I wrote a review for it. Mostly, I wish a better filmmaker had tackled the topic. I get the impression that Cassie Jaye doesn't know anything about her craft. (Sorry, Cass.)

@ubuzen said:

I wrote a review for it. Mostly, I wish a better filmmaker had tackled the topic. I get the impression that Cassie Jaye doesn't know anything about her craft. (Sorry, Cass.)

Well, I'm not sure I would call that a review, it's just a paragraph. I'm not sure what you mean by "doesn't know anything about her craft". Care to elaborate?

I thought she was the perfect person to tackle this subject: a woman who, before setting out to make the film, considered herself a feminist. Not that the fact that the filmmaker is a woman AND a former feminist has made people more open to actually watching it.

@theburbs said:

@ubuzen said:

I wrote a review for it. Mostly, I wish a better filmmaker had tackled the topic. I get the impression that Cassie Jaye doesn't know anything about her craft. (Sorry, Cass.)

Well, I'm not sure I would call that a review, it's just a paragraph.

Well, there's not much to critique.

I'm not sure what you mean by "doesn't know anything about her craft". Care to elaborate?

Her idea of filming something is to point a camera at it and record. I can't see any attempt to make the shots interesting or meaningful, even in super-controlled scenes like interviews. This goes for the animated/digital stuff, too, which just look like something any random person with the necessary software would put together. All of that aside, she doesn't seem to have anything beyond generic platitudes to offer on the topic. That's maybe excusable at the beginning of her "journey", but toward the last third of the documentary, there's really no reason why she doesn't have a stronger vision and/or ideas to present. It's all unremarkable.

I thought she was the perfect person to tackle this subject: a woman who, before setting out to make the film, considered herself a feminist. Not that the fact that the filmmaker is a woman AND a former feminist has made people more open to actually watching it.

Notice how the only nice thing you have to say about the documentary is not actually about the documentary.

@ubuzen said:

@theburbs said:

@ubuzen said:

I wrote a review for it. Mostly, I wish a better filmmaker had tackled the topic. I get the impression that Cassie Jaye doesn't know anything about her craft. (Sorry, Cass.)

Well, I'm not sure I would call that a review, it's just a paragraph.

Well, there's not much to critique.

I'm not sure what you mean by "doesn't know anything about her craft". Care to elaborate?

Her idea of filming something is to point a camera at it and record. I can't see any attempt to make the shots interesting or meaningful, even in super-controlled scenes like interviews. This goes for the animated/digital stuff, too, which just look like something any random person with the necessary software would put together. All of that aside, she doesn't seem to have anything beyond generic platitudes to offer on the topic. That's maybe excusable at the beginning of her "journey", but toward the last third of the documentary, there's really no reason why she doesn't have a stronger vision and/or ideas to present. It's all unremarkable.

I thought she was the perfect person to tackle this subject: a woman who, before setting out to make the film, considered herself a feminist. Not that the fact that the filmmaker is a woman AND a former feminist has made people more open to actually watching it.

Notice how the only nice thing you have to say about the documentary is not actually about the documentary.

Some other things I liked about it, besides that I felt Cassie was the right person to direct it:

• I thought she chose good interview subjects
• I like how she included hardcore feminists and didn't limit the conversation to people from the men's rights movement (I may not agree with hardcore feminists, but I admire Cassie for listening to what they had to say)
• Some of the stories were very emotional and moving, even upsetting, but the film wasn't sappy or emotionally manipulative (she still presented facts, statistics, etc.)
• Her video diaries added just the right amount of personal commentary

Admittedly I only watched it once, so maybe if I go back and watch it again I'll find things I disliked about it. I'm still not exactly clear on what you didn't like about it. You didn't like her animations? You didn't think her shots were "interesting"? I'm just not sure what you expected. If she's just filming an interview with someone, what else would you have her do with the camera?

Compare it with something like Bowling for Columbine or An Inconvenient Truth and you'll see that there's a huge skill gap that needs to be filled. Jaye is an amateur. I hope she can improve on her future projects, 'cause she picks interesting topics but she doesn't do them justice.

@ubuzen said:

Compare it with something like Bowling for Columbine or An Inconvenient Truth and you'll see that there's a huge skill gap that needs to be filled. Jaye is an amateur. I hope she can improve on her future projects, 'cause she picks interesting topics but she doesn't do them justice.

I'm sure what you're trying to say makes sense to you in your head, but you're being so vague and unclear that I still have no clue why you didn't like this film. And that's fine, you're not required to like it. You just haven't effectively communicated (at least to me) why you didn't like it.

I guess I just don't have the language to describe how amateur it is. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Just watched it. I can't say I saw a problem with it as far as filmmaking goes.

I was in no rush to watch it because I was pretty familiar with all the issues it raises so didn't think there was much I could learn from it. I only watched it because it was free to stream on amazon. I still found it pretty captivating.

It should have more coverage. I never saw it reviewed or advertised in any film publications.

@JustinJackFlash said:

Just watched it. I can't say I saw a problem with it as far as filmmaking goes.

I was in no rush to watch it because I was pretty familiar with all the issues it raises so didn't think there was much I could learn from it. I only watched it because it was free to stream on amazon. I still found it pretty captivating.

It should have more coverage. I never saw it reviewed or advertised in any film publications.

It's pretty disgusting that theatres have either opted not to screen it or caved in to pressure to cancel screenings. As I mentioned I wasn't able to find a screening in my city (which makes sense because my city is overrun with the worst kind of feminists). I would bet most of the people who protested screenings haven't watched it and have no idea what an even-handed film it is.

To me this just underscores that women have a lot more power in society than they think they do, and no one gives a shit about the problems experienced by men and boys. If anything, it strengthens the film's message.

The only reason I knew about the film is because I already had an interest in gender politics. And i think mostly the people that will hear about the film are people who are already familiar with that subject matter. And of those people, the ones that the film needs to be seen by- feminists- won't watch it.

I think more films like it will be made in the future, though.

They tried to ban this in Australia. Well all the bad publicity just made it more popular. I had never even heard of it till it was on the news regarding banning. Now I have a copy, but haven't watched it yet.

@ausfem said:

They tried to ban this in Australia. Well all the bad publicity just made it more popular. I had never even heard of it till it was on the news regarding banning. Now I have a copy, but haven't watched it yet.

Do you know what reasons they used for trying to ban it?

Here's a good explanation

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/how-a-feminist-petition-to-cancel-a-mra-film-became-own-goal/7988850

@theburbs said:

It's unlikely any theatres in my city will screen it because of the subject matter (read: huge feminist population), so I've resorted to downloading this documentary. Wish I could have paid to see it like a normal person.

Curious to know what others think of it.

Saw it just now, learned few new things I didn't realized as a man are really issues, I am mostly familiar with biased custody family courts. I agree with other posters, topics she chose are good, but the form seem pretty amateurish compared to Bowling for columbine and likes, I guess she must had very low budget compared to more professionally looking documentaries.

@ubuzen said:

Compare it with something like Bowling for Columbine or An Inconvenient Truth and you'll see that there's a huge skill gap that needs to be filled. Jaye is an amateur. I hope she can improve on her future projects, 'cause she picks interesting topics but she doesn't do them justice.

What it comes down to is you can't fault the content of the film, because you'd look like a dumbass, so you have to criticize Cassie Jaye's film making technique. Uninteresting and meaningless camera shots? Bad use of animations? Soooo what, then? Would it have been better if Disney/Pixar made it? Throw in some music and dance numbers to "add more meaning" and make it "interesting"? Maybe some shaky cam shots to make the interviews look more emotionally captivating? And seriously, An Inconvenient Truth? Really? Gore had to release a follow up to that garbage pile in an attempt to explain why his predictions have failed to happen. "Why haven't sea levels risen by 20 feet like I said they would? Uhhhh...... well..... that's, um. Hey! Georgetown, Texas has gone 100% renewable! Kinda. Sorta."