It is a performances centric movie

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

This rather fascinating documentary, directed by Vanessa Gould, shows us the inner workings of the obituary department of the New York Times. One might expect this film to be somewhat grim but it proves to be anything but, with even some deadpan (pun intended) humor well placed into the movie.Ar first, I thought the writers and editors of the department came across as flippant, considering the subject matter of a person's death. However, it became apparent that they have a job to do and are trying to do it in the best way possible, spinning an accurate and interesting narrative for their readers, while trying to sum up someone's life in just so many words, while also under time pressures to meet a print deadline.There's also lots of wonderful archival film and photos of people and events over the decades, as well as screen shots of various New York Times obits over the years. I thought the doc really gave me a good insight into how the writers of the obits chose those persons that would go into their columns and how the pieces are cobbled together, eventually with a finished product emerging.

"Maybe a sentence or two will be about the death." Obituarist Dying is no fun, but the obit writers at the New York Times make the most of it. They treat the assignment as a celebration of life, a real life, a history of people who made differences in the lives of others. Additionally, more than the responsibility of finding out the facts of a life is getting the facts correct.Obit is a surprisingly upbeat documentary about a decidedly downbeat subject. The reporters are animated about the celebration and the discoveries they uncover in their journalistic pursuit. Most of them were accomplished journalists who are chosen because that part of the paper has grown from a pasture for declining reporters to a field of artistic possibilities energized by the lives the reporters chronicle.Much of the time they are going on gut feeling. When they reported on John Fairfax, the first to cross an ocean in a rowboat, they hit a goldmine because his life outside the rowboat was even more interesting.In one of the most prominent obits, the somewhat discursive doc features the death of William Wilson, one of the first TV consultants, who advised JFK the night in 1960 when he defeated Richard Nixon by virtue of Kennedy's telegenic superiority, helped in no small part by Wilson's choice of such details as the makeup he hurried to buy at a pharmacy.An interesting part of such obits as Wilson's is the choice for lead paragraph or the headline or where in the paper it should go--front page or obit section--and how long in words. These decisions are not fed into an algorithm but rather are the province of writers and editors who know history and culture well enough to make the decision.The NYT is my favorite newspaper, so good that I read the obits along with the editorials. Such a gift to me ensures that my own obit will exude the joie de vivre we both share.

"Obit" (2016 release; 93 min.) is a documentary about the team of 4 or 5 obituary writers at the New York Times. As the movie opens, we see Bruce Weber, the NYT obit reporter, in discussion with the widow of someone who was a name in politics decades ago. We get to know the rest of the NYT obit team, and how they go about selecting whom to write up for tomorrow's print edition. At this point we're not even 15 min. into the movie but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is the feature length documentary debut from director Vanessa Gould. Here she gets close access to how the team of NYT obit writers go about their business every day. Comments one: "Obits have next to nothing to do with death, and everything with life", and in that sense of course obits are a celebration, but still you are dealing with life that has come to an end. Gould makes sure to cover all the bases of obit writing, including how to fact check and how to evaluate potential write-ups ("a virtuous life doesn't mean it's newsworthy", comments another). If there is something missing in the movie, it's that there is zero tension, or even anything truly unexpected. Yes, it's fun to see how certain obscure figures (such as the guy who was the first ever to be a TV adviser in a presidential campaign--that would be the defining TV debate in 1960 between Nixon and Kennedy) get their moment in the light--albeit post-mortem). I also couldn't help but wonder, given how the newspaper industry is going, whether one day someone will be writing an obit about the NYT obit department...I recently saw "Obit" at the Landmark E Street Cinema in Washington DC. The Friday early evening screening where I saw this at was packed to the rafters, as in: SOLD OUT to the very last seat, much to my surprise. Who knew there would be such an interest in this topic? I found the documentary mildly amusing but I have seen much more compelling documents recently (such as "God Knows Where I Am"). On the other hand, if you have a particular interest in obits, then by all means, this movie is for you and you should check it out, be it in the theater, on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

Well, I thought the movie had a sense of black humor and an upbeat tempo of positivity. If you don't know, it's about Obituaries in the office of the greatest periodical in the world.I kind of loved Obit. It's a fine and visually stunning movie. Especially, I loved the Adobe Photoshop editing of Newspaper Clippings and Newspaper Photographs projected to the sounds of wise words from journalists. Spoiler Alert. The movie showed a place in the New York Times Office, where journalists store pre-written obituaries. Ronald Reagan had a lot more death stories written about his racist person than the other people famous people did. Because of Fascists unpopularity, journalists wrote a lot of obituaries about him before his death actually occurred.Obit was actually not about a journalist who passed away, though going into the theater I thought it was. I got there 5 minutes late. The screen showed a black and white photograph of a man attempting suicide by sailing his 20 foot schooner across the ocean. I liked getting educated about what Great Journalists think and do. I learned very little about what I need to do to reach my goal of becoming a journalist, but it was still good to see the interviews Of NY Times employees. I was the historical references. The oldest Newspaper of the United States certainly has a lot of information in its archives. Some interesting people I was unfamiliar with were mentioned among the famous deceased. I wanted to give these forgotten stars of history a second breath air, freeing them from lost memory, carrying them across time to the here and now, researching them on Google.