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Finally,
I saw Stevie, the new documentary from Hoop Dreams
director Steve James. No, it’s not an auto-doc. However, James is a character in Stevie’s life
and he is very much a part of the film.
I want to
be fair to Stevie because I appreciate James and documentaries
and I want to love it to death.
But while it was well worth seeing, it didn’t have
the lift that I might have liked, literally and figuratively.
I mean “the lift” literally in that the film does not
come to a satisfying ending… at least not for me.
And figuratively, the film doesn’t quite have the central
character to be unforgettably burned into your brain, frame–by-frame.
Stevie is
a white-trash kind of guy in his early thirties when Steve
James comes back into his life.
You see, SJ was Stevie’s Big Brother for five years
back in the early 80s. Stevie’s
troubles are extensive, from basic poverty to having been
abused as a child. His
mother is out of touch, even though she lives less than 100
yards away from Stevie. He’s been in and out of prison over the years.
And he is in love with a physically challenged woman.
(I use the PC phrase not to be PC, but because I don’t recall
exactly what her ailment is.)
And soon
after we meet him, we find that he has a much bigger problem...
he has been accused of molesting his six-year-old (5? 7? 8?)
niece. This brings
his family’s myriad issues to the fore and poses a 20-year-long
threat to Stevie’s liberty.
I did like
this film. And I can see how it would have a very powerful
effect on some audiences.
But I think that Steve James failed in his effort
to do a strong job with his own presence in the film.
It’s not that I don’t think that it’s okay for a documentarian
to be in his own movies.
It’s fine. But it is challenging. And while I think James meant well by not overwhelming
the film with his personal positions about Stevie, he was
enough a part of the story that his personal journey must
have been more complex than offered in this film.
And I wanted to know.
I also wanted him to investigate the nightmares of
Stevie’s life more aggressively. And major, ugly moments were passed by so quickly that not everyone
even heard that certain things happened.
Stevie will
get a lot of attention. And
it will deserve it. But I don’t see it as this year’s Hoop Dreams
or even anything close. These
are not characters that are going to find an easy home in
the hearts of Academy members.
But do check it out.
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