VARIETY review



http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117937268.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

After reading VARIETY's take on the film, I am guessing that people seeing this, will really be bugged by the fact that NO ONE interviewed gets named (captioned) but ... then again, if you have to ask "Who's that?", should you really be seeing this film at all?

Ferrara (I think) assumes people going into seeing this film will already be quite familiar with its subject matter, its tenants, its history, its lore, etc. soooo (not to second guess the guy or anything ...) he might have felt that to name-names would have insulted the audience, and its vast intelligence.

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then again, if you have to ask "Who's that?", should you really be seeing this film at all?


Isn't the point of watching a documentary to learn about the subject?

I thought it was very interesting, but the acting in the Sid & Nancy/Janis Joplin scenes was a little weak. That actually took away from it a little bit for me. I kept wanting those scenes to end so we could get back to the interviews and old pictures and footage.

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Jennifer Libby,



ME: then again, if you have to ask "Who's that?", should you really be seeing this film at all?
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YOU: Isn't the point of watching a documentary to learn about the subject?


Good point. Good point.
As you know, I also found it frustrating that NOT each and every person being interviewed was identified as soon as they came onscreen, or (as you so rightly pointed out) identified by "stills" of themselves with names beneath, at the end of the film.
Now, this said, I did recognise a fair number of folks in the movie. Nice to see Giancarlo Esposito again, though! I first saw him in Spike Lee's "Do the right Thing", and '89. Incendiary performance.



PROUD member of PETA: People for the Eating of Tasty Animals

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Not everyone in the movie is a celebrity. And most of those that are, are only notionally so. No offence to Bijou Philips, for example, but do you REALLY expect me to know this person by sight?

The idea that myself and others 'should not' be watching this because we cannot identify non famous people by sight is real head up your arse stuff.

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In documentaries, when people are interviewed, I like knowing who in the heck is speaking. I think the film makers, of this movie in particular, expected viewers to KNOW who we were seeing. I didn't know all of the folks on camera. I wish I did. Or, many people looked familiar to me, but, I couldn't place their identities Now, it was nice to see Giancarlo Esposito, however. He figured into Spike Lee's "Do the right Thing", a film I loved.

** There MUST be more than one way to skin this Cat! **

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Good point you made Jacinto, about my querying "Should you be seeing this film at all?" but, I reckon what I meant to say (and perhaps I made my point rather badly)was that it helps NOT to be wholly ignorant going into watching this film.
It helps to know who stayed in the Chelsea when such an edifice mattered.
I knew of some folks but not all of them. I wish I had been informed, via captions, of just who I was seeing on camera.

** There MUST be more than one way to skin this Cat! **

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