Funnier Than Nonfiction: SNL Alums' Documentary Now!
I have always been a sucker for a good documentary. Documentary feature (like Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room or Tim’s Vermeer, documentary TV series (VICE), newsmagazine show (60 Minutes), music documentary (Gimme Shelter) documentary short (everything on Facebook) – doesn’t matter. Even if the topic is something I don’t think I’m interested in, it’s only a few seconds before I’m hooked.
Fake documentary is not exactly a new idea: two of the greatest film comedies of all time (Albert Brooks’ Real Life and Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap) were “mockumentaries,” and they not only spawned whole subgenre, including all of Spinal Tap star Christopher Guest’s films; many of the conventions of documentary – handheld camera style, direct-to-camera “confessionals” by key subjects – have even seeped into... Read More