Synopsis
The intense anticipation of prom week lights up this warmhearted, sometimes cheeky look at the teenagers of Flint, Michigan.
Midnight in Paris
2019 Directed by James Blagden, Roni Moore
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would’ve watched 5 hours of this, charisma all over the damn place ~ fav moments:
- dude letting go of balloons
- couple that keeps thinking they are posing for picture
- girl eating cotton candy and dancing to kelly rowland “motivation”
- taco bell dinner in a hotel room
- the marching band having mint condition’s “what kind of man would i be?” in their repertoire
- the director’s choice to keep the car audio of “k.o.” by 2 Chainz running through the montagereal sweet, light and honest look at prom and all it’s anticlimactic glory
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True/False Film Festival Film #13:
At the beginning of the film, one of the students says that people only ever focus on the students who are doing wrong and not the ones like them who are succeeding. It is incredibly refreshing to just see Black joy. To see Black teenagers joking and laughing with each other, their family, and their friends. Our culture doesn't always afford this space for Black people. There is so much tragedy tied to Blackness, but so much joy as well. Prom is a celebration, but a celebration that often isn't as amazing as so many of us believed it would be. These are the students of a pre-water crisis Flint, and pre or post the…
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Forget TikTok teens, these are 2012 teens. Last 15 minutes is better than all of Zola (2020) which had zero Family Guy reruns playing on TVs in their motel rooms.
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who is this lady?? love that much of the pre-prom could be described as a talking heads doc, but never feels like it, reminded me of lanzmann. just what reason is there ever to shoot an interview in a constructed setting, how did that become such a common practice? but anyway this film doesnt do that and also captures the brilliant underwhelmingness of the institution
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If you’re trying to catch the Midnight in Paris that’ll keep you chuckling all evening, don’t make the mistake of watching the Woody Allen film instead.
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Puts many "hot button political" docs to shame, insofar as it presents the best argument on behalf of its case. We should care about the Flint water crisis, cuz, well, there are people living there ... an entire city's worth of people just trying to live there lives ! What more do you need ?
But , also , the film goes well beyond that context - its light and funny! The subjects are very charming and sweet, aided by the filmmakers' non-judgmental approach; a good companion piece to All This Panic in that regard, though this one's more easygoing when it comes to handling race.
Watched right after Aspen and it flowed in real nice, not identical approaches to documentary but maybe shares some DNA with Wiseman.