Life in a Day 2020

Movie night with Gertie.

"Life in a Day" seemed groundbreaking ten years ago, but now we live in a TikTok era less so. So there's nothing groundbreaking here even thopiugh it's Covid and Black Lives Matter time, but it is entertaining and heartwarming.

Collecting videos from all over the globe, this YouTube movie is a balanced time capsule of human life in 2020. Keeping the view point with common people instead of directly depicting global events (or going full Koyaanisqatsi) it stays real, life affirming, and entertaining. While simultaneously avoiding being grandiose or cheesy.

A good watch for all of us locked in our rooms, houses, and apartments. Reminding us of the larger world out there.

This is a nice collection of home videos collected across the world but the editing is poorly done and makes it feel like these videos were randomly put together. This movie would have made more sense if those videos actually told a story in a way but it they didn't.

I felt like I went to YouTube Shorts and watched a bunch of random short videos at the end of this movie.

What was the main story of this movie? What was its take home message? What were we expected to take from it? What did editors of this movie accomplished that couldn't be accomplished by watching a bunch of random short videos on Youtube?

I felt like this movie left a lot to be desired due to poor editing.

For what this movie proposes itself to do, it accomplishes it in a beaultiful result. If movies are the best of way of telling stories, this one does that in the most wonderful way - visiting all the corners of humanity and their tales in a well crafted way. I recommend this for everyone.

I remember an old show called "Ben Casey" that began with the lead in, "Birth, Life, Death, Infinity." This is the task of this documentary which has had mixed reviews. The original was done in 2010 and this was a follow up. It must have been a monumental task. While there are some pretty gripping scenes, the editing was all over the place. Transitions were unclear and sometimes it was hard to see where things were going. Maybe a little voice over using poetry or some literary pieces would have helped. I suppose since so many cultures were engaged, that might be unfair. I stayed with it, but I never had the aha moment. Certainly worth a look.