Flyerplesys
Perfectly adorable
GetPapa
Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Robbie Lockie
we found this documentary on Netflix, I'd heard about Lauren's transition. I did not expect to be confronted with such a mocking and withered attack on an eccentric British family.I felt like the entire family where on trial the entire documentary.This whole documentary is an assignation on a collection of people.The constant pauses and attempts to trap the the person in front of the camera, the awful organ music.What an utter mess.Watching stuff like this makes me realize and determine to produce good documentaries about interesting and unusual people.Is this the dribble that was on TV 12 years ago?
marymorrissey
the more I think about it the more I loathe the performance of the presenter in this doc, who feels that 1 we need him to think for us, 2 we need him to overreact for, well, if not us, for such as the good folk living near LLF who periodically throw bricks through the windows of her family home, 3 entertains some exalted deluded notion of himself being "not hip" which is of course to say überhip. For at the end of the film he's not made enough of an ass of himself not to append a wild and crazy ironic karaoke realness coda not quite - a desperate attempt to be hip. There is of course the same point to dive home: no matter how he might degrade himself yet he can hold himself above LFF and family. Unnecessary in this film, to say the least. Such material might be usable in an funeral or graveside "living cemetery" type setting, as only a mother or other lover could glean anything of redeeming value therefrom. I'm sure Lilly Allen - whatever that means - would be tickled!(You see I'm uberuberuberhip I only know she's a chick who dated Russel Brand I'm so above it all).Now matter how much Mr. Sluggo would like to convince LFF she's good for nothing, it's quite clear she's a gifted performer playing herself on television and has been since she was a he knee high to a bee. So what if she can't sing. Do you imagine Madonna can? Of course it's not that the singing ability is missing that bothers Lilly daddy. In his estimate a real "genius" would undoubtedly serve up a certifiably ironic "I can't sing and I luuuuuuuv it I'm so far beyond hip hear me roar" take on the not being able to sing thing. After all it's right out of the play book from which 9/10ths of movie and TV scripts have been written from the earliest days of the brat pack (whoever they are lol I don't know honestly! just the expresion). Fauntelroy family is forthcoming about their deep dark secrets, about their charlatanism of the past, at least. Amusing that the presenter feels it's so ironic that the book on 3rd eye astral traveling was written by a FAKE psychic/guru rather than a BONA FIDE genuine for realz out of body specialist. What an ass! The perfect antidote to the strong and miserably stodgy POV of this doc is a passage from Salman Rushdie's "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" about outsiders/ con-men / criminal / outlaw types and why they appeal to us, how our fiction in all modes is so often centered around such characters, permitting us at least a sort of dream experience of what might not be dared in day to day life.The chancy counseling given to presenter by star actually sounded like not such bad advice. I guess presenter hasn't a clue how many counselors and therapists are loonier than their clients.OK I guess I'm done time to go do something else now beside BBB.
Jam-ez
Before anyone reading this review watches this documentary, i feel compelled to warn you that this is LITRALLY the most bias and unfair documentary I have ever seen. At the very beginning, I was quite surprised when a warning message flashed up, but I didn't have to wait long to find out why. It soon becomes apparent that Keith Allen intended from the off set to humiliate and exploit this notorious family for entertainment. Ironically throughout the film, Keith contradicts his own style of aggressive "honest" documentary-making by suggesting that the Harries family are fame-hungry, media fanatic delusionists themselves. which is a bit rich coming from Lily Allens father.There are many unsupported accusations from host Keith during the documentary. Its clear that the production team wanted as much dirt as possible on Lauren, and didn't really care about the obvious impact it would have on her and her family once aired.Towards the end of the hour long human bear-bating, Keith owns up to his many mistakes by making out his bully boy digs and back handed rude sniping was in fact because "he isn't like other documentary makers" who supposedly remain impartial to the subjects face, yet heavily two-faced in the editing room. The fact that Keith must have undoubtedly cosied up to the family while they played host to him for however long he was making the film slipped his mind somewhat, because lets be honest if he had gone in all guns blazing from the off-set then it would have been a very short film.Honest or not, You cant deny his behaviour is out of order and fuels the flames of hatred which many people have for this family, but thats what you get if you employ arrogant, delusional has-beens to host controversial shock-docs. His child-like temper tantrum at the end should have been the last nail in the coffin for Keiths presenting career- but sadly, recently he has been involved in making a new shock doc for the 2011 Cannes Film Festival along with Mohammed Al Fayed, about the death of Princess Diana... So lets look forward to another hour long bombardment of bias propaganda!
buffmonkey666
This is a "must see" documentary. It follows the story of Lauren Harries, a once male child antique expert, made famous by appearances on British T.V. in the 1980's and her unique family.Keith Allen presents this fantastic insight into one of the country's most dysfunctional families and exposes the fantasy world in which they seem happy to live in.Without giving too much away.....this is car crash television at its finest and also a great exercise in biased editing!! Be prepared for an insane amount of cringing and a ride you will never forget!! Highly recommended!!
