I love documentary and I love that documentary is more mainstream and theatrical then ever. Two of the best loved films of last year were Exit Through the Gift Shop and Catfish. But i wanted to define where the line between TV doc. and feature film doc. was- so while i saw Teenage Paparazzo on TV, i decided since it was included at Sundance... I think it counts.
You have to at least admit, it's a direct unmistakable title. The paparazzo is Austin and he's 13. I appreciate that Grenier comes to the conclusion early that we live in a world consumed by celebrity interest, especially by teens and this is LA. Since it only takes a few hours after school, it's practically the Californian equivalent of a paper-round.
Okay, not quite but the film really succeeds in selling one of the most scummy occupations around-it's fast and dangerous, you get to see famous people and get paid stupid money.
What Grenier and his crew brilliantly capture is how equally exciting and terrifying being a pap can be-chasing Austin around as he's chasing Lindsey or be acausted by winos on the late night streets of LA.
By this point you wonder how this situation has got this far? How has Austin survived running with the bloodthirsty LA paparazzi but you seen how much equal respect there is for Austin from the hacks-they protect him in scenes similar to when maggie gets adopted by grizzly bears in the woods on The Simpsons.
But the film also highlights Austin's double standard- he can get great photos cos he's small and he can get people attention cos he's so young.
Austin's mother (his main guardian) comes off pretty well too, as an astute woman, who treats Austin's part-time job like an after school sport and doesn't seem like a 'stagemother' at all. That said, for all her assertions that 'at least he's not on drugs'- considering the aforementioned money and excitement, you could understand how a young mind might become warped by that. Which arrives perfectly on time for the 2nd act development- the teenage paparazzo becomes the focus of worldwide interest... And almost right up until the end, the film doesn't fall into the perpetual mirror-echo of cameras filming cameras.
In it's curiousity about the relationship between the public and celebrity and the weight that fame carries, it's reminiscent of Chris Atkins' Starsuckers except this is more a story than academic indictment.
The paps (and wierdly Lewis Black) argue that celebrities enter the public eye in the hope of attention and that they shouldn't bite the hand that feeds them but i think 'celebs' are prepared to publicise their work as you or i would network for our living but being obstructed and stalked can't be acceptable, can it? I mean Lewis Black is a road Comedian and might work 252days/year but i don't expect he's required to be funny at, say, the dentist and if he is... he probably doesn't feel like it.
I watched Teenage Paparazzo on Channel4. (Unfortunately unavailable on demand...)
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Green Hornet (2011)...
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