Saturday, October 5, 2013

Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney



Winner, Audience Favorite Best Picture Mockfest 2008!
This movie won the Audience Favorite award as Best Picture at Mockfest 2008. In part, it may be a mockumentary, but much here is clearly true. In August 1965, live on ABC news, Paul McCartney jokingly proposed to 18 year old TV reporter Ruth Anson. This movie opens with that clip. Many things in Ruth's life changed as a result of the proposal. We see that, too. And we see how, more than 40 years later, Ruth is obsessed over reconnecting with McCartney and finding "closure." A film director backs the mad plan and sends a camera crew along with Ruth on her quest. Much happens, both funny and sad. And there is conflict between Ruth and the director. She wants McCartney; he wants to exploit the situation. The end result reveals what goes on behind closed doors of Reality TV and documentary film making. The ending is not to be believed, but should be. It's true, too. And very insightful. As a bonus, from the soundtrack, 12 original Beatles-like songs in their full-length,...

Anti-Beatle
This film has no involvement, musically or otherwise from the Beatles, except for archival newsreel footage. The idea is that its director will turn ex reporter Ruth Anson's idea to re-connect with Paul McCartney after he made a facetious marriage proposal to her during an interview decades ago into a joke on Anson's age, desperation and "out of it-ness". Supposedly Anson is in on the joke but it seems more like she was too deeply invested in the project and too fearful of not seeming like a good sport to withdraw when it took that change in direction. The positive reviews on this site must have come from people involved in the project. The film is tedious and boring. It is never ever funny and it is despicably mean. To try to ameliorate its cruelty by claiming it to be a mockumentary is a futile and transparent gesture. There is absolutely nothing here for fans of the Beatles, music or film. A complete and utterly vile undertaking that should never have seen the light of day.

Winner, Audience Favorite Best Picture Mockfest 2008!
This movie won the Audience Favorite award as Best Picture at Mockfest 2008. In part, it may be a mockumentary, but much here is clearly true. In August 1965, live on ABC news, Paul McCartney jokingly proposed to 18 year old TV reporter Ruth Anson. This movie opens with that clip. Many things in Ruth's life changed as a result of the proposal. We see that, too. And we see how, more than 40 years later, Ruth is obsessed over reconnecting with McCartney and finding "closure." A film director backs the mad plan and sends a camera crew along with Ruth on her quest. Much happens, both funny and sad. And there is conflict between Ruth and the director. She wants McCartney; he wants to exploit the situation. The end result reveals what goes on behind closed doors of Reality TV and documentary film making. The ending is not to be believed, but should be. It's true, too. And very insightful. As a bonus, from the soundtrack, 12 original Beatles-like songs in their full-length, with music videos...

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