Surprisingly incoherent and boring

An Exercise In Nonsense

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Documentaries are generally a pretty esoteric cinematic experience and co-creator Fred Armisen's comedy is also pretty esoteric. As a result putting those together is going to lead to something that's not easy to appreciate or particularly funny every time out of the gate.While the premise's novelty-- re-imagining popular documentaries with a comic bent -- was enough to get it through the first season, the show usually sinks or swims based on how funny the episode is.With the exception of Michael Moore, Spike Lee, Morgan Spurlock, or Werner Herzog, very few documentaries have ever surfaced to the national consciousness. As a result, many viewers (including myself) are not going to go to know of the original source either, so the comedy often has to stand on its own in a way that most direct parodies don't. I'm not sure if this airs on the IFC TV channel, but the website has a featurette airing the two versions side-by-side which is certainly helpful."The Town, A Gangster, a Festival" approaches the brilliance of Christopher Guest's films (what I'm sure is an influence on these guys) in terms of attention to detail. A whole world is colored in by oodles and oodles of funny characters. This should cater to the wheelhouse of a writing staff-- all SNL alumni (if I'm not mistaken) where creating characters who can display a memorable quirk within a minute or two of screen time is a prerequisite.Without the advantage of the large ensemble format, the show faces a harder challenge with generally only two people front and center. The show can sometimes work brilliance here but some episodes have also fallen flat. Among the most brilliant entries are "Kunuk Now" and "Globesman" as both are hilarious based on stand-alone comic characters and broad reference(the primitive Eskimo in the former, the 1950s image of masculinity and the corporate salesman in the latter) rather than a specific cinematic style. "Kunuk Now" tells the story of a kooky producer who jumps production in Alaska and an intellectually-challenged Eskimo who single-handedly creates all our modern ideas of cinematography. "Globesman" takes the squeaky clean image of the 1950's and turns it into a portrait of sheer obnoxiousness.Among the other episodes that work somewhat well, "The Blue Jean Committee" is an exaggerated character portrait of two men whose lives have gone in opposite directions since fame. It distinguishes itself by being perhaps the only episode in the series with sentimental value (the final hug between the two tugged at my heart strings at least). Armisen is a music obsessive and his effort falls flat in the similarly themed second season episode "Test Pattern" which feels derivative: It mines similar nuances of "Blue Jean Committee" in mining similar nuances of concert culture without giving us a reason to care."Dronez" also roughly works without any source material as it provides a never-ending supply of dumb people and juxtaposes them with an incredibly dangerous situation.Others like "Juan Likes Rice and Beans" and "The War Room" are middling: They work based on the hyper-specific which will vary. In the case of the former, I saw "Jiro Likes Sushi" which helped me enjoy it at a fuller level.The rest of the episodes, including the series premiere, fall painfully flat based on hyper-specificity..

Lorne Michaels WAS very talented - over 40 YEARS ago, when he started Saturday Night Live.Back then, with the original (and still, THE best) Not Ready For Prime-Time Payers (Gilda, Dan, John, Garret, Jane, Lorraine, and - Chevy. By the way; Bill Murray joined AFTER Chevy left), it was biting the hands (the network, et al.) and they DID take chances.But, since they left Mr. .Michaels has done the same old, same old for so long, it's as if he's a 'puppet,' and everything is 'pre-made.'There's no more daring humour, no jokes that dare cross the line. It's all safe pablum.So, seeing his name as Exec. Producer is no surprise - to me. It's like that Simon 'LeGree' Cowell, and all his 'Star Search' rip off series, where the winner DOES get a contract, but, it's more like indentured servitude; they (the winner) is forced to crank garbage out for (in this case, Lorne Michaels) for eternity. They're forced to do his pre-made yuk-fest' whether-or-not they want to.Analogy; just like a kid who likes Chef Boyardee ravioli might grow up and still find - as they've grown to adulthood, this canned thing to be their 'favourite,' in all its sugar-drenched, chemically- tasting awfulness, it also goes with humour. As there are people who laughed at 'chicken crossing the road' -type humour when they were little, and STILL do years - perhaps decades later.There are a lot of people who have moved past this.For the people who still think SNL humour that they remember from their young adult-hood/college years as 'funny,' they will love this. For what these are - little 'take-offs' of well-known/familiar films, told in a style that almost has a built in 'pause' for the audiences guffaws, it's fine.But, if you're sense of humour is beyond this stage, these (so far only) 6(I hope that's all) episodes encompass 'ha-ha' versions of Grey Gardens, The Thin Blue Line, and several other well-known documentaries.The thing is, the original stories these 'parodies' are meant to 'gently nudge' (yawn), are so well- known, and has already had parodies, jokes, and what-not made, that it's pointless.The humour is plain obvious, i.e., in 'Sandy Passage' (Grey Gardens), we start with the old 'Uncle Mitly' vaudeville gag; men in drag. Yes, it can be funny, but, just drag, JUST for the FACT of having someone in drag ISN'T funny.The characters in Sandy Passage - 'big' and 'little Viv' are, again - very obvious caricatures, with absolutely nothing new.The real people, 'big' and 'little Edie' were so much larger-than-life to begin with, they've had performers of every calibre - from small clubs, and gay bars, to big venue shows - do send-ups of them.The take on Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line, one knows going in that they're going to make the southern … everyone - incredibly dumb (which is OK by me), so dumb, that even with the 'innocent' (but really guilty) party doing/saying everything BUT 'I'm guilty,' they STILL try to brush it off as him being a 'cut-up,' and the (truly) innocent schlub is 'of course' (according to them) guilty (primarily because he ISN'T a southerner).This is sophomoric humour at best, and if that makes you laugh, then perfect for you. Otherwise, skip it.

*NOTE*: This review is based squarely on the first episode: "Sandy Passage".In my opinion, IFC has produced some of the best alternative comedy in the past decade. From Portlandia to Comedy Bang Bang!, they've raised the stakes for what alt comedy should/could be. Imagine to my surprise when several months ago, while watching the premiere of The Spoils of Babylon, I saw a promo for a new series called Documentary Now! Starring alt comedy darlings Bill Hader and Fred Armisan, produced by Seth Myers and Lorne Micheals, and presented by Helen Friggin' Mirren! My expectations rose to kilimanjaric levels after seeing it. Now, having seen the first installment, I feel as if I have a firm grasp on this series and can review it in full. So, here we go. "Sandy Passage". A "parody" (using that term loosely) of the 1975 classic about a two- man film crew who set their sights on chronicling a mother-daughter pair of socialites living in a ramshackle estate. The episode essentially plays the film beat-by-beat with Armisen being the mother and Hader being the daughter.It's all very funny, satisfying, and even a bit poignant, but the real kicker comes at the very end, when it is revealed that the mother and daughter are murderers; both responsible for the "disappearances" of their former boyfriends and grocery boys. The ending genuinely scarred me, and as someone who often watches horror movies, that's saying something. Though the twist does feel a bit jarring after having sat through something so slow.Overall, "Sandy Passage" is a surprisingly nice little tribute a trailblazer of the documentary industry, and a nice entrance into the world of Documentary Now! I will definitely be watching further episodes. RATING: B+

OMG this is a torture !!! I really had such high hopes for this as i love this old (old as i can remember) crew of Saturday Night Live, "Bill Hader", "Fred Armisen" and being co-wrote by Seth Meyers ... and the first scene where Helen Mirren introduces the "movie" it was all unnecessary and loose,The script is not really funny, well at least for people who usually get even the smallest gesture of comedy .. even the moves and face expressions of "Bill Hader" and "Fred Armisen" which used to be hilarious, here were not that engaging or effective !!!Anyway, this is a pilot and the final scene was well somehow weird and i don't know !!! it's like asking .. where are they going next !! like would it be a semi-horror series now !!Independent Film Channel or the so called IFC would probably lose nothing from distributing this .. i mean never watched anything on it ,, hell first time i'v heard of it ... but they gotta try harder of picking up shows not only based on names (which i hugely respect and love).So overall,, the show is just a waste of slots on the channel and i recommend no one to try watching for the sake of comedy cuz you'll kinda hate yourself for spending that half hour on literally nothing ..