Movie Review: Fyre

Fyre **** / *****

Directed by: Chris Smith

Written by: Chris Smith

 

I didn’t hear about the Fyre Festival until we started to see social media posts go viral the weekend of the actual festival, when everything went so horribly wrong. That sad sandwich, with the cheese, those awful looking tents- and a lot of rich millennials going on twitter to complain that they spent thousands of dollars on nothing. It was, then, a funny story in many ways – in large part because it seemed like the only victims were rich people, and they really lost was a little money they may well get back anyway. The festival was such a disaster that it really did become the stuff of legend – as everyone from late night comedians to random twitter users had an opportunity to dunk on everyone involved – and did they ever. What makes Chris Smith’s Fyre – the new Netflix documentary – valuable then is to peel back the curtain, look at precisely what went wrong and why it went wrong – and also provide a little more context, and a look at some of the victims who this festival truly did hurt. And no, it was not those rich millennials.

 

The central figure in the documentary is also the only one note interview – Billy McFarland (he is interviewed, and was paid for that interview, in the other Fyre documentary – Fyre Fraud – released by Hulu last week – but like every other Hulu documentary, it isn’t available here in Canada or I would have watched it) who was seen by many as a genius entrepreneur, who ideas just could not fail. He made his name on a credit card company – Magnises – that made their cards out of metal, and promised all sorts of perks and discounts for rich kids in New York. His next company was going to be Fyre – an ap that allowed you to book high end talent for your event. He partnered with Ja Rule, who may not have quite been high end talent at that point – but was also likely the highest end that would be willing to perform at your bar mitzvah for the right price. The whole Fyre Fest was supposed to essentially be a huge launch party for the ap. They were to get an island in the Bahamas, get a lot of musical acts and supermodels down there, and a lot of millennials with a lot of cash to burn to come down and party all weekend. What could go wrong?

 

Everything. Everything went wrong. And for the most part, it was the result of hubris. McFarland hired models to come down and shoot a promo video for the festival, before he did practically anything else. If you’re going to have thousands of people on a small island who expect luxury accommodations, how would you do that? How would you feed them? Where will they sleep? Where will they go to the bathroom? Where will the stage be? How will get there? On and on and on there were a lot of questions that just never got answered – and the people who raised those questions were fired by McFarland for being too negative. The planning got started late, and most of the people assigned to do it had no experience doing it at all. As the date moved closer, it became apparent to everyone they couldn’t pull it off. But to McFarland, not pulling it off was not an option. He owed too many people too much money – so he kept pressing ahead.

 

Fyre is an entertaining documentary. It’s the kind of film that you cannot believe all the details that come out in interview after interview of just how far McFarland went to try and keep this festival going, even as it became clear it wasn’t going to happen. His employees all seem reasonably smart – and yet none of them were smart enough to get the hell out when the getting was good. The attendees are the type of entitled millennials you expect to find – and even if they had a horrible weekend, they will be okay (and while we’re on the subject – what’s up with that guy who said that he and his friends didn’t want to be around anyone in the tent city – so they started pissing on other people mattresses to drive them away – making a horrible thing even worse. That guy’s an asshole).

 

But it is also more serious than you may expect as well – especially when it focuses on the locals – many of whom did a lot of work, spent and lot of money, and were supposed to be paid for that work, and never did. No one will stick with you more than the restaurant owner – out $50,000 for all the work she did, and the staff she paid, who will never see a dime of that. There were real world consequences to Fyre – even if I never realized what they were at the time. It’s early in 2019, and already we have one of the better documentaries you will likely see this year.

Movie Review: Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton

 

Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton **** / *****

Directed by: Chris Smith.

 

Jim Carrey was one of the biggest stars in the world when he made Man on the Moon – Milos Forman’s 1999 biopic about the late comedian t Andy Kaufman. Carrey had a string of huge hits starting in 1994 with Ace Ventura – and going on to include films like The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, Liar, Liar – etc. The year before he made Man on the Moon, he made his first drama – Peter Weir’s The Truman Show – which showed his chops outside of comedy – which, of course, never delivers the kind of prestige many want. Man on the Moon seemed to be the culmination of Carrey’s career up until that point – and remains a high water mark for Carey’s career. There have been rumors and stories for years about just how committed Carey was to the role – did he really go to set and insist on everyone calling him Andy – or Tony, on those days he had to play Kaufman’s own alter ego. There is a strange blurring of the lines between Jim and Andy – something Kaufman likely would have loved, since no one could ever tell just how serious he was about anything, what was an act, and what was real.

 

The new documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond is made up of footage shot by Kaufman’s Lynne Margulies and his partner Bob Zmuda on the set of Man on the Moon – Carrey wanted them instead of a typical “making of, press kit crew”, and a very candid modern day interview with Carrey himself. Tellingly, the movie doesn’t interview anyone else involved – no Forman, or any of Carrey’s co-stars and crew – so in effect, this is still a performance piece for Carrey himself. How much of what we see is an act – how much is real? Did Carrey play it up when he knew the cameras were rolling, or was he really that demanding all the time? Carrey says that Universal didn’t want the footage to come out because they didn’t want people thinking that he was an asshole. They were right to be worried.

 

I don’t think Carrey is an asshole – and I don’t think the footage on the set shows him being one. I do think it shows the extremes of method acting – something that is at times admired, and at others times mocked (to be fair, if Daniel Day-Lewis needs to go wholly method to deliver performances like Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln – go for it – but is Jared Leto needs to send used condoms to his co-stars to become The Joker is freaking Suicide Squad, it’s not worth it). How much of this all is an act, is something that Carrey is still toying with us in the modern day interview. Perhaps he needed to keep everyone on edge, because that is what Kaufman did as well. He knew what was an act, and what wasn’t – no one else did.

 

The modern day interview with Carrey is interesting and revealing. Carrey has stepped back from the spotlight in recent years – only occasionally doing lead roles anymore, and even more infrequently in the type of comedies that made him famous in the first place. He is fairly candid in his interview about his process – and his own mental state, which he has struggled with at times. He talks about going up on stage and a Mr. Hyde coming out of him – that’s not Jim up there, that’s someone else entirely. Watching the film, you get to see the connections between Jim Carrey and Andy Kaufman even more than you did before. Part of the issue with Man on the Moon – which is a really good film, but not quite a great one – is that Kaufman remains an enigma throughout that film – it never really gets under his skin, because he worked so hard to keep you on the outside, questioning what is an act and what isn’t. That is precisely what Carrey and Man on the Moon captured so brilliantly – and yet feels somewhat incomplete (to be fair, I haven’t seen Man on the Moon in years – but now I want to). Carrey lets that barrier between performer and person (and audience) down a little bit during the course of this film. He’s still toying with us – sure – but we see at least a part of him. This film is about two comic geniuses, yes, but only one do we really get to know. The other will be a permanent enigma – which is how he always wanted it.

Movie Review: Collapse

Collapse *** ½
Directed By: Chris Smith.
Featuring: Michael Ruppert.

Michael Ruppert has been called everything from a “visionary” to “batshit insane”. The one thing you cannot deny no matter where you come down on Ruppert, and believe me if you see Collapse you will form an opinion of some sort, is that Ruppert is a fascinating man, with fascinating ideas. I do share his pessimism, but damn if for the running time of the movie he doesn’t sell it to the hilt. In a way, he reminded me of a less insane, more rational, and more left wing version of Glenn Beck, that nutcase on Fox News, who recently revealed his three G’s plan for when the country collapses. The three G’s are God, Guns and Gold (because when you’re starving apparently that’s all you need – who needs food?).

Ruppert was a LAPD officer in the 1970s, but was drummed out during the 1980s. He says it is because he discovered that the CIA was smuggling drugs into the country and selling on the streets of LA, and when he refused to go along with it, the CIA tried to kill him, and then ruined his career. Since then, he has made his modest living being a writer and investigative reporter. He distrusts the mainstream media, but knows how to read it. The big stories are never on the front page, and the real meaning is always hidden, but it’s there.

For Ruppert, he believes that the world is going to collapse soon. Fossil fuels are running out, and there is no alternative fuel source that could possibly take its place. He runs through all the alternatives, and tells you why they won’t work. He takes about reserves in the Middle East, the Alberta Tar Sands and in the Wildlife preserves, and explains why they won’t last very long. The population is booming out of control, and soon, the bubble will burst and millions, if not billions will die. It sounds like something out of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

Chris Smith’s documentary pretty much allows Ruppert to explain his views for nearly 90 minutes. The film reminded me of the work of Errol Morris, as it essentially just mixes together one interview with archival footage and a musical score. We hear Smith ask questions in the background occasionally – he doesn’t seem as convinced as Ruppert is at the inevitable onslaught, but Ruppert isn’t much interested in listening to him question his views. He knows what he knows, and dammit, he’s going to tell you about it.

Some of what Ruppert says makes a lot of sense. At times he just seems like a very passionate conversationalist espousing his theories to get people to be more in tune with the earth. At other times, he really does seem like a paranoid lunatic. But I find too often that people go to movies, particularly documentaries, to have their views celebrated and congratulated. Perhaps the reason why Michael Moore’s films have never had the true impact outside of his fan base that he wanted them to is because he is essentially preaching to the choir. No one else is listening. Ruppert has a much smaller choir than Moore does, but he preaches just the same. Whether you agree with him or not, and I did quite a lot of both in Collapse, you cannot deny that he is one fascinating person – and a great subject for a documentary.