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User Reviews for: Carts of Darkness

wolfkin
6/10  3 years ago
I never intended to watch this stupid thing. But I was working and there are long gaps of silence so I hit play after seeing it on the NFB YouTube channel.

After a lot of thinking while I loaded up Trakt to log this, I've come to the conclusion that it was slightly better than I anticipated. I have my issues with the movie but as a whole Siple isn't incompetent as a documentary film maker. I admit this begrudgingly but you can't finish this movie and not see some degree of skill in telling his story which is their story.

Now the description and framing is all about a lesser known lifestyle of homeless shop cart racers. One of the biggest objective issues I have with the film is that while there is a fair amount of shopping cart racing. The film feel less about that than about other aspects of their life. Such as the struggles being homeless and dealing with various addictions and collecting bottles. All those are good things to have in the documentary and one of the subjects does spend a fair amount of time racing his shopping cart. The issue for me is I'm not getting a _culture_ of shopping cart racing. I wonder if there's a regional bent to this. I have to consider if perhaps this subculture is known to Vancouver. Maybe people don't need to understand the culture of street racers but instead just need to get a look at their life style.

With that context (if it's true) maybe this documentary is better than I give it credit for. I think Siple does a good job of not making the documentary about him trying to recapture his lifestyle filming snowboarding and skateboarding. But there's a bit of waxing poetic about a lifestyle that doesn't seem particularly poetic. That said the subjects the men are interesting enough. They have their beliefs and their understanding of the world and the valuations of the various offerings therein. It's worth watching.
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