrorism affects Muslim communities in the US, but I found it a very touching and raw account from a perspective we don't often see.
This documentary was a good view of what it's like to be a young Muslim in USA after 9/11. Also, the heartbreaking feelings behind "Mark´s" friends masks fill all documentary scenario. However, the documentary has very few substance/information. Indeed, it explains almost nothing about why "Mark" became extremist and why his friends thought he was an FBI spy.
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- Ghosts of Sugar Land
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- Runtime21 minutes
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Top Gap
By what name was Les fantômes de Sugar Land (2019) officially released in Canada in English?
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