Three Identical Strangers Review
If analytics for the last post are any indication, my readers seem to like documentaries a lot. So here's another new one.
I don't know if you've heard about this one or not. Honestly, I only truly found out about it when my teacher recommended it. But I always like watching under-the-radar flicks. More often than not, many of them are much better than the big-budget blockbusters that are released nowadays. So I'm generally open to give these flicks a shot.
So Three Identical Strangers is a documentary about triplets who got separated at birth yet lived within a 100-mile radius in New York. Suddenly, two of the brothers are introduced to each other and make headlines. And out of nowhere, a third brother sees the paper and joins the other two. Within an instant, these identical triplets became a nationwide phenomenon in the '80s because of their incredible story and newfound relationship.
Sounds like a nice, feel-good story right? Well it is.........until the truth of why they were separated unravels.
And oh boy, does it get dark.
It's not long before they find out that they were intentionally separated by the Jewish adoption agency they came from. And as the story progresses, you eventually find out the dark and jaw-dropping reason they were separated. But lo, I won't say anything else about the story. Lets just talk about what I thought about it.
I thought it was pretty good. This is a prime example of how you make a documentary work. I'm not saying this is how you make them masterpieces, but rather this is how you make a good one. Make your interviews relevant to the subject, use the archive footage well, and if you use dramatization, try to make it dialogue-free and comprehensible. It nails all of these aspects in documentary film-making. And as an added bonus, the soundtrack is awesome. Hollywood, use "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" a lot more than you do by the way: it's a truly underrated song and I was happy to hear it in this.
I mean, there really isn't too much else to say, other than the one issue I had with the film. Compared to the rest of the movie, the last third is kinda slow. It's not necessarily boring, but it's not as strong as the rest of the film. I just wish they could've maintained the absolutely perfect pacing that the first hour had in the last 30 minutes. Might be a nitpick honestly, since documentaries are not the most riveting form of cinema. However, there some that nail their pacing perfectly: Tower (which yet again I highly recommend, it's on Netflix) and Won't You Be My Neighbor? come to mind for me. Yet again, a minor issue. Three Identical Strangers is nevertheless a very good film.
SCORE: 9/10
This was less of a review and more of a recommendation honestly. But I do truly recommend watching this if you liking learning about crazy true stories and have the time, even though the story isn't the most pleasant.
Thanks again for reading! Next week, I'll hopefully have a review of First Man out and some other things I watch on DVD. Until then, I hope you have a great day.
Sounds like a nice, feel-good story right? Well it is.........until the truth of why they were separated unravels.
And oh boy, does it get dark.
It's not long before they find out that they were intentionally separated by the Jewish adoption agency they came from. And as the story progresses, you eventually find out the dark and jaw-dropping reason they were separated. But lo, I won't say anything else about the story. Lets just talk about what I thought about it.
I thought it was pretty good. This is a prime example of how you make a documentary work. I'm not saying this is how you make them masterpieces, but rather this is how you make a good one. Make your interviews relevant to the subject, use the archive footage well, and if you use dramatization, try to make it dialogue-free and comprehensible. It nails all of these aspects in documentary film-making. And as an added bonus, the soundtrack is awesome. Hollywood, use "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" a lot more than you do by the way: it's a truly underrated song and I was happy to hear it in this.
I mean, there really isn't too much else to say, other than the one issue I had with the film. Compared to the rest of the movie, the last third is kinda slow. It's not necessarily boring, but it's not as strong as the rest of the film. I just wish they could've maintained the absolutely perfect pacing that the first hour had in the last 30 minutes. Might be a nitpick honestly, since documentaries are not the most riveting form of cinema. However, there some that nail their pacing perfectly: Tower (which yet again I highly recommend, it's on Netflix) and Won't You Be My Neighbor? come to mind for me. Yet again, a minor issue. Three Identical Strangers is nevertheless a very good film.
SCORE: 9/10
This was less of a review and more of a recommendation honestly. But I do truly recommend watching this if you liking learning about crazy true stories and have the time, even though the story isn't the most pleasant.
Thanks again for reading! Next week, I'll hopefully have a review of First Man out and some other things I watch on DVD. Until then, I hope you have a great day.
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