MovieChat Forums > Paul Williams: Still Alive (2012) Discussion > Is this a parody documentary?

Is this a parody documentary?

posted 11 years ago by MrsRhettButler
5 replies | jump to latest

All the focus on the documentarian made me think it's meant to be a put-on. Paul Williams apparently knew everybody and everything and the guy making the film focuses, instead, on squid and his OWN reactions to events in PW's life. As a documentary, it's horrible. As a parody of a documentary, it's... not horrible but who cares about the guy making it? Maybe that's the point, though. I couldn't wait for it to end.

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[–] yojimboy 11 years ago

Yes, it was incredibly self-indulgent. He apparently couldn't find the dramatic arc in Paul Williams's own story so he made the movie's dramatic arc about his own struggle to successfully befriend and make a documentary about Paul Williams.

[–] denise1234 10 years ago

I loved it, but I agree that the director interjected himself too much into it.

~~ The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means ~ ~ Oscar Wilde

[–] WarpedRecord 9 years ago

As with a lot of documentaries these days, it feels more like "reality" television. Thankfully, Paul still comes through shining, unlike the director, who just looks like a fawning, phony fan. Seriously: He thought Paul was dead, or did he just need "material" for a title and an entree?

[–] southrules 9 years ago

I think the movie made it's point and the guy who made it was just saying that for fans, Paul had disappeared. The point of the movie is that Paul is not proud of his life as an entertainer, he doesn't really want to look back, he looks forward. He made the point that his sobriety and his kids and traveling to third world countries where they love him bnow were all important and his past life, though it made him famous, was not really a good memory and he didn't want to dwell on it at all. I think that was the point of the movie and the point was made well, I enjoyed it and instead of complaining that the film didn't follow the standard documentary outline, I appreciate that it was made with originality and a freshness that made the film more memorable than many other "well made" documentaries.

"All the donuts have names that sound like prostitutes"
-Tom Waits

[–] metatron1970 9 years ago

A parody? That would require that the guy making the doc knew the meaning of the word. But this is the guy who gave us Vegas Vacation. Do you really think he knows what a "parody" is?