This doc doesn't expose any new territory about our unattainable standards of beauty, but does manage to entertain with an effective and accessible tone by filmmaker/subject Darryl Roberts.
This doc doesn't expose any new territory about our unattainable standards of beauty, but does manage to entertain with an effective and accessible tone by filmmaker/subject Darryl Roberts.
Looking at the cover of popular fashion magazines and examining the lengths that young girls will go to in order to achieve "perfection," it's easy to see why many people believe that America has developed an unhealthy obsession with beauty. In this documentary, filmmaker Darryl Roberts offers deeper insight into this observation by speaking with everyone from advertising and fashion professionals to average people on the street in an attempt to discover precisely why some people are willing to
put their lives on the line in order to become physically attractive. Gerren Taylor was a lanky 12-year-old girl whose gangly appearance was once an endless source of amusement for her cruel classmates, but over the course of the next two years her most embarrassing features become her greatest assets as she strives to become one of America's next top supermodels. But what drives girls like young Gerrin to seek the attention and admiration of millions? By attempting to peer into the mindsets of such picturesque celebrities of Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson and picking the brains of some of the top magazine editors, plastic surgeons, and beauty experts in the country -- not to mention divulging the sometimes bizarre ingredients found in popular cosmetics -- Roberts does his best to find out just why we seem to value surface beauty over true substance. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Despite the occasional flash of insight, and a few semi-shocking factoids, most women are going to find this movie roughly as illuminating as a remedial math class might be for a Nobel-prize winning physicist.
In the documentary America the Beautiful, Roberts explores the cult of beauty in the United States and mostly succeeds in unmasking the flaws of fetishizing skin-deep beauty.
With so many pointless detours ripping you away, the film feels as lamely digressive as the proverbial one-track guy whose head won't stop turning as each new temptation walks by.
Though not the most sophisticated movie, Darryl Roberts' earnest documentary gets its points across with enough power to make it a valuable experience for both adolescent girls and their parents.
America's obsession with beauty is the subject of filmmaker Darryl Roberts wide-ranging investigative documentary that shows how beauty product manufacturers manipulate the public.
trenchant but not mean-spirited and often hilarious. Roberts approaches the subject with an attitude that is genuinely inquisitive, often bemused, and sometimes shocked, but never judgmental, at least not in his interviewing style
Intercutting the costs of American women's chase-after-beauty story (suggesting much waste and futility) with Gerren's personal one never quite blends into an organic whole.
Roberts raises interesting questions, but most of the info is familiar and there's no systematic or comparative perspective to illuminate our culture's obssession with beauty vis-a-vis other wealthy media-saturated countries, which made Sicko a good docu
A GREAT documentary that told me things I already knew but alot of things I didnt know as well (Dogs getting plastic surgery?!) I'd recommend anybody & everybody to go see it once or twice.Does America have an unhealthy obsession with beauty? YES we do!
Informative, with some very effective interviews. It makes it?s point very clearly. A good variety of people were interviewed, giving different perspectives and keeping the story interesting.
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