Ralph's Movie Reviews: S&M: SHORT AND MALE

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

S&M: SHORT AND MALE

Documentary
Some French and Chinese with subtitles in English.

THE PRODUCTION TEAM
Director/Editor: Howard Goldberg
Producer: Ina Fichman
Director of Photography: German Gutierrez
Original Music: Ned Bouhalassa

REVIEW
The applause began as the end credits first appeared. This spontaneous expression of approval is the most sincere praise any audience can bestow on a theatrical performance and in this case it is truly warranted.

Dealing with a subject matter not previously embraced by the movie industry this documentary brings to light the discrimination people have towards short statured males.

Replete with little known facts, including statistics that economists have known for a long time, as well as revealing names of those we might have suspected to be short it is both informative and often humorous. Some of the things are downright funny, others less so because discrimination is not something to laugh at. Crisp editing keeps things moving along.

CLASSIFICATION

for some language (couple of swear words).

P.S.
Following the screening I had a chance to speak with the Director. He told me that in addition to wanting the film to be entertaining and educational he also saw it as a springboard for short men to “come out of the closet”.

In parting he gave me a pass for two people for any show at the Montreal AMC theatre. If you’d like to go see the movie for free drop me a line…first come, first served of course.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.