Review of Heckler (2007) by Kathryn H — 02 Apr 2009

It was entertaining, but I found it a bit hypocritical. They jump the case of online bloggers and journalists for being personally critical of them and not just their work. But don't most of the comedians they interviewed make a living from personally attacking and "joking" about other celebrities and personalities in the public eye?

Overall I felt like the entire last half of the documentary was the pot calling the kettle black. Yes, personal attacks are never nice... but if you do it for a living too, even if you're on a different kind of public stage, you can't be the first one to throw a stone about it.

Now, if they're talking about anonymous commentators on the net in message boards and chat rooms, I get it. But lumping in legitimate online writers and critical thinkers with every yahoo blogger and commenter on the web is a bit much. Too broad to be an effective conversation.

I think the overall concept that they were trying to explore is a fascinating one: Why make it personal? I agree with that idea; but I think they framed it in a very bias, dismissive and frankly condescending way.