"Suburban Muslims have to learn to live with the consequences of a close friend's actions." That's the official synopsis, yet the documentary is purely just a pointless discussion among uninformed individuals speculating what happened of the 'close friend', without even exploring anything substantial.
The only thing interesting about this documentary is that the interviewees wear superhero masks - supposedly to 'protect' themselves. That too is rendered pointless as it's not like these people are divulging any sensitive information that would affect themselves negatively. Plus, the ill-fit masks are poor disguises and ultimately ineffective without any voice-modulation.
The whole mask thing just seems like a gimmick to incite our inherent excitement and intrigue of controversial topics.
The documentary fails to inform us audiences about what really happened (how and why the friend became involved with ISIS and its extremism), and the whole topic is guided by the interviewed subjects who themselves are very uninformed and are pointlessly speculating about the friend and his fate.
The filmmakers glossed over several aspects and information that would've made this documentary more interesting, especially about the involvement of FBI informants in American Muslim societies and the possibility of the friend being an informant himself.
How this ended up being a winner at Sundance, I have no idea. At the end, this uninformed documentary doesn't attempt to look deeper into the truth or reveal anything pertaining to case. Neither does it really show how the Muslim Americans are affected by the incident discussed. It'll just make you scratch your head at what the point watching this incredibly short documentary was.
The only thing interesting about this documentary is that the interviewees wear superhero masks - supposedly to 'protect' themselves. That too is rendered pointless as it's not like these people are divulging any sensitive information that would affect themselves negatively. Plus, the ill-fit masks are poor disguises and ultimately ineffective without any voice-modulation.
The whole mask thing just seems like a gimmick to incite our inherent excitement and intrigue of controversial topics.
The documentary fails to inform us audiences about what really happened (how and why the friend became involved with ISIS and its extremism), and the whole topic is guided by the interviewed subjects who themselves are very uninformed and are pointlessly speculating about the friend and his fate.
The filmmakers glossed over several aspects and information that would've made this documentary more interesting, especially about the involvement of FBI informants in American Muslim societies and the possibility of the friend being an informant himself.
How this ended up being a winner at Sundance, I have no idea. At the end, this uninformed documentary doesn't attempt to look deeper into the truth or reveal anything pertaining to case. Neither does it really show how the Muslim Americans are affected by the incident discussed. It'll just make you scratch your head at what the point watching this incredibly short documentary was.