Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

After watching the short film by Todd Haynes I must say that overall I really enjoyed it. It was really amazing how believable and convincing a bunch of Barbie dolls and some well done voice overs can make a movie come alive. At many points in the movie I felt completely immersed into the world that Todd created and really believed I was watching the interactions of Karen and her family even while staring at a static Barbie smile. The sound is what made this film and catapulted it from just a bunch of dolls into a serious and sympathetic plight of a young star dealing with a horrible eating disorder and ultimately losing. The film actually made me feel upset of how little her family members knew about the situation and even Karen herself. Only by the time it was too late did anyone realize that it wasn't just about skipping a few meals but a serious control problem, fears of gaining weight and a distorted body image. The fact that the dolls were always filmed like real actors would be between the positioning of the camera and the lights added to the reality. I still can't wrap my mind around some of the scenes and how the did them. I understand that any parts where a hand would have a appeared in the frame they just used wires, strings, and careful editing but some scenes were so impressively planned out that it made me automatically love this film; the party scene in Karen's new apartment was such a great part and it still blows my mind how they did it. The only aspects I didn't enjoy were all of the unreadable text and some of the footage of people in the middle of the film. The real footage at the beginning and ending were a nice sandwich but some of the ones in the middle broke the illusion for me. I see myself coming back a watching this film again and again.