Friday, April 5, 2019

"Fyre" Review: Review of Chris Smith's 2019 Documentary




My Review of “Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened” 4/5/2019

Back in 2017, entrepreneur Billy MacFarland and rapper Ja Rule, planned an event in the Bahamas that would supposedly be the biggest party in the decade, called Fyre Festival. Trouble is, there were so many difficulties that the festival, which ended up being cancelled, would not only prove itself to a total DISASTER, but would also, given its cancellation, and given co-founder MacFarland’s actions in the past, prove itself to be a total SCAM!


First, the film’s directing styles. The narrative and chronological structure for both the film and its interviews is combined in a very interesting way. For example, the film uses posts from Fyre Festival’s Instagram account, which say stuff like “Five More Days”, to not only refer to how many days left until the Festival, but also to help the viewer anticipate the disaster that is getting ready to unfold. Another example would be that the film edits shots of MacFarland’s laughter to make it look like he is laughing maniacally, as if he were evil. This is a foreshadowing of his true intentions, which involve scamming the Festival’s attendees out of their money, at Ja Rule’s expense.

Second, the editing. For example, it causes the film’s interviews to meld together so perfectly, that it really LOOKS like the people being interviewed are telling a story. Another example would, again, be the scenes where MacFarland supposedly laughs manically.

Finally, there’s the details on how much of an evil con artist MacFarland truly is. For example, according to the documentary, he had a credit card company, targeting millennials, that charged its customers, one of which, who was also being interviewed, ended up creating an anti-Fyre Festival Twitter account called “Fyre Fraud” (which is also the name of a knockoff documentary on rival streamer Hulu, by the way), a fortune. There is also that time when he backed a scam where someone targeted the Festival’s attendees, by giving them fraudulent tickets to events such as the Grammys.  This, combined with a class action lawsuit filed by said attendees against him, led not only led McFarland to losing money, but also to him ending up in jail for 6 years, while Ja Rule suffers from no repercussions whatsoever, due to him having little to do with the Festival. One final example would be, once more, MacFarland’s evil laughter (I have got to stop using that as an example!). The documentarians were able to get as many straightforward facts about him as possible, in order to make him look like to a true villain.







I loved “Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened” so much, and if you’re fan of somewhat comedic documentaries such as “Super-Size Me”, then you’ll love this one, too! This documentary made so much of an impact on the world, that even BEFORE release, the previously-mentioned knockoff “Fyre Fraud”, was announced, and both came out at the same time! 

In conclusion, I give this movie a 10/10! As Billy MacFarland would say it, MWAHAHAHA!


Just Kidding, It’s the End!

Liam Scanlan


 

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