Documentary isn’t a genre, it’s a form, and only just. Insist as Netflix might, it’s just not fair to bundle together The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, Muscle Shoals and Project Wild Thing under the vague banner of documentary, in the same way that you’d bundle Thor 2, Iron Man 3 and The Dark Knight Rises together under the banner of films that are a bit shit superhero movies. There’s more to documentary than that. Case in point: Michel Gondry’s delightfully unusual new ‘animated conversation’ with Noam Chomsky, Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?
Based on two conversations the director had with Chomsky in 2010, Gondry’s film is comprised entirely of his own Bolex 16mm animations — many of which were completed during his evenings off filming The Green Hornet. So at least something good came of that. It looks completely beautiful and I will now submit 11 pieces of evidence to support my findings.
