LoveTrue (Alma Har'el, 2016)
Alas, this film added up to a whole lot of nothing for me. Half the film consists of standard portraits of three unconnected people: a young stripper in Alaska whose boyfriend has fragile bones and isn't ready to have sex with her; a beach blond surfer dude in Hawaii who's a single dad under unusual circumstances; and a teen girl in New York City whose large family sings on the street for money, except the mother, who's left the family due to the dead's infidelity. These portraits are fine but unexceptional; they'd feel very at home in a
Real World Casting Special.
Har'el adds some interest with poetic recreations of the memories and dreams of her subjects. These scenes are artfully done, and the intersection of the real people and their past and future selves is interesting (albeit in a rote, art project sort of way), but they feel almost superfluous. I found myself wishing I was watching a fictional tone poem (
Wild Tigers I Have Known kept coming to mind, probably because that was also a goodguy recommendation) or a more rigorous nonfiction examination.
LoveTrue feels trapped in the middle, thus failing to satisfy on either level. The editing seems to acknowledge the lack of cohesiveness, eventually just throwing in any interesting footage that came out of the shoot, with no regard for relevance.
I hope Har'el continues to follow the teen girl. The three scenes where she's playing guitar and singing by herself suggest a great deal of potential, and a multi-year documentary that focuses on her music, her faith, and her relationship to her family could result in something great.
Grade: C
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