Southern Comfort

I checked Southern Comfort out from Ellen's blog and absolutely loved it! I really admire the filmmaker; it was so obvious that she completely immersed herself in the lives of these people. She did such a good job of setting up the plot, and revealing a little bit more piece by piece throughout the story. Sometimes I find this annoying...I want to know certain things right away or I'm already asking myself questions before the filmmaker reveals the answers. That was not the case in this film. Right when they revealed something, I had just asked myself a moment before. It would be a question like 'hey what about when he was younger? Did he always know?' She revealed these things to us in a tasteful and timely manner.
Another part of this movie that I really liked was the cinematography, which I think could have been a bit challenging. It didn't seem like she had a lot of equipment, but she definitely made the most out of camera angles and what she let us see. At one point for example, when two characters were hugging, the shot was just of their legs and lower half of their torsos. It was obvious by their dress that they were male/female, but when she opened the shot up wider, we realized that the characters were once female/male respectively. This technique allowed us to really feel their emotion and got us out of the technicalities of the gender plot line.
At one point I did get a bit bored. It lulled at one point for me, but the beginning and end were both really strong. There was a lot of really good character development that made me want to know how these people are doing now. It really was a great movie, and I suggest anyone looking for a great doc to watch should check this one out!