Vince27

(2012-04-25 15:30:23)

Unbelievable

Life in a Day is a remarkable, emotional and an inspiring film full oflife.The film is shot by hundreds of people, from around the world, who senttheir own personal videos into YouTube to make this stunning picture.It is hard to really review the film because of what it is about: life.The film captures life for anything on Earth, whether it be a human oran animal. Cultures, religions, ways of life and philosophies are alltouched upon in this amazing piece of history. Never before has theentire world been seen in a film such as it has in this picture.People from all over the world are captured living as they do normally.There is no Hollywood, there are no actors, no directors and nowriters. This film is about people. It is obviously very difficult to explain what life is and I am notgoing to do it. But this film does it and it does it in a way anybodycould understand.Life in a Day is awe-inspiring in the way it captures life on Earthwithout being sentimental. At the end of the film, there won't be asoul in the world that isn't touched.

mwolff5

(2012-04-25 03:27:03)

Amazingly real!

This movie blew my mind! How can an independent movie be so great? Thismovie shows every day people in the rawest form. You just do not seethis in any other film. It shows people real points of view, althoughvery subtle. I thought it was very interesting to see so many people'sfears and allowed the viewer to relate to this movie. I think the bestpart of it all is the fact that they allowed everyone to view it forFREE on you tube. No high-budget movie would do that! It is refreshingto see a movie being shown to all in its purest form and getting thebuy in it is most deserved from the viewer. This movie should be showeverywhere! Get out and see it!

bubba_blais

(2012-04-24 12:30:21)

"Life in a Day" shows us that it was nothing special to be alive on July 24th, 2009.

This was a very cool concept, but I think its one of those things thatwhen its all said and done, it doesn't exactly pan out the way youthought it would. It was definitely intriguing some of the time, but Imostly found it a bore. Its just what people do everyday - chores,work, talk about their problems. Films are made as an escape from this,I don't want to watch one about it! Just because its a new idea and itsset to inspiring music and its "artsy" doesn't make it good. I'm notsaying its terrible, its just nothing special. Just like a regular day.And I mean that bluntly; of course everyday is special, but walking towork? Yawn. Milking goats? An hour and 34 minutes of this and you haveyourself "A Day in the Life". There are some exceptions, but overall,you definitely have to be in a certain mindset to enjoy it.

tedg

(2012-04-23 22:24:40)

Snail Eats Label

Life in a day: The Scott brothers sponsor a film with YouTube. Isuppose the idea from YouTube's side is that ordinary people make filmsthat are real, and that allow us to deeply share humanity... the kindof films you can find on Google's YouTube.This film really is good, but it is precisely because it has whatYouTube cannot give: coherence and something like a zen long form essayon engagement. It is, in other words, composed, with themes, andblending; contradictions (but without comment); differences unified.Sound and song that binds; rhythms that you can understand throughoutas the rhythms of life.Some of the people you meet, you simply fall in love with, but thiswould not be the case if you saw them alone. It only works because ofthe composition, the story that we weave that bridges the thing. Someof the scenes were clearly shot knowing the whole, and that takes awaysome of the truth of the thing, and truth matters here. But thatintroduces only minor friction.The final shot could stand alone. I'm not sure if it is computergenerated or not: a snail progresses on a billiard-sized white balluntil it encounters a label that says 'mind your own business.' Thesnail eats the label. I think YouTube would like to brand itself as avideo FaceBook in the sense of allowing anyone to see anyone, with theassumption that everyone is interesting in some way. This is engaging and personal. The source material may well have comethrough a YouTube- like process, but what this shows it that you needlong form, a story and some talent to make things that matter.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Kevin Loigu

(2012-04-16 15:36:55)

Life in a day,,,

First of all, this is my first review. Second of all, this documentaryis pure gold. How can you sum up life? All it's wonders and downsides?I think Kevin Macdonald and Ridley Scott and the whole team behindmaking this film did a great job. Everything you see in the film ispure. It's real. It's like if you watch this movie you can realize justhow large our world is. You cannot compare your everyday world to theworld other 7 billion humans are living in. Well at least I couldn't.Movies are my passion. And so are many other things. Being one of sevenbillion makes you think. Makes you analyze. Makes you feel. About life,about death. About myself and about you. About your smile. Aboutschool. About granny. About yesterday and about tomorrow. Life in a dayisn't just a documentary. It's a true story told by everyone in thisplanet. And the story goes on every single day until the story slowlyfades... Make your life worth living for. It's not likely to lastanother story.

Ruth_91

(2012-04-16 00:54:14)

One word - amazing.

For an hour and a half, I sat back and experience Life in a Day - whatdo you think happened on July 24th, 2010? Out of 4500 hours of footage,coming from countries all around the world, featuring people of allages and walks of life, in all conditions of life, with all differentkinds of quality of film, the editors and film makers have createdsomething really special. It was an exploration of humanity. It spanned from the earliest hoursof the morning to the few minutes before midnight. It was amazing tosee how creative people can be. The simplest aspects of their day -things they consider ordinary - become extraordinary. There was somebeautiful imagery. It was filled with montages (it would have to havebeen - they had to be very careful with their editing and pacing), mostof which start of on a light note, but become more serious. A beautifulscore and a wonderful soundtrack compliment it. It's funny andheartbreaking and emotional and engages with the audience by allowingus to relate via the only thing every single person on earth can relateto - being human. Our humanity. Certain people were focused on. The man from Korea who has been cyclingaround the world for over nine years, having visited 190 countries. Hesays he's not from North or South - just Korea. He hopes forreconciliation. "The impossible is possible". A gay man coming out tohis grandmother. A couple renewing their wedding vows on their 50thanniversary. One of my favourite images was of people lighting floatinglanterns and sending them up to the sky. People were asked to say what they loved, and what they feared. It'snot all light-hearted. I've said this was an exploration of humanity -we get the full range of human emotion and experiences. Love, joy,fear, birth, marriage, celebration, religion, war, anger, despair anddeath. It wouldn't be human if there was no death. People with cancer.People admitting to fear death. Some chilling footage of Love Parade inGermany - when there was that terrible stampede in the tunnel. Peopleprobably went along thinking they would just film the festival. A newsphotographer showing us his home in Afghanistan, juxtaposed with a wifein America, waiting to skype with her husband, who is fighting the war.A montage of humanity at what I felt was its most violent, wild, crazy.I won't forget the last 'Life in a Day'. A woman who stated she waitedall day for something exciting to happen, but it didn't. Nothinghappened, and it often doesn't. Life isn't amazing everyday, she says.I'm not special - but she still somehow felt that today was specialanyway. She probably didn't even dream of making it into this film. Thefeeling that this film left me with was hope. So many people in thisfilm had such hope for the future. It's wonderful to see.

Steve Pulaski

(2012-04-07 19:07:36)

Life as we know it on film

In late July, filmmaker Kevin MacDonald asked the Youtube community tofilm themselves on July 24, 2010 and submit the video to the Life in aDay Youtube page. The videos would be edited and made into a ninetyminute feature film that would premiere at the Sundance Film Festivalin January 2011. It was such a creative idea I couldn't wait to get myFlip and record myself, sadly, the line "must be 18 years or older"prevented me. Whatever, I was still excited to see what others wouldfilm and submit to this film. Who wouldn't? Kevin MacDonald stated "itwould be kind of like a time capsule that people in the future, maybetwenty, thirty, forty fifty, a hundred, two hundred years could saywow, that's what life was like." To be fair, Life in a Day did comewith a price. The submission rate was unprecedented, and I assume lotsof people didn't make the final cut for the film. If they did, theirclips were butchered to probably lest than a third of what they were. Afilm like this has many positives, but a lot of negatives as well.When documenting a film of this large magnitude, there are a plethoraof negatives I must state. One, I feel like the people that producedtheir own clips were cheated in a way. Both Kevin MacDonald and RidleyScott are smart people with a lot of knowledge, but it is sort ofscummy that they get to collect the check for their small part in thefilm, while the true stars were the Youtube community. To my knowledge,the "actors" in the film don't see a dime of what this movie sees.Probably just a typed letter on Youtube.Another aspect that sort of brings the film down is the fact that thereare numerous scenes that take place outside of America, or in differentcountries. That's perfectly fine, I was interested in seeing whatpeople in Egypt, Africa, Europe, Asia, or where ever would film. Thedownside is the film is absent of subtitles, making it impossible tofigure out what these people are saying. I bet the producers themselveshad no idea what these people were saying either. You can see whatthey're doing, but that only gives you the vague representation of whatis going on.Now that I've dug through the flaws, lets talk about the positives. Forthe most part, the film is shot rather well. Keep in mind, thousands ofcameras were used to shoot this movie without a doubt. Different megapixel count, different size, quality, capability, editing, whatever.It's hard to make something look that nice when numerous cameras wereinvolved. Some stuff in this film was mobile phone footage which lookedwell. Whoever cleaned up the audio/video on here is a technical genius.My favorite scene in this film was probably the homosexual teenagerconfessing his true sexual orientation to his grandmother. You can seethat he is truly nervous, and scared of her reactions to his love life.We don't hear the grandma, but we see the teen's reactions. This is thekind of thing that belongs in this movie. In ten, twenty, thirty,forty, fifty, etc years homosexuals will hopefully be accepted and notridiculed for their being, and teens won't have to worry aboutconfessing what they believe is right. They'll be accepted, and freefrom homophobic bullying.Numerous other scenes in Life in a Day are very heartfelt andemotional. The end clip is very near and dear to your hearts, and thefilm does it's best to fit these clips in chronological order becausethere is no true storyline. Life in a Day is an inventive piece of filmthat I had the pleasure to see while it was streaming Thursday January27, 2011 on it's own Youtube channel live from The Sundance FilmFestival. Such a surreal experience, and such an unforgettable film.Starring: The Youtube Community. Directed by Kevin MacDonald and RidleyScott.

Nico Collu

(2012-04-06 23:22:06)

A True Accomplishment

I just watched the world premiere of this movie live through YouTube onthe 28th of January starting at about 03:00 AM.Let me start by saying that this is an amazing piece of joined art.I could write tons of spoilers in this review, but it would never addup to actually watching the movie. From the beginning it adds to yourlife a sense of emotion, a sense for wanting to travel the world, asense of connection, a sense that, yes, it is a clichГѓВ© statement; Weare one.It touching every emotion; I cannot put into words what I want toexpress.A Life in a Day is a movie of the ordinary yet extraordinary life ofanyone at any given time.You cannot help but feel like you are a part of every scene; of everypart of this earth; of every human being presented in this movie.Watching this at home in the early morning, I do not feel isolated inthis room - I feel like I am part of a whole, flying high, ready tolive my life every day.Like the reviewer before me, "If you don't feel empathy for all in thisvideo, something is wrong with you!" Watch the movie! - Nico Collu

rperry-17

(2012-03-30 16:41:12)

The last fifteen minutes....

I'm going to review this based on just the last fifteen minutes of thefilm. I have not seen the whole film yet, just the trailers and the lastfifteen minutes.Review:"My God. Could not be imagined, could not be written, could not havebeen foreseen.Astounding ending, but ultimately at peace with life. In a Day. MyGod."The film quality is way above what you might expect, as is the sound.This is not a collection of home video, but some astounding shots. Thestory itself is unwritten, just assembled, but incredibly well.I think it will take some time for this work to be recognised for whatit is.As will the vision of the people who came up with the idea. The resultis surely way beyond what they could ever have imagined.

Amadio

(2012-03-30 03:58:04)

If this is life... yawn

First of all I must confess; I missed the middle of the film because Ifell asleep. The idea of the film was wonderful; people all over theworld send in clips of/from their lives and the directors put togethera 'collage' and make a film. I've just seen the Sundance screening onYouTube. As was said in the Q&A afterwards, there are as many versionsas there are directors willing to take the scenes and put themtogether. This version, however, for me, was slow and boring. What awaste. So many amazing clips must have been sent, and what was puttogether focused on individuals for way too long. Poorly shot,hand-held filming is not an issue. Labouring a point is. The directorssaid that they had no idea what they would do with the footage and thatthey had to make a structure. This 'structure' did not hang togetherfor me at all. The directors started out calling it an experiment, andthen later called it a film. It is an experiment, and I do not find itto be a very successful one other than to show editors what not to do.I really hope someone else has access to the raw footage and makessomething more interesting, motivating, uplifting and representative ofthe human spirit.

Greg Phipps

(2012-03-22 09:10:55)

Excellent documentary, Best Documentary material IMO.

A year ago from yesterday, I knew about the experiment and what wasgoing to happen. However, I was too young to enter... so... thatsucked. So time passed and I sort of forgot about the movie. Then theyannounced that they would be releasing the movie on Sunday (yesterday)and I knew I had to see it. So, I went to a sold-out screening of thefilm, and they showed the top 3 fan-made trailers for the movie, andsome Q&A afterwords, as a little added bonus of seeing the film on thefirst day. And let me just say that this movie is AMAZING. I thought it was goingto be kind of cheesy, and it sort of was, it was a little cheesy, butthis film was near perfection. It captured the essence of life onplanet Earth in one day. From America to Afghanistan to Korea toAfrica, the film was better than any Discovery Channel BS documentaryseries. The movie showed all different types of cultures, religions andpractices, from the Muslims celebrating Full Moon (I think) toAmericans getting up and going to work, this film, as I've said manytimes before, captures the essence of life. I definitely, ABSOLUTELY recommend seeing this movie. If you should seeany documentary in my opinion, either see this or Exit Through The GiftShop. Or both. But, nonetheless, this one. I won't be surprised whenthis movie wins an Academy Award, because it's the best darndocumentary I've seen released this year.This film is happy, funny, sad, and emotional where it needs to be.They stated in the Q&A afterwords that the original cut was 3 hrs long,and I think that that cut may have been a little too long.Final verdict, if there's one documentary that you should see withinthe next month, it's this. If you're a YouTuber, see this movie. Ifyou're a human being who breathes in oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide,and has the ability to go to the movie theater where they are screeningthis movie, SEE THIS MOVIE.

alexart-1

(2012-03-21 12:40:11)

July 24, 2010: Life out of Balance

Morning, July 24, 2010. "It'll all end well," a man says to his youngerson, who is currently throwing a tantrum. "It'll all end well," hereassures the boy. What will end well? This situation? This day? Thislife?As Life in a Day progresses, the viewer travels through the lives onmany, literally living vicariously through others. This amazingdocumentary, produced by the Scott Brothers (one of which is the famousRidley Scott) and directed by Kevin MacDonald, travels all over theworld on one all too regular day: July 24, 2010. Starting in themorning, a time filled with a happiness and renewal, and ending in theevening, a time of reconciling and sadness, Life in a Day profilesthings that should be commonplace. The best part: these things arecertainly not commonplace. The Earth is a beautiful place. Our livesare great. Why not display them on film? And that is just the point.Like any great documentary, Life in a Day is a poignant film. Butunlike many great documentaries, it follows a subject that should notbe poignant. If you have ever seen Amelie, you know the great beginningsequence. An unseen narrator shows us two glasses dancing on a table, afirefly dashing across a yellow-lighted French street, and a manerasing the name of a dead friend out of his address book. Imagine amovie like this entire opening sequence and you've got Life in a Day.Beautiful imagery, such as a teenage boy shaving for the first time, iscommon throughout the entire film. One shot especially, that of askydiver falling to Earth, is probably the best part of the entirefilm. In a scene reminiscent of Koyaanisqatsi, a woman tumbles throughthe upper layers of Earth's atmosphere. It is quiet for a brief minute,and then, as the clouds engulf her, the noise of the people seeps in.The couple laughs together, sharing a time like no other together.And yet, there are some truly disturbing scenes. At a Love Parade,multiple people are shown getting trampled to death. A few rush over tohelp the fallen victims, but many carry on, screaming to their heart'scontent. One part that people will surely have a reaction to is theslaughterhouse scene. Fair warning: a cow is shot in the head twice.The cow is later decapitated graphically. As these scenes show,sometimes life isn't always great. The images may be ugly and bleak,but they are always beautiful.Life in a Day is a beautiful time capsule of people in the newmillennium. Simply put, it's a wonderful portrait of people who doregular things. On a more complex level, it's a documentary about howlives are constantly changing. Every action we do changes the nextaction that is going to happen. Time is important. It's also shapingthese actions. What's going to happen tomorrow? After all, as ScarlettO'Hara once said, "Tomorrow is a new day."

Robert

(2012-03-21 02:44:53)

Wow...

Real life is scary and intense and hard sometimes. But real life isreal. There's no escaping it. You either accept it or... well I don'tknow. But a few years ago when YouTube/Google asked us, the people, tosubmit a video or two of our life on that day, I of course took thechallenge. Wasn't surprised to not see my video, but I'm sure mostdidn't see their videos there.This is literately just a series of videos people submitted. Some withmusic, others without. The sequence was what made this interesting. Itshowed early morning, then morning, afternoon and evening. They had afew questions they had answered, including what's in your pocket, whatdo you love the most, and what do you fear. The answers were mindboggling.I was amazed by what YouTube/Google included in the videos. Being in avery politically correct world where you don't offend people and thusreligion and politics are never mentioned, they included some. The onethat impressed me was a guy in a ranch with his son and wife, who saidhe loved his "Heavenly Father" the most. Reality. Some people arereligious, some aren't.There were a few scenes I'd rather had not seen, including animalcruelty, but I accepted it because it's reality. That's how life isevery day. There were scenes of people happy, some almost angry, somesad and crying. This was blended in perfectly. And they ended itbeautifully as well.I rate this 8/10 for a very well done sequence.

saternbaby

(2012-03-20 19:49:55)

Life as a Lie

I understand the need to drive home some kind of secular fantasy abouthuman unity in the technological age. I also understand that humans aredoing themselves no favors by building lies like this film in place ofserious discussions concerning just how intolerant, self-righteous,irresponsible, violent, perverse, delusional and diseased we are as aspecies. This will sound cynical to some. But I am cynical because Ihave no choice. I see wonder in the natural world, even as it ismerciless and savage. But humans are not wondrous. We are a part ofsomething wondrous. Big difference. A celebration of life by theliving, though understandable, is absurd. And the lie is that we aresome kind of global community that can "just get along".YouTube itself is an socially irresponsible corporation which allowsthousands (or millions) of children exposure to everything fromsimulated and real violence to soft and hardcore pornography. All onehas to do is go on to the site's homepage to see a giant ad for CaptainMorgan rum; look a bit further and see a wealth of videos promotingdrug use, fake suicide videos and countless human rears gyrating to theaggressive anti-musical strains of hip-hop. YouTube does more to bringignorant arrogance, nihilism and reckless hedonism to the world thanany other media source in existence. I have seen plenty of amusingthings on YouTube, but not once have I gone onto the site and beenspared from intentional offenses, disrespectful expressions and hostileattitudes. To utilize and advertise such a site is a moral joke incontext to the liberal BS of this film's major conceit.We are not one world. We are a bunch of messed up animals trying tocope with our own fears, doubts, prejudices, insecurities, confusionand immaturity in the face of technological evolution that iscompletely out of our moral control. Life in a Day is an amusingdiversion at best and a deceptive distraction at worst. Do yourself afavor and stroll away from this foolish herd and its pretensions.Discover something truly interesting and wondrous: the rest of thenatural world.

ajs-10

(2012-03-12 15:58:42)

Excellent documentary... Well worth a look...

I remember the beginnings of this idea being released into the world.We, the world in general, were asked to film something, anything, on24th July 2010 and post it to a special YouTube page. 80,000 clips andfilms were submitted, totalling 4,500 hours of footage from 192countries. It fell to director Kevin Macdonald and his team to whittlethis down into a 90 minute film. And boy what a film! There are veryfew documentaries I've seen that are better than this. Such a diversityof cultures, subjects and people, it really opened my eyes.The format basically follows the time arc of the day, from the earlyhours of the morning right through to the following midnight. Therewere pieces from a vast array of peoples from all around the globe,some quite touching, some disturbing and some just plain silly. I mustwarn you that there are one or two scenes that some may find upsettingand there is a little swearing. Quite a variation in picture qualitydidn't really detract from what is quite a stunning piece of work. It'sall held together with a beautiful musical soundtrack by HarryGregson-Williams and Matthew Herbert.I really enjoyed watching the diversity on show here and I had to keepreminding myself that all these things happened on the same day. Forme, the star of the show was the Korean guy who was cycling around theworld. He just wanted to reunite North and South Korea and he had suchoptimism. It's beautifully put together with various themes runningthrough it. Never boring, no voice-over, just the people of the worldtelling their own stories… Highly Recommended.My score: 8.9/10 IMDb Score: 8.1/10 (based on 1,675 votes at the time of going topress).

billcr12

(2012-03-12 08:32:52)

Great expectations

Life in a Day shows ordinary people from around the world in a seriesof short, disconnected vignettes.A woman trying to sleep is awakened by her hyperactive son while herhusband tells the little boy to let his mother sleep. We quickly learnthat the woman is seriously ill.A young man calls his mother asking her advice regarding a potentialgirlfriend; another guy phones his mom to tell her that his good friendis actually his boyfriend. Both scenes end in surprising ways.My personal favorite is a man from Korea riding his bicycle in everycountry. This particular segment should be made in to a full lengthfeature.Alternating between tragic and comic, with beautiful photography, thisdocumentary should be nominated for an Academy Award.

ip man

(2012-03-06 11:23:03)

Making the ordinary extraordinary

Many of us struggle to experience something beautiful and extraordinaryin our lives, trying to do things which allow us to feel a littlespecial in the midst of our daily lives. What this film shows us isexactly the opposite - that the extraordinary in our lives lies in themidst of our daily activities, if we can just allow ourselves to acceptand appreciate our lives without any preconditions. We also discoverthrough this film that many others also share our hopes, fears,humanity and prejudices.I salute those who have shared their most intimate moments and privateexperiences with the rest of us for in having the courage to allowthemselves to be seen, they have shown us that it is possible to livethrough life's difficulties and still persevere - such is theresilience of the human spirit.You see the Japanese father and his young son living in an abject messand wonder why. Then you see them offering incense in remembrance ofthe deceased mother and you get that lump in your throat. There aremany other poignant moments - a young man telling his grandmother thathe is gay - you can almost hear her struggling for the right things tosay on the other end of the 'phone.This film is also about connection and what it is to be human. Despitethe sometimes blurry images, it succeeds extremely well - you careabout the people sharing their stories - because they are real peoplewith authentic stories, and not from the fevered imagination of aHollywood scriptwriter.Make sure you stay to the end to watch the final clip.It is probably the best movie I have seen this year - quite amasterpiece of experimental film making.If you only see one movie this year, make it this one.

TheUnknown837-1

(2012-03-05 17:58:10)

It engages the audience more than any documentary I've ever seen and leaves us with that profound and beautiful sensation that only the movies can give us.

A father and son document their lives caring for someone they love, whois stricken with cancer. A man steals from a grocery store. An elderlycouple, their hair pristine white, finally tie the knot. A young mantells his grandmother via a phone call that he is gay and that he hopesshe can come to love his significant other as much as him. A group ofwomen sing as they perform their daily duties. A photographer describeshis way of life. People walk, go to work, talk to each other, talk tothe camera, as they do in life. Because this is life. Life isextraordinary and life is mundane. And life, no matter from whatperspective we examine it, is mesmerizing. And Kevin Macdonald's film"Life in a Day" is all of that and more.This is one of the most enthralling, captivating, and magnificent worksof art ever produced by human hands. And that is the honest truth,since it was, in deed, created by hundreds of people. Some of themfilmmakers, most of them just ordinary Janes and Joes like you and me.Detailing what happened in their lives on July 24, 2010 and submittingtheir footage to Mr. Macdonald and producer Ridley Scott, they providedthe materials for a genuine masterpiece. "Life in a Day" is amasterpiece not because it is artistic or cared for with creativetenderness (even though it is). It's a masterpiece because it isunabashedly honest and personable. I watched the movie on its liveYoutube debut while it was simultaneously screened at the Sundance filmfestival. And for an hour and thirty-four minutes, I sat therecaptivated. Nothing could have torn me from my seat. Even though mostof what I saw was fairly ordinary, things I could see walking down anystreet in any town. Paradoxical as it sounds, the mundane ismesmerizing.In his movie, Mr. Macdonald and his hundreds of co-directors examineshuman life as fact and with honesty. He reveals the frailties,tenderness, brutality, horrors, and beauty of life in our world allwithin that short window of an hour and a half. It's so captivatingbecause it's all real and these are stories that many of us canidentify with, and others we hope never to. That's when the moviereally becomes a tear-jerker. Sometimes there are long stretches oftime on particular subjects, other times it's a montage accompanied bytruly wonderful, ear-worm music. There is so much that I want to sayabout "Life in a Day" but I must restrict myself. Because the moviereally has to be seen to be believed. I cannot possibly do this film'semotional and psychological justice simply by writing about it. All Ishould (and will) do is tell you my reaction, as I just have. This isone of my most personal reviews and it's fair because it's a personalfilm. It engages the audience more than any documentary could ever do(though I haven't seen "Shoah" yet) and it leaves us with that utterlyprofound and beautiful sensation that only a great picture can do. Eventhough it is very, very simple in a lot of ways. After all, StevenSpielberg once said "Oftentimes the simplest ideas are the best ones."He was right. Boy, was he right."Life in a Day" is a masterpiece.

Houmatt

(2012-03-04 15:36:24)

The Best Film of 2011.

I had the privilege of seeing this film last night (though it took somedoing). I fell in love with the trailer, and the movie doesn'tdisappoint. Ever.Since the films that you see either part of or completely were filmedJuly 24 of 2010, a year ago, I would very much like to find out whathappened to some of the people presented.You meet a wife and mother suffering from what is apparently breastcancer. A Korean travelling the world on his bicycle. An army wifewhose communications with her overseas hubby results in her crying overmissing him so.Unfortunately, this footage is mixed in with unsettling footage ofanimal slaughter. One may question why this is in the film, but aspeople were asked to submit films of their day to day lives, there yougo.It is for this reason the film is rated PG-13, and is not recommendedfor small children or the squeamish.But if this film doesn't pick up the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature(let alone be nominated) next year I will no longer have confidence inthe Academy Awards.

Golf India

(2012-03-04 00:11:51)

Unremarkable YouTube mash

I watched this movie/documentary on the back of excellent reviews, andthe caliber of the director and producer. The subject matter wasinteresting, asking the web community to capture events happening intheir life or around them, on one day - thereby trying to captureglobally the essence of living. However it seems the scope of thesubject was too large, and difficult to condense and organise. As aresult there is no plot, and only a loose structure around the time ofthe day, i.e. rising of the sun, breakfast, lunch... with all sorts ofjumps to different subjects/locations/genres. That is OK if you want tosit through a random mish-mash of amateur clips, but I wondered whatwas the added value from 90 min of me surfing on YouTube. The answer iseditorial choice - it's all in the art of sampling, compiling andpresenting. To be fair, some parts were slick, but I wasn't sure aboutthe sudden jumps throughout, with no apparent link. Was the style meantto be impartial and objective / shocking, to drive a point home /partisan, representing a sanitised view of the world (big sponsorbacking through LG, who won't like a depressing story even if that wasthe reality of the user videos)? In the end, I felt the movie wastrying to be all things to everyone. It seems this explains thepopularity. But I failed to connect with the movie. Worse still, I feltreally nauseous from the jerky camera movements. I went to the cinemato be entertained, not to induce vomitting. If you must watch thisfilm, do it from a small screen. I wouldn't pay any money to watch itin the cinema - it's pointless.