-By John DeFore
For movie details, please click here.
Is it too much to suggest that the topic of commercialized
celebrity worship, one of the defining elements of contemporary
American culture, might at some point be addressed by a filmmaker
who isn't up to his neck in that industry?
$ellebrity, like the recent
Teenage Paparazzo, is a
documentary from the inside out. But actor Adrian Grenier,
directing the latter film, seemed genuinely eager to understand the
shutterbugs who stalk him.
$ellebrity director Kevin Mazur,
a veteran of the publicity establishment, often seems motivated
solely by disdain for the unsanctioned photogs who sell candid pix
of celebrities he's busy deifying.
Mazur's connections to the A-list world afford him a strong pool of
interviewees, and the film's a good resource for those who want
frank talk about life in the spotlight from Jennifer Aniston and
Elton John, or to hear Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony describe a
desperate, unsuccessful attempt to throw a DIY wedding so modest it
wouldn't be ambushed.
Similarly, Mazur speaks with business-side players, from one of the
paparazzo who inspired Fellini to the magazine editors who created
a competitive marketplace for hit-and-run photography.
But the doc's first half, with its no-attention-span editing and
flashbulb-pop imagery, is so similar in feel to vapid
entertainment-news fluff it has a hard time critiquing it.
(Occasional onscreen quotes from Susan Sontag and Richard Avedon do
little to lend it highbrow cred.)
Things get more substantial later in the film, but the problem of
perspective remains: Mazur is understandably critical of TMZ and
its ilk (though he does let some shooters defend themselves), but
as he recounts the early days of Hollywood image management, never
sees much wrong with the world of artifice and outright lies
crafted by people like himself. He's happy to blame civilians who
buy gossip rags for creating demand for the photos, but reluctant
to investigate why people care about seeing actors walk their dogs
in the first place.
—
The Hollywood Reporter
Film Review: $ellebrity
Doc about celebrity obsession has plenty of access, not enough perspective.
Jan 9, 2013
-By John DeFore
For movie details, please click here.
Is it too much to suggest that the topic of commercialized celebrity worship, one of the defining elements of contemporary American culture, might at some point be addressed by a filmmaker who isn't up to his neck in that industry?
$ellebrity, like the recent
Teenage Paparazzo, is a documentary from the inside out. But actor Adrian Grenier, directing the latter film, seemed genuinely eager to understand the shutterbugs who stalk him.
$ellebrity director Kevin Mazur, a veteran of the publicity establishment, often seems motivated solely by disdain for the unsanctioned photogs who sell candid pix of celebrities he's busy deifying.
Mazur's connections to the A-list world afford him a strong pool of interviewees, and the film's a good resource for those who want frank talk about life in the spotlight from Jennifer Aniston and Elton John, or to hear Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony describe a desperate, unsuccessful attempt to throw a DIY wedding so modest it wouldn't be ambushed.
Similarly, Mazur speaks with business-side players, from one of the paparazzo who inspired Fellini to the magazine editors who created a competitive marketplace for hit-and-run photography.
But the doc's first half, with its no-attention-span editing and flashbulb-pop imagery, is so similar in feel to vapid entertainment-news fluff it has a hard time critiquing it. (Occasional onscreen quotes from Susan Sontag and Richard Avedon do little to lend it highbrow cred.)
Things get more substantial later in the film, but the problem of perspective remains: Mazur is understandably critical of TMZ and its ilk (though he does let some shooters defend themselves), but as he recounts the early days of Hollywood image management, never sees much wrong with the world of artifice and outright lies crafted by people like himself. He's happy to blame civilians who buy gossip rags for creating demand for the photos, but reluctant to investigate why people care about seeing actors walk their dogs in the first place.
—
The Hollywood Reporter
