I really enjoyed the first half of this oddball 'documentary', in it's dark humored portrait of two aging eccentric sad sack alcoholics, and their 'us against the world' friendship. It feels like something out of Jim Jarmusch, or a less wacky "Toni Erdman". But at least on first viewing, the 2nd half --which grows somewhat more serious as one of the men tries to kick his alcohol addiction -- also felt more a little more familiar and even emotionally manipulative.
The question also arises 'how much of this is staged?'. While the film calls itself a documentary (something I was not aware of as I watched it), and the film-makers have said they were essentially only flies on the wall for the 2 years of filming, everything from the intimacy of some of what they filmed (e.g. filming in the middle of the night in people's homes, or filming in a hospital and showing various nurses and patients, all of whom seem unaware of and/or unfazed by the camera), to the camera angles, to sometimes seeming to have multiple angles on a scene, bespeak at least some level of controlled or scripted storytelling is going on here.
In addition, if these men are truly are in the self destructive state we see, then the film starts to feel cold and uncaring. It's one thing to enjoy the decline of fictional characters in a black comedy, another if these are real people seriously discussing suicide, and slowly drinking themselves to death.
I need to see this one again.
The question also arises 'how much of this is staged?'. While the film calls itself a documentary (something I was not aware of as I watched it), and the film-makers have said they were essentially only flies on the wall for the 2 years of filming, everything from the intimacy of some of what they filmed (e.g. filming in the middle of the night in people's homes, or filming in a hospital and showing various nurses and patients, all of whom seem unaware of and/or unfazed by the camera), to the camera angles, to sometimes seeming to have multiple angles on a scene, bespeak at least some level of controlled or scripted storytelling is going on here.
In addition, if these men are truly are in the self destructive state we see, then the film starts to feel cold and uncaring. It's one thing to enjoy the decline of fictional characters in a black comedy, another if these are real people seriously discussing suicide, and slowly drinking themselves to death.
I need to see this one again.
