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American Cannibal - The Documentary (2006)
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Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:16
Rotten:9
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: American Cannibal is a scathing, funny exploration of America's obsession with constructed realism and fame.
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Genre: Television
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... "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 [More]
Starring: Trishelle Cannatella
Starring: Trishelle Cannatella
Director: Perry Grebin, Michael Nigro
Director: Perry Grebin, Michael Nigro
Producer: Perry Grebin, Michael Nigro, Denis Jensen
Reviews for American Cannibal - The Documentary
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.
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.
The real savagery is in the satire, coldly measuring the lengths to which contestants might go and the depths to which the protagonists sink.
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.
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,
"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.
For all of its self-consciously sophisticated layering, American Cannibal manages a few authentically dark moments of its own.
A genuine cinematic hoot, while also providing insight into the ways of American mass entertainment.
To the film’s credit, it’s finally a whistle-blower on unsafe shooting practices, not unsafe dining habits.
Until everything collapses, and the filmmakers are left grasping at straws, it’s absorbing in a sick way.
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.
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.
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.
It's insightful as well as entertaining, and the inclusion of real interviews with people both inside and outside the business means it functions as both an intelligent critique and a dire warning.
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