Rating: C
Dir: Timothy B. Johnson
Star: Richard Kronfeld
The fact that this documentary actually has a “starring” credit instantly shows you its key weakness. The whole point of documentary film-making is, you don’t make stuff up; you film what happens, without doing second takes or inventing things. But here, while Kronfeld’s character may be a sublime loser, and a fine creation with which to unveil the madness surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Roswell incident, he’s not real, and you are left to wonder what else here is…well, fake. The answer appears to be, more than you’d hope, and that’s the crux of the matter: watching someone who genuinely believes they’ve been abducted by aliens is more intriguing than if they’re just playing a part.
Still, there are delightful nuggets here (Kronfeld’s UFO haircut, for one), and the rampant commercialism on view is a salutory lesson, proving that not everyone is motivated by a desire for truth, for the truth probably won’t sell you many T-shirts. There’s also the musical version of the Roswell incident, performed by the local community players – coarse theatre is clearly alive and well. It’s just a shame the makers weren’t satisfied with all the genuine eccentricity on view, and chose to fabricate some of their own. For, even when you claim your film is a “docucomedy”, the line between acting and simply lying is perilously thin.