Review of Cinema Verite (2011) by Rebecca C — 18 Aug 2011

This didn't really work all that well to me. The concept is a tricky one: a behind the scenes look at the filming of "An American Family" a (then) groundbreaking documentary and the first reality tv show.

As such, the performances and the narrative feel very fabricated and there's not one second that youre not aware these are actors trying to play these people. What doesn't help is that you have another layer as the film (and alot of the criticism of the original documentary) tries to argue that in real life the documentary was such a problem for the family because the presence of cameras pushed them to sort of play heightened versions of themselves.

Basically, the idea being that the camera is a sort of catalyst as opposed to an observer (basically playing into the theory that the closer you examine something the more you change it). The idea is fascinating but the performances from Tim Robbins and Diane Lane as the parents aren't nuanced enough to give you a feeling of that and the performances from the rest of the cast, in particular a somewhat unconvincing James Gandolfini, don't really carry the film.

As such, this ends up sort of falling flat, feeling inauthentic and begging the question as to why HBO didn't simply make a retrospective documentary looking back at he original film, it would have made a lot more sense and not felt like a waste of creative energy.