For one film about documentaries, the largest takeaway from Amalia Ulman’s “Magic Farm” It may be that the world does not need more documentaries. Or at least it doesn’t need more of gonzo-anchoring, Vice -inspired “We sent six dysfunctional idiots to a third world country” documentaries that its characters devote their lives to. At a certain time, who can really argue with it?
A charming satire about the infinite capacity of lying that exists in people who seem to devote their lives to telling the truth, ”Magical farm“Is a deceptively leisurely movie. It overflows with big ideas on topics Ranging from exploitative media to the sexual politics of casual hookups to corporate farming and the health crises it creates. But rather than hit audiences. Through a Series of Relaxed Conversations Between A Crew of Bull-In-A-China-shop Filmmakers and the South American Villars they are cluelessly Hoping to document.
Creative Lab that is somewhere in a spectrum between travel journalism and internet barrels. Is led by host and de facto showrunner edna (Chloë Sevigny), the varied crew in Brooklyn Media Types travels the world that seeks odd stories that range from pop culture to the occult. Their latest project is a profile on a South American singer who has become viral for videos from him who performs with rabbit ears. Edna and her team of producers fly to the Argentine city of San Cristóbal hoping to interview him – just to find out that there are a lot of South American cities called San Cristóbal, and they went wrong.
The unequivocal fuck-up is a good metaphor for the team’s obvious breach of one of the subcultures they claim to celebrate. Without any immediate accommodation hotel lost their reservations and their local contact is inaccessible because she forgot her Facebook password-the crew arrives into two rooms in a small “family-friendly” hotel and tries to find a journalistic motivation for the trip and an Vape charger compatible with South American power outlets (but not in that order).
The crew Spanish interpreter (played by Ulman himself) begins to talk to local families, and it turns out there is Something worth making a documentary about in this San Cristóbal. Local children and teenagers grow up with a number of moderate to severe birth defects caused by glyphosates sprayed on products on the corporate farms bordering the village.
But rather than reporting on it – which, to be fair, would require a little digging because many villagers are pleased to lie to the filmmakers while overcharging them for basic services – the fine senses behind Creative Lab decide that they are better at staggering a fictional documentary about a non -existent music trend with the help of the local population. When Edna hesitates and quotes her preference not To exploit all locals, her vape-guzzling partner Dave (Simon Rex) says that she went into the wrong business.
With candy-colored production design that feels almost like what may have happened if Wes Anderson was medicated too early in his childhood and an ensemble role that is anxious to make fun of themselves, “Magic Farm” is a fun indie departure that offers plenty of reason to believe that its director has bigger things in her future. For some viewers, it will be too winding and unfocused, a sign of a talented filmmaker who has not really calculated how to direct her brilliance effectively. It is fair to claim that it has too much to say without taking the time to develop their points properly.
But taken as a series of sketches with varying seriousness, the movie acts as a nice media atmosphere with occasional really fun moments. Small meetings as a woman who asks a hotel manager for Bugspray, just because he is to be disturbed when he does not want to spray raid directly on her skin, is more effective than any of the more ambitious satire that the movie tries. Its characters may be busy trying to find the most Outland subcultures on the planet Earth, but “magical farm” convincingly claims that daily everyday life is human is more than absurd enough on their own.
Rating: B.
A Mubi edition, “Magic Farm” opens in theaters on Friday 25 April.
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