Tag: documentary

Cyber-Seniors

MPAA Rated – Not Rate
It’s 1:15 Long
A Review by:
– Andy Labis

Cyber-Seniors
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Shura Eadie, Ebert Hobbs, Henri Pelletier, Max Schellenberg
MPAA Rated: Not Rated
Released By: Virgil Films
Release Date: January 27, 2015 – Online and VOD
Kiddie Movie: Not too young. It’s a documentary and there’s a lot of talking.
Date Movie: It’s cute enough for the two of you.
Gratuitous Sex: Nothing that will make you blush.
Gratuitous Violence: Nah.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: The seniors with no governor on some of the things they say.
Memorable Scene: Shura cooking the grilled cheese with an iron.
Memorable Quote: Annette says “I’m not eccentric.” and Henri the mentor just rolls his eyes.
Directed By: Saffron Cassaday

As I was watching Cyber-Seniors I couldn’t help but think of three people, my Mom, my Mom-in-Law, and my Dad-in-Law, and although a little older than all of the mentors in the documentary, my experience with each my seniors was pretty much the same as the mentors had with theirs. My Mom was an early adopter to the Internet though she passed away before Facebook hit it big which would have helped her re-connect with many more people she lost touch with than she had found just through email and Google searches. My Mom-in-Law’s adoption, especially on her iPhone, quickly accelerated once she hit Facebook, even to the point she has now discovered Snapchat as “GrandmaEleanor” and loves posting her “stories” while keeping in touch with the Grandkids. My Dad-in-Law stays away from social media, but loves finding any news site he can discover. Teaching all of them various aspects of the internet and social media takes a lot of patience, but as the mentors show in the movie, the patience pays off the minute you see the smile of the elder discovering the wonders of Skype, Facebook, and finding out that the younger generation swears too much in their Facebook postings.

As the documentary goes, Macaulee and Kasha Cassady had a high school project back in the late 2000’s after they witnessed their grandparents discovery of the Internet, and they started a program to help other seniors get online. They ended up setting up a group, recruited friends to help teach the seniors, and their sister, Director Saffron Cassaday, started filming the sessions. The documentary keys in on a few of the seniors, their mentors, the elder’s challenges in understanding the concept of the Internet with the youngin’s challenges in finding ways to help point the elders in the right directions, and the excitement of discovery as the elders realize their is another world out there beyond the walls of the retirement home by becoming part of their families everyday lives again.

The training progress showing everything from just turning on a laptop, to using webcams and Skype, even to online dating, while the movie concludes with a contest amongst the seniors, namely to see who can be the biggest “YouTube” star amongst them. Their worlds open up again, and it’s a joy to see.

The beauty in training seniors is that they rarely have a governor any longer, and some of the best moments in the documentary are times when the seniors don’t hold back about people’s looks and their opinions on life, and while some are a little hesitant at first, worrying that if they unfriend someone on Facebook that said “unfriend” will come and attack them, eventually, once they see the benefits, they love it.

All in all it’s a nice documentary about the youngins helping the oldins learn how to get online. There is a little bit of a side story as Macaulee and her grandfather came down with cancer during filming which kind of took the story off the rails a bit, and things dragged a tad as we came to the YouTube contest, but the touching commentary by Ebert Hobbs on having a purpose in life long past your retirement is both poignant and a nice ending to the movie.

A fun look at the old folks learning about technology and it’s 3 1/2 stars out of 5 for “Cyber-Seniors.” If you’ve ever tried to help an elder learn about technology you can relate to the patience the mentors have, but mostly you can relate to the joy when the senior finally “gets it.”

On a side note, if you are interested more about the movie, want to be a mentor or cyber-senior, be sure to check out the the Cyber-Seniors website.

That’s it for this one! L8R!!

Vitality

MPAA Rated – Not rated.
It’s 0:55 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Vitality
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Dr. Bruce Lipton, Dr. Hyla Cass, Mari Winsor, Dr. Tim Brown
MPAA Rated: Not rated.
Released By: Virgil Films
Release Date: October 29, 2013
Kiddie Movie: Maybe if you want them to be a health nut, or they might find the poop and pee talk funny.
Date Movie: If she is on a health kick.
Gratuitous Sex: It’s a documentary, but there is talk about sex in the bedroom.
Gratuitous Violence: Nah.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: I did laugh a lot during the fake commercial for “Suprato.”
Memorable Scene: Nothing really.
Memorable Quote: Nothing.
Directed By: Pedram Shojai

Let me say, right off the bat, that the fake commercial for “Suprato” during the documentary “Vitality” was hilarious. That said, “Vitality,” being a documentary about health, doesn’t break new ground, but does reiterate a lot of common-sense ideas most people forget, stressing that our health system is messed up because, in general, it fights the problem with drugs instead of creating lifestyle changes, and that leading a healthy, vitality-filled life begins, for these documentarians, with four key points: Exercise, Diet, Sleep, and Mindset.

As the documentary goes along it touches on each of the subjects, with the diet-side being focused on the too-much sugar debate, that we should eat more veggies and drink more water, and the fact that the problem with most meat is actually the fact that the animals aren’t getting fed healthy diets, thereby passing along their own unhealthiness to us. Exercise delves around the fact that we sit around too much and need to move more, and in regards to sleep, the advice that the bedroom should only be used for sleeping and sex sounds great in theory, but I’m guessing for many a people, with flat-screen TV’s on the wall across from the bed, neither spouse will end up parting with their nightly entertainment nor morning news.

The mindset area of the documentary lets us know that we need to deal with stress a little better, where oddly enough my mom’s advice of “Counting to ten” is actually similar to their advice of stepping back from a situation and letting your mind calm down so you can deal with things in a more rational manner.

For the most part the documentary doesn’t get too preachy, except for maybe the “You should shop at a Farmer’s Market because the food is healthier” segment, and it doesn’t get into too much, for no better way to put it, possible weirdness, at least until there is talk of the body’s “invisible energy field,” which, sure, might sound hokey, but who really knows?

Will “Vitalty” help you become the healthiest of persons? Probably not, but it doesn’t hurt reminding us all that there aren’t too many keys to living a healthy, vitality-filled life. The documentary isn’t going to win any cinematography awards as it is, to put it bluntly, not shot well, but I suppose this one is more about trying to tell its message rather than looking good.

If you need a reminder about living a healthy life, “Vitality” isn’t bad, but for the most part it’s nothing new or groundbreaking. For me it’s a 2 star out of 5 film. It probably could have gone up ½ star with a better look, and maybe another ½ for adding a little more substance, but the beginning where they are just spouting tons of statistics that can always be manipulated to fit your needs turned me off a bit from the start. I guess I wanted a little more from the movie, and that let me down.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!

My Amityville Horror

MPAA Rated – Not Rated
It’s 1:29 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

My Amityville Horror
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Daniel Lutz, Laura Didio
MPAA Rated: Not Rated
Released By: IFC Films
Video Release Date: August 6, 2013
Kiddie Movie: It’s a little creepy and a documentary. Send them to bed unless you want them fascinated with the paranormal.
Date Movie: If she’s a documentary fan.
Gratuitous Sex: Nope.
Gratuitous Violence: Nope.
Action: Nope.
Laughs: Nope.
Memorable Scene: Nothing stood out.
Memorable Quote: Nah.
Directed By: Eric Walter

It’s been a long time since “The Amityville Horror” movie hit the scene, nearly 35 years as a matter of fact, and most people forget, or have never even realized that the story was based on the accounts of a real family, the Lutz’s, and that there are tons of websites on the internet dedicated to the paranormal activity that supposedly went on at the time. As most people forget the story is based on a real family, most people also forget that it also means there were kids involved, and for this documentary, “My Amityville Horror,” Director Eric Walter takes us directly to Daniel Lutz, one of the children in the house, who tells his tales of what went on.

The documentary is interesting in that it doesn’t try to prove anything, nor give a final answer as to what happened in the house, nor try to say if what Daniel says is true or not, but it does a good job of letting Daniel tell his recollection of the events leading up to, while in the house, and the life he had to live after the movie became a sensation. He tells of mostly just trying to get away from the story, how sometimes people would realize who he was and the implications involved with being a back-ended celebrity. Much of the movie brings Laura Didio along for the story, as she early on befriended the Lutz family, and Daniel seems to feel almost the most comfortable with her around, which helps the movie travel along.

Was there a haunting at Amityville? Did the Lutz parents just try to capitalize on being in a house where some horrendous murders took place? This documentary doesn’t answer that, but if you are a fan of the Amityville story, seeing Daniel Lutz relate things from his perspective, even if he wasn’t even a teenager at the time  that things happened, is an interesting look on the events, and how being in that situation can turn a person into the man Daniel Lutz is today.

I felt the documentary was well made, even the “Making of..” featurette wasn’t bad, so whether or not you really believe it, if you do want to just see a decent documentary about a man with a story to tell, “My Amityville Horror” is a 4 star documentary in my book. No, it’s not a horror tale, so don’t expect all kinds of scares, just expect a man and his story.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams

MPAA Rated – Unrated
It’s 1:42 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Stevie Nicks, Dave Stewart, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Reese Witherspoon
MPAA Rated: Unrated
Released By: Virgil Films
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Kiddie Movie: Only if they are a super-serious musician and wonder how a song gets made.
Date Movie: If she’s a Stevie Nicks’ fan.
Gratuitous Sex: Um, no.
Gratuitous Violence: Um, no.
Action: Um, no.
Laughs: There’s a couple of chuckles.
Memorable Scene: I really liked the video from Italy.
Memorable Quote: Nothing stands out.
Directed By: Stevie Nicks and Dave Stewart
Produced By: Paul Boyd, Dave Stewart

Back in 2011 Stevie Nicks released an album called “In Your Dreams.” I guess I should have been paying a little more attention to Ms. Nicks because, with the online release of the documentary “Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams” available exclusively on iTunes, I was introduced to a batch of music that was awesome to listen to, and now that I know a lot more about the history of all of the songs, a lot more meaningful.

In any case, it seems that when Stevie Nicks was making “In Your Dreams” in collaboration with Dave Stewart, yes, that Dave Stewart also known by most people as “That guy in the Eurythmics,” they decided to film a documentary about the creation of the record, as Dave Stewart is also an established documentarian. It was Stevie’s first studio album in about ten years, and it’s obvious from the onset that Dave and Stevie have great chemistry in putting music together, but the addition of the movie footage adds to an insight into the creative process of both of them, and the fun that can be had in putting an album together.

The film pretty much goes through the tracks on the album with a little storytelling of how the songs came to be, mostly through Stevie’s poetry writing and the growth of those poems into music, and the inspiration of many of the songs as they came to her. Along the way there is reflective insight into her past with Fleetwood Mac, some looks at Dave Stewart looking back a bit on his history in Eurythmics, and we also get a glimpse into the personalities in Stevie’s life as various other folks fill the world of song creating, namely the likes of Mick Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham, producer Glen Ballard, and Reese Witherspoon who offers Stevie and Dave a place to stay.

“Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams” doesn’t seem to try to do anything out of the ordinary other than tell the simple tale of how Stevie makes a record, and for that it achieves exactly what it is shooting for. If you are a Stevie Nicks fan I would say that this is a definite must watch, and for anyone curious how songs transition from a blurb on a piece of paper to finished product, the film is a case study in music creation and the various driving forces in crafting a finished song. There is a touching look at Stevie’s visit to injured Veterans, her look at the destruction in New Orleans, and just a lot of Stevie Nicks returning to classic Stevie Nicks mode that her fans know and love.

For doing exactly what this documentary is trying to accomplish, and doing it in a way that is entertaining and will keep a casual fan interested throughout, I’m giving “Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams” 4 stars out of 5. A must for the uber Stevie fan, and a nice watch for anyone who loves songwriting.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!