Documentary Review Plastic People

Plastic People (2024) 

Directed by Ben Addelman, Ziya Tong

Written by Ben Addelman

Starring Ziya Tong 

Release Date March 9th, 2024

We are no longer Homo-Sapiens, we've evolved, we're now Homo-Plasticus. That's not my observation, that is the observation of scientist and doctor Sedat Gundogdu. Dr. Gundogdu has been tracking microplastics around the globe from his home in Turkey. As hard as it can be to wrap your head around it, the plastics that we encounter everyday are never going away. They have to go somewhere and in scientific test after test, so-called Microplastics are being found in the last place you'd think to look or even be able to look, your own body. 

The documentary Plastic People, debuting at the SXSW Film Festival on March 9th, is halting, breathtaking and frightening warning and call to action. The documentary lays out the case that we desperately need to cut back on our reliance on plastic or risk a continuously worsening health crisis. Microplastics can cause cancer, developmental delays in children, and any other number of ailments and if we keep unknowingly ingesting these tiny pieces of plastic, we have no idea what even greater harm might befall humanity in the future. 

Plastic People unfolds a serious of smaller stories that feeds into a larger story about how and why microplastics have been making their way into the human body. One such sequence follows the co-director of Plastic People, Ziya Tong using her own body to prove the growing issue of microplastics in the human body. Tong undergoes a blood test and a test of her feces and each return results that show particles of microplastic in her body. Researchers have been seeking people to test for microplastics and even when testing people who aren't making a documentary about microplastics, the results were the same. 

Find my full length review at Earth.Media 

Documentary Review Dickweed

Dickweed (2024) 

Directed by Jonathan Ignatius Green 

Written by Jonathan Ignatius Green 

Starring Emily Pokora, Ronald Douglass, Greg Kriek, Rizzy Fuentes 

Release Date March 9th, 2024 at SXSW Film Festival 

Published March 9th, 2024 

Dickweed is a rollercoaster of a true crime story that starts right at the biggest drop and keeps the twists and turns coming at a neck snapping pace. It's a jarring, fascinating and jaw dropping story that keeps you guessing from start to finish. And, it comes with the pleasure of knowing that no one died. Yeah, this is a true crime story in which there are no dead people. A crime is committed, it's a terrifying and life altering crime, but there is no death and that makes it all the more riveting as we are introduced to a villain with the dangerous aura of a killer, minus the actual body count. 

In 2012, a weed dealer named Mike was chilling on his couch, dozing off. His girlfriend is asleep in the bedroom. Suddenly, without any warning, Mike is awakened by a flashlight attached to a shotgun. He's beaten and bound. His girlfriend is bound and gagged. Both Mike and his girlfriend are bundled into a van by three masked men. On the way to being driven into the desert, Mike is interrogated about where the million dollars is. Mike, genuinely doesn't know what they are talking about. The three men are operating on the belief that Mike has a million dollars buried in the desert. Mike does not have any money buried in any desert. 

This fact doesn't stop the masked men from beating Mike relentlessly while threatening harm toward his girlfriend. The two are then dumped in the desert and, seemingly having realized that Mike is telling the truth, they decide to leave them in the desert to fend for themselves. Oh, but there is one more horrifying detail. It's the reason for the title of this movie. An injury is inflicted upon Mike that threatens to end his life. If not for the quick thinking and the effort of his girlfriend, Dickweed would have a body count. Thankfully, she was able to get help in time. Though, what happened with Mike's horrific injury, you will need to see the documentary to find out. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media linked here. 

Movie Review Float

Float (2024) 

Directed by Sherren Lee 

Written by Jesse LaVercombe, Sherren Lee

Starring Andrea Bang, Robbie Amell, Michelle Krusiec 

Release Date February 9th, 2024 

Published March 18th, 2024 

Float stars Andrea Bang as Waverly, a woman living a lie. She's told her parents that she has gone to Vancouver for an important doctoral apprenticeship that will move her along in her career. In reality, Waverly has gone to Oregon to stay with her artist aunt, Rachel (Michelle Krusiec), while she tries to figure out who she is and what she wants. It's while lying to her parents and having a minor existential crisis that Waverly meets Blake, a handsome local man who raises chickens and cares for his teenage sister. Blake is Rachel's neighbor which is how Waverly knows about his gentle way with chickens. 

Blake is also a lifeguard and when he learns that Waverly doesn't even know how to float, let alone swim, he offers to teach her. It's a blatant attempt to get to spend time alone with her and Waverly is definitely on that wavelength. That said, this is a Nicholas Sparks-esque romance so the two lovers cannot have a clear path to happiness. We already know about Waverly's lies but we will come to learn about Blake's flaws and what has kept him in this small town and generally out of long term relationships. It's a lot of sticky emotions about his late parents and his little sister and somehow it all may prevent him from being with Waverly. 

Red my full length review at Geeks.Media linked here.