Side By Side Review
By David Kempler
Let's Go to the Video Tape
We've all seen that the era of film has been under siege lately from the challenge of video. Over the last two decades, video has made great inroads, with some unhappy about it, others elated by it, and others resigned to the inevitability of video replacing film.
The documentary "Side By Side" examines the battle between film and video by talking to some of the biggest names in the business. Keanu Reeves serves as the interviewer of all and frankly I found him to be more of a distraction than anything else. While he speaks with directors, cinematographers, and tons of the industry giants, whenever Keanu was on screen, all I could see was an actor sporting about 25 different looks.
We see Keanu in multiple forms of beards, neat and trimmed, slovenly, handsome, and just about any look one might imagine. It's not that he doesn't do a competent job, but instead of my concentrating on the relative merits of film and video, I found myself concentrating on what Keanu would look like in the next scene.
When I wasn't focusing on Keanu, I was at times captivated by both some of the interviewees and the discussions about advancing digital technologies. Lots of the talking heads were fun to listen to, especially David Lynch, whose look and utterances were as bizarre and compelling as usual.
If there is a conclusion to be reached in "Side By Side", it is that video is here and you can either climb aboard the train or step to the side and be left behind. It's not put to us nearly that coldly, but the winner of this battle is as certain as death and taxes.
"Side By Side" is strictly for film aficionados and techies. If you are one of those, this will be quite worthwhile to you. If you do not belong to either of these groups, you can edit this out of your list of things to do.
