Crix Nix Schlock Docs

Caryn James savages recent documentaries over at the New York Times this morning. Break me an effing give, Caryn.

Here are some actual quotes:

Even as the genre leaps out of its niche, it is suffering from a tyranny of substance over style.

...

Digital technology has made filmmaking so cheap and easy that now almost anyone can point a camera at a difficult father or a wicked stepmother and call it a movie.

Substance is good. Digital democracy is good. How bitter is this woman? Even if the standards dropped way down on documentaries that get theatrical releases, the standards would still be way higher than fiction films. Mindhunters, Caryn -- need I say more?

And what's with the instant nostalgia? Movies like Spellbound and My Architect were far from perfect. I loved them, too. But that doesn't mean no one else can make a documentary featuring children, or exploring the contradictions of their artistic father. This is the sort of bile Alexander Pope warned against in his "Essay on Criticism":

Whoever thinks a faultless Piece to see,
Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.
In ev'ry Work regard the Writer's End,
Since none can compass more than they Intend;
And if the Means be just, the Conduct true,
Applause, in spite of trivial Faults, is due.