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MOVIES / ON DVD / AMERICAN CANNIBAL - THE DOCUMENTARY
American Cannibal - The Documentary

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American Cannibal - The Documentary (2006)

62%
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62 %
Reviews Counted: 26 Fresh: 16  Rotten:10 Average Rating: 5.5/10
 
Consensus: A scathing, funny exploration of America's obsession with fame. American Cannibal is a scathing, funny exploration of America's obsession with constructed realism and fame. more
 
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Synopsis:
"American Cannibal" pushes beyond "Fahrenheit/911" and "Supersize Me" to break new ground in documentary territory. Rather than forcing situations and twisting facts to tell a story, filmmakers Perry Grebin & Michael Nigro spent two and a half years twisting real life itself, and the... [More]
"American Cannibal" pushes beyond "Fahrenheit/911" and "Supersize Me" to break new ground in documentary territory. Rather than forcing situations and twisting facts to tell a story, filmmakers Perry Grebin & Michael Nigro spent two and a half years twisting real life itself, and the result is the story. The filmmakers began "American Cannibal" in 2004 as a bold social experiment with reality. The set in motion real events that allowed them unlimited access to the results, pushing their cameras deep into the glitterdome of reality-TV production to emerge with an equally bold exposé. They watch as struggling writers earnestly pitch TV ideas, eventually selling out to the man behind the Paris Hilton sex tape. The sadistic, shameless reality show they churn out is documented from start to finish: from throwaway pitch to manic auditions through train-wreck production. Alongside the drama, the filmmakers interview prominent producers, psychologists, network execs, celebrities and "D-lebrities," who offer candid insight and scathing judgements on our society. "American Cannibal" is a documentary as wild as the story behind it: a shocking, hilarious, bona fide portrait of our celebrity-driven culture and the appalling lengths we’ll go to for entertainment. -- © Lifesize Entertainment [Less]

Genre: Television

Starring: Trishelle Cannatella

Director: Perry Grebin, Michael Nigro
Producer: Perry Grebin, Michael Nigro, Denis Jensen

DVD Info

Release:

Nov 9, 2007

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - 1. Perry Grebin - Director; Michael Nigro - Director
  • 2. Gil Ripley - Writer; Dave Roberts - Writer
  • Featurette - 1. Making the Music
  • 2. Gil, Dave & the Crew
  • Interview - 1. David Lyle
  • 2. Lizz Winstead
  • 3. Phil Gurin
  • Trailer - 1. Theatrical
  • TV Spots

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Full Review | Comment
07/12/07 03:15 AM
Time Out
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10/02/07 03:15 AM
Film Threat
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Not so much an examination of the tragic trajectory of an ill-fated reality-TV show but just the biggest hoax since The Blair Witch Project.

Full Review | Comment
09/07/07 05:52 AM
Kam Williams
NewsBlaze
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Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
08/22/07 03:15 AM
Lou Lumenick
New York Post
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essential viewing for any latter-day TV watcher.

Full Review | Comment
08/15/07 03:25 PM
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com
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How far would you go to eat a finger?

Full Review | Comment
06/02/07 08:44 PM
Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics
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If there's one thing to be learned from American Cannibal, it's this: Pursuing a career in the TV industry is only for those with a superhuman tolerance for sleazy opportunism.

Full Review | Comment
05/22/07 02:23 PM
Marc Mohan
Oregonian
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The real savagery is in the satire, coldly measuring the lengths to which contestants might go and the depths to which the protagonists sink.

Full Review | Comment
04/27/07 01:46 PM
Michael Ordoña
Los Angeles Times
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Too bad [this] mock-doc equivalent of The Producers isn’t funnier.

Full Review | Comment
04/26/07 10:21 AM
Rob Nelson
L.A. Weekly
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Reality television is painful enough to watch at home, let alone on the big screen, but directors Perry Grebin and Michael Nigro somehow didn't get the message.

Full Review | Comment
04/17/07 03:15 AM
Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter
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American Cannibal is ostensibly about the phony, exploitative nature of reality TV, and though documentarians Perry Grebin and Michael Nigro hit that point too hard by piling up interviews with TV experts who speak in exaggerated cautionary tones,

Full Review | Comment
04/05/07 02:41 PM
Noel Murray
Onion AV Club
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"American Cannibal" is a fast-paced satire about the state reality television that builds its humor on its depiction of the limits our current reality TV craze.

Full Review | Comment
03/23/07 09:56 PM
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
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For all of its self-consciously sophisticated layering, American Cannibal manages a few authentically dark moments of its own.

Full Review | Comment
03/23/07 09:12 AM
Michelle Orange
Reeler
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A genuine cinematic hoot, while also providing insight into the ways of American mass entertainment.

Full Review | Comment
03/21/07 10:38 AM
Doris Toumarkine
Film Journal International
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To the film’s credit, it’s finally a whistle-blower on unsafe shooting practices, not unsafe dining habits.

Full Review | Comment
03/17/07 05:55 AM
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York
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Until everything collapses, and the filmmakers are left grasping at straws, it’s absorbing in a sick way.

| Comment
03/16/07 03:13 PM
Stephen Holden
New York Times
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What's here is a glimpse not into how far people will go to win a reality-TV show, but how far greedy writers and producers will go to degrade, debauch and enrich themselves.

Full Review | Comment
03/16/07 02:51 PM
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
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This was much better when Mel Brooks did it back in the '60s.

Full Review | Comment
03/16/07 02:51 PM
Eric Lurio
Entertainment Insiders
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Reality TV has rarely cared much about truth -- and maybe this is the doc it deserves. The crass truthiness here is far more apt than any of the glossy satire in American Dreamz.

Full Review | Comment
03/16/07 02:50 PM
Logan Hill
New York Magazine
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Less a piece of incisive cultural commentary than a riveting portrait of two nice guys whose lives and careers go into a tailspin, one moral compromise at a time.

Full Review | Comment
03/16/07 02:49 PM
Jim Hemphill
Reel.com
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