AFI Docs 2021: We
afi docs 2021While documentaries have transported audiences to the distant edges of the globe, immersing them in moments rarely seen or experienced by the average person, the genre also has been used to document and champion perspectives that hit much closer to home. Screening as part of the 2021 AFI Docs Film Festival, Alice Diop's newest feature We uses this very philosophy. Using a holistic cinéma vérité style of storytelling, We introduces the audience to individuals and groups around Paris in an attempt to find some deeper thesis.
When it comes to this style of storytelling and genre within documentaries, We falls somewhere in the middle with effectiveness and quality. The natural biggest issue with this style of film is its ability to engage the audience. Without a larger narrative or thread pulling the film together, the film easily can start to wander and lose the audience, becoming an excruciatingly boring viewing experience. We luckily passes this first test with enough thoughtful direction and genuinely personable subjects to be interesting enough to keep the audience's attention. This is impressive, not just due to the genre it belongs to but also because of the longer 115-minute runtime which only adds to the difficulty of this test.
Sadly for the film, getting people to listen doesn't mean that the content is worthwhile in itself. While We might have enough personality and intrigue to keep audiences engaged, it never truly comes together how it should. This sense of storytelling allows for a natural deeper thesis to form. Films such as the documentary works of the legendary Agnès Varda, for example, are prime examples of the power and purpose this style of storytelling can lead to. For We, the natural thesis simply doesn't form, at least to the power that it should. Though the viewing experience isn't painful to get through, the film ultimately struggles to justify its own existence and really doesn't find the larger purpose it clearly should. On reflection, We feels disappointingly empty and hollow, which marks a deeper issue that sadly can't be fixed with any easy solution.
While some films have an unexplainable factor to them, causing a rewarding and charming viewing experience, We suffers from the exact opposite. The filmmaking is solid and fundamentally accomplishes everything it needs to, yet the final product ends up feeling like a lesser sum of its parts. The film simply never finds that next step that it needs, causing an experience that is impossible to truly recommend even if it is equally impossible to feel negativity about.
