Reviewed at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival
(2007, 86 min) Bill Friedman is a 59-year-old professional bodybuilder, and is fiercely itching to dispatch his rivals in the upcoming over-50 competition. But all the training and posing in this documentary is just a Macguffin, since the director is Bill's son Bryan, and it's all about father and son reconnecting after being separated for two decades. Too bad, since the bodybuilders are much more interesting than the cliches of failed parenting, absentee fatherhood, a resentful son, and the inevitable bonding at a late age.
Bryan Friedman is clearly aping Ross McElwee and his introspective, let-it-all-hang-out-in-voiceover style. But he's also an insufferable whiner, can't stop mocking the subjects of his movie, and frankly, many of his lines sound like convenient contrivances to advance the character arcs. In one particularly indulgent scene, he films himself breaking down during an interview, and yet neglects to actually show detail or keep one uninterrupted shot... they feel like crocodile tears. The closing sentiments, of Bryan starting to see his dad "through the eyes of a son and not a cynic" seem like too little too late after a full hour of the bitterness. Now, a documentary about Carl Krazner, or Dave Weinstock (who, by the way, has much more expressive facial expessions when he poses than tightlipped Bill)... that would be interesting.
© TLA Entertainment Group
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