Customer Reviews

Hell's Kitchen: A New York Neighborhood

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I'm a documentary fan, love New York City and enjoy quirky real life characters so I was eager to see this film. Unfortunately it somehow manages to be totally unengaging despite what would seem to be a fascinating subject. The filmmaker tells us early on that 40% of the people in the gritty (but gentrifying) "Hell's Kitchen" area of Manhattan make their living in an artistic pursuit and to that end a musician, an actor, a milliner (hat maker) casting director, independent film maker, playwright and some other creative types living and/or working in the neighborhood are interviewed. These people are all talkative enough and in fact at times seem a little overly fond of the sound of their own voices but the filmmaker doesn't seem to be able to draw anything especially interesting or profound from them. And then at the end of this short (82 minutes) movie we get an update on how life has been treating these folks and depressingly enough things have gotten worse for almost all of them. The rest of the movie is mostly just disjointed shots of the neighborhood accompanied by some very unpleasant sounding music and the whole look of the movie screams "student film". I'm sure a good documentary could be made on the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood but this isn't it.

I've seen many documentaries, but this one is absolutely the worse. No substance. You really have no idea what Hells Kitchen is, or get a real feel for the neighborhood. I can go on and on. Coming from a born and bred in NY guy. Terrible

This film should be required viewing by every film student interested in documentaries. By watching it, he/she will learn: (1) how to shoot and edit video so that the viewer can never quite focus on any one scene. Apparently this filmmaker is so uninterested in the details of the "changing" neighborhood that he prefers not to dwell on any of them. Instead, experiment with filming techniques that Man Ray tried in the 1920s (2) chose subjects who are uninteresting, insipid and actually don't seem to know (or want to tell) about the neighborhood (3) Shoot all subjects in tight close-up, so there is virtually no context.

Perhaps some day someone will make a documentary that tells a coherent story of a truly fascinating neighborhood which has been virtually obliterated in the last ten years. This doesn't even come close.

a ps: A film entitled "Time Capsule" shot by Louis Faurer in the 1950s-60s has recently been discovered, and has been shown briefly here in NYC (April 2010). Can't seem to find it for sale anywhere. Mr Faurer was a still photographer, who experimented with film, and this one was recently discovered by his son. See NY Times 04-22-2010.

Technically good, lots of quirky characters in indoor settings - but - lacking a raison d'etre. Insufficient outdoor, streetscape footage. Hard to get a "sense of place". Yes, probably a student film.

I have waited the allotted time which was requested by seller, yet never received a tracking number or product. Amazon did not refund my money either. Very disappointed.