Monrovia, Indiana (2018) Reviews

• Small Town Life By Frederick Wiseman

  Jimmy_the_Gent42018-10-30

  In my opinion, Frederick Wiseman is the greatest documentary film maker of all time and here he looks at life in Monrovia, Indiana a small town farming community. As in other Wiseman films, there is no narration, interviews or leading questions. He simply allows us to get a glimpse into the lives of people living here. He starts off with some beautiful shots of blue skies, breezes blowing through the trees and fields. Then we see towns folk going about their business in their jobs and everyday life. Only Wiseman could make working in a pizzeria or a supermarket seem fascinating. The early scenes shows the Monrovia High School, showing a teacher proudly talking about Indiana basketball players, there is also a quick scene of students rehearsing a musical revue. There is no scenes of any trouble at the school, unlike Wiseman's 1968 classic "High School". One of the funnier moments is a group of older men at a diner talking about diet food and drinking a lot of beer to get it down. We see a pig farmer getting his pigs ready to be sold. Wiseman spares us from seeing them slaughtered which I thought was unusual for him since he normally shows us everything. However later on, we get to see a veterinarian operating on a dog's tail reminiscent of the operation we got to see in Wiseman's 1993 "Zoo". There are a few long sequences of the town council discussing new houses being built and lack of fire hydrant inspections. A wedding is shown in a Christian church with nice singing of the old song "Always". There is a scene in a gun shop where owner and customer talk about rifle scopes for deer hunting and about a friend with gall stones. The final sequence is the funeral of a beloved wife and mother. Wiseman is always great at giving a well rounded picture of his subjects. The last scene of the coffin being lowered is very moving. It is often the last scene of a Wiseman film that hits you the hardest, and that is what happens here. While this is not one of Wiseman's best, it still is a worthy addition to his collection.

• Frederick Wiseman does sci-fi.

  mymangodfrey2018-11-19

  This mockumentary is set in a future Indiana in which people no longer have access to the Internet, don't have smartphones, and don't have political opinions informed by Fox News. The young people of this fictional world have lost their ability to speak; the only people who retain their voices are Baby Boomers, and they are only able to speak about things of no interest to anyone, like whether a certain zoning exemption should be granted for a driveway. (Please: give this topic the full 30 minutes it deserves, so that we can get the richest possible sense of how town councils work in te 21st century.) I appreciated Wiseman's bold foray into science fiction, even if the world he creates here lacks plausibility. My only concern is that this movie's timid Ford-Foundation-approved portrayal of arch-conservative gun-hoarding Indianans as good-hearted and simple soybean folk was not exactly what 2018 demands. As we enter the 16th year of a needless war, as waves of meth/opioid addiction and suicide sweep across the non-science-fiction version of Indiana, as we return to Victorian levels of inequality, as de facto concentration camps are set up along the country's southern border, as people all over the country retweet images of unarmed black men being murdered by cops and left to rot all day in the street, as privatization destroys what was left of our education systems, as privatized utilities destroy children's brains with lead, is it possible that this castrated, painfully dull and polite movie is not exactly what's needed? If Wiseman still has the guts to show things that don't flatter the wealthy and powerful, this might be a good time for him to start working on High School 3, Juvenile Court 2, Welfare 2, or Veteran's Hospital. This movie gets a 4.0, at least, for forcing viewers to sit through images of animal suffering and to consider where their meat comes from.

• So boring

  ruthgoodwin2019-05-12

  Although Monrovia is a boring small town in mid west I'm sure some people there have interesting things to say or have deep inner lives but Wiseman didn't reach this and so this was the most boring film I've seen in ages.

• An interesting slice of rural life

  Elijah_T2019-04-29

  For the record, I arrived 5-10 minutes late. This documentary provides a well seamed collection of examples of everyday life in a place I've never heard about. History of their sports teams, debates over investing in new residential housing vs new businesses (the newest neighborhood is where the majority of their volunteer firefighters and people who returned to Monrovia reside), freemasons ceremony, WTH is up with the newest neighborhood's fire hydrants, barbershop, hair salon, fitness class, a funeral, etc. Monrovia, Indiana does well at what it intends. This would be an interesting documentary to discuss academically. Side Note: I did lose my interest at times, but that's a matter of personal taste. Some topics just didn't interest me. The director did a pretty decent job with editing. I give that a B.