Trouble the Water (2008)
Directed by: Carl Deal and Tia Lessin
Genre: Documentary
Running Time: 93 Minutes
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Viewed: Netflix Watch Instantly
It's not about a hurricane. It's about America.
[IMDb]
Comments: Trouble the Water is a documentary chronicling the plight of aspiring rapper Kimberly and her husband during Hurricane Katrina. The film is aided by home footage Kimberly shot that is truly terrifying of the flood waters invading her home. It's pretty spectacular stuff that really drives the point of how insane the hurricane was. Seeing Scott (the husband) taking a punching bag through the flood mid-storm to help people was incredible. As a whole, the documentary is pretty good, though I have my issues.
Trouble the Water is decidedly one-sided - though with how bungled the entire FEMA response was, it's hard to mount any type of counterpoint. Regardless, this is how the film portrayed its facts.
I think my biggest issue though, and one that I think divided many viewers of the film, were the film's protagonists, Kim and Scott. They are poor and uneducated former drug dealers. Neither of them have a job and it's fair to assume they survive on government sustenance. Kim can barely speak intelligible English, and at times she's even subtitled because it's so hard to understand her. But I found them (along with others along the way) to be very unsympathetic for the subject of a documentary. And let me make this clear: IN NO WAY IS THIS A RACE ISSUE, NOR AM I SAYING THEY DIDN'T DESERVE TO BE HELPED. I know that sounds harsh considering the absolute shit that they went through, but this is just how it came across to me in the film.
Despite my complaints, I did enjoy Trouble the Water. The footage provided was incredible and the overall story made me feel even more terrible for the shit that happened to the Gulf Coast. It's definitely worth a watch on Netflix, though hardcore right-wingers may want to proceed with caution.
Trouble the Water is decidedly one-sided - though with how bungled the entire FEMA response was, it's hard to mount any type of counterpoint. Regardless, this is how the film portrayed its facts.
I think my biggest issue though, and one that I think divided many viewers of the film, were the film's protagonists, Kim and Scott. They are poor and uneducated former drug dealers. Neither of them have a job and it's fair to assume they survive on government sustenance. Kim can barely speak intelligible English, and at times she's even subtitled because it's so hard to understand her. But I found them (along with others along the way) to be very unsympathetic for the subject of a documentary. And let me make this clear: IN NO WAY IS THIS A RACE ISSUE, NOR AM I SAYING THEY DIDN'T DESERVE TO BE HELPED. I know that sounds harsh considering the absolute shit that they went through, but this is just how it came across to me in the film.
Despite my complaints, I did enjoy Trouble the Water. The footage provided was incredible and the overall story made me feel even more terrible for the shit that happened to the Gulf Coast. It's definitely worth a watch on Netflix, though hardcore right-wingers may want to proceed with caution.
No comments:
Post a Comment