Review of Trekkies (1997) by Davey M — 13 Sep 2009

There are moments of genuine hilarity scattered throughout this documentary, but for being essentially a collection of people doing outrageous things, it's far, far, far too long. Instead of actually looking at these people and trying to get to know them, director Roger Nygard is content simply to take the bits that make people look the most stupid and snip them together; often it seems he's even trying to make it look like all of the "Trekkies" are just clueless crazy people, when it seems that some of them are fully aware of how silly they're being--bits like this that seem deprived of their context lose any believability, and, in turn, lose even their humor, the only things they potentially have going for them.

It's too bad, really, because there are some fascinating characters strewn about--the weird, unsettlingly pleasant family of dentists, the teenage kid who makes "Star Trek" rip-off movies and over-enunciates unnecessarily technical and academic vocabulary in everyday conversation, etc.

It's a letdown that instead of human beings, Nygard gives us unflattering caricatures, and instead of any sort of real commentary on fanaticism or human nature, we're left with a lot of unfocused, rambling, and rather exhausting clips of crazy people doing crazy things.

(And then out of nowhere is the very moving story told by "Scotty"--completely incongruous with the mocking tone of everything else, and one of the best things in the film.).