To make this documentary about the now legendary Internet classified ad service, Michael Gibson first assembled 8 separate video film crews he discovered through the San Francisco Bay Area Craigslist website listings. Then, lining them all up one morning (August 4, 2003, as it happened), he dispatched these teams to first contact Bay Area people advertising various services, products, needs and desires on Craigslist, and then to go out to visit and shoot interviews with the most promising or colorful contacts, all within a single 24 hour period. The accrued footage was then edited to make this film. It was a clever concept but the product falls flat. Most of the people interviewed are either boring or boorish. The editing is WAY too frenetic, WAY too chop chop.
The film might have been far better if Gibson had lingered longer on a few carefully chosen, engaging, viewer friendly people. I did learn here that the number "420" is, like "Bob," a code for marijuana, but when I Googled "420 marijuana," I found 497,000 listings: I'm clearly the last person on earth to find out about this code. One fun thing I'd also never heard of is a phenomenon called "flash mob" games (708,000 listings on Google, sigh). Players find each other via Craigslist. Everyone who signs up then receives written instructions (by e-mail, I suppose) to gather at a certain place and time and then follow a precise, timed protocol for when and how to behave.
This being San Francisco, I thought the game would involve nude romps through town, but no. In one game, a hundred or more people converge to fill the lobby of an upscale hotel, whereupon they first hug everyone else who's there like long lost amigos; then they all crash to the floor, flopping down upon one another in simulated sleep, like a narcoleptics convention. If only the rest of the film could have been this good. My rating: 4.5/10 (C). (Film seen on 09/30/05 at the Idaho International Film Festival) If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.
