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Reviews
American Cannibal: The Road to Reality (2006)
Exceptionally Poignant Documentary Makes Social Commentary on Reality (via Reality TV)
Saw the film at Tribeca. I give it a flat 10, as it gave me everything I want from a documentary: well shot, interesting, provocative, and truly stimulating. It is a rather searing look into reality, by way of reality TV. The film follows two writers as they pitch show ideas to producers; first pitching narrative work and then starting to pitch reality TV show ideas, the writers face lots of rejection. The tide turns when they meet Kevin Blatt, a cartoonish and entertaining personality (albeit jaded and gritty), whose previous work includes promoting porn productions and most famously, launching the Paris Hilton sex tape. He becomes interested in one of their ideas, is capable of funding the venture and in a snap, the writers are gearing up to actually create the show they envisioned. I won't provide too much detail about the rest, as it may begin to approach "spoiler" level but with a title like American Cannibal, you might imagine. Some broad strokes the show is billed to out-sensationalize everything before it, out-challenge its contestants, and generally just blast all perceptions of morality and motivation in popular culture. It does move forward indeed, and the characters and circumstances blend to create a scene somewhat unlike anything we have ever seen. The film is ABOUT the writers and their journey to get budget and to make a show. But what the documentary accomplishes is something much larger it makes an extensively evidenced case for the hyper-competitive and sensationalist nature of reality TV. It documents the origin of the ideas, gives glimpse to the support that makes it possible, and demonstrates the level to which reality TV has arrived where contestants will do just about anything for their 15 minutes of fame, and audiences will hunger for more, and generally, the more extreme, the deeper the hunger. I came away from this film feeling shocked, and feeling pensive. The movie probably stimulates more questions about popular society than it answers, but then, that is just the nature of reality.