I started out watching a movie I DVR'ed on PBS. It's called The Parking Lot Movie. It is a low budget documentary about a small pay-to-park parking lot in Charlottesville, VA. The lot if controlled and surveyed by a rotating group of grad students, philosophy majors, snarky artists and twenty something slackers. Many of whom move on from the parking lot to prestigious jobs in equally prestigious fields or occupations.
Meghan Eckman is the director of the film. She attempts to add some gravitas to a rather banal story by adding chapter titles and slow motion shots. It makes the film come off a little self important and only makes the film look that much more amateurish. It's visual style reminded me a little of the Canadian sketch comedy TV show "The Kids in the Hall".
This film is an interesting one for me. It made me think about other documentaries I have seen this year. It made me wonder what makes a good doc, or what makes a doc good? The lines or rules that used to goveren documentaries are being blurred more now than ever. Franqois Truffaut said that mock-umentaries were the last oridginal genre of film to be created. Documentaries now have built in naritives. Documentaries make you question your surrounding. Documentaries make you question their authencity. Movies like "I'm Not Here" and "Exit from the Gift Shop" are really pushing the boundries of what is a documentary.
The Parking Lot movie doesn't really push any buttons like the doc's mentioned above. It thrives on the characters that inhabit the colelction booth. As a whole it is a soild character study. I only wish the director had simpily allowed the camera to roll and not try to "pretty up" the films with visual flairs that did nothing for the story. This film is only about 80 minutes long. It fills the time without overstaying it's welcome. I give the film 3/5 stars. Check out the link below for the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSvZXidLJ3U
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