Gary SteelSky TV’s Neon streaming service has got a cracker of a selection of documentaries at the moment. GARY STEEL reviews a sampling.
Love Has Won: The Cult Of Mother God (Neon) 8/10
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along comes a documentary about a cult that’s on a whole new level of cray-cray. This 3-part HBO exploration into the life of self-proclaimed ‘Mother God’ Amy Carlson and her Love Has Won “religious movement” makes extensive use of authentically amateur video footage and online broadcasts as well as interviews with former cult members and others they came into contact (or conflict) with, to piece together her story. What at first appears to be simply a fruity mix of new age bollocks turns out to be so mad that it beggars belief. Amongst many other insane claims, Carlson says she’s the creator of the universe, that she’d been reincarnated 534 times as (amongst other notables) Jesus, Marilyn Monroe and Cleopatra, and that the late comedian Robin Williams was in direct contact with the group, and is actually archangel Zadkiel. Yeah, right.
It turns out that Carlson had been a three-times-married McDonald’s manager when she left her husband and children and previous life behind to found her cult, which was a combustible mix of new age and conspiracy tosh with a bit of Qanon and Trump adulation thrown into the mix, with a side of rampant drug use and alcoholism. It was the drink that killed her in 2021, along with overdosing on the colloidal silver (which had turned her skin blue) the cult sold for profit. The group’s descent into its ultimate self-destruction is shown as its members let her die and then hide her corpse, believing that she’s not really dead. What’s so shocking about Love Has Won: The Cult Of Mother God isn’t so much Carlson’s story, as she was obviously nuts. It’s that other disturbed and gullible individuals believed her schtick. One from the “stranger than fiction” files.
Fred West: The Glasgow Girls (Neon) 6/10
Anyone even vaguely aware of the most infamous serial killers in history will know the utterly horrible story of Fred and Rosemary West, who raped, tortured, killed and dismembered at least 12 young women and girls in the UK between 1967 and 1987. They were arrested in 1994 but unfortunately, Fred committed suicide before his case came to court, meaning that many details of his depraved life never came out. There are books and other documentaries about these especially awful murderers, but The Glasgow Girls (as the title suggests) is supposedly all about his first three victims, which he met while living in Glasgow prior to moving to his house in Birmingham, the site where most of the murders were committed and bodies buried.
It’s a fair premise for a documentary, but devoting three episodes to this footnote to the story feels like a stretch. And in fact, it is. Because there’s precious little footage and a dearth of information about the Glasgow years, it keeps lurching forward to the discovery of remains in the West house in 1994 before going back in time once more. This feels like a cheap, almost tabloid, trick. Sure, it needs a mechanism to explain that the three unfortunates he met in Glasgow actually died by his hands later on in the UK. Still, any new perspectives on this sordid tale are useful, and hearing the sorry truth of his first three victims is compelling, if deeply sad, especially hearing about them through former friends. Not a great documentary by any means, it’s still a must-see for those intrigued by the darker side of humanity.
Simple Minds: Everything Is Possible (Neon) 9/10
Sometimes, all that’s needed is a good story well told, and Everything Is Possible tells the story of Scottish new wave band Simple Minds almost perfectly. Personally, I’m only really a fan of three of their early albums: their most experimental work Empires And Dance, the double juggernaut Sons & Fascination/Sister Feelings Call, and their commercial breakthrough (in Europe, Australia and NZ, at least), New Gold Dream. After that, it got way too stadium and American-friendly for my tastes, but it’s the trajectory of their story that keeps the viewer interested. And like the music or not, the group’s US breakthrough via The Breakfast Club movie and subsequent performance at Bob Geldof’s monster charity gig Live Aid make for great reminiscing.
There are many documentaries about successful rock groups but this one has an edge because it’s so unlikely, and the members of Simple Minds (mainly longtime leaders Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill) are thoroughly down-to-earth and likable. It’s an inspiring watch because it’s a story about a band that came from a really tough part of Scotland and somehow had the wherewithal to make it to the top. The documentary also charts their fall from fame, years of inactivity and then their slow rise to glory again, the last part of which feels a little glib (I mean, what happens after…?) Also docked a notch for not mentioning their trips to New Zealand or the fact that Kerr met his first wife Chrissie Hynde (no, it didn’t last) at the Sweetwaters festival.
The Life And Deaths Of Christopher Lee (Neon) 7/10
This 2024 feature documentary uses a rather odd technique to tell the story of the actor who most viewers will recognise as the guy who played Dracula in loads of cheap Hammer horror films. It uses a stand-in voiceover to narrate his life in the first-person (and some rather humorous puppets) but that doesn’t distract too much from the story, which really is quite extraordinary. I had no idea before watching this that Lee was descended from famous aristocrats or that he’d been some kind of famous war-time spy well before he became an actor. Unfortunately, he kept this part of his biography close to his chest, so we can only guess at the details. Most will watch The Life And Deaths Of Christopher Lee (who actually did die in 2015 at the age of 93) to find out about his long acting career, however, either having been fascinated by the many villainous characters he portrayed, typically in b-movies, or in his late-in-life ascendancy to parts in more prestigious films like Lord Of The Rings.
Accordingly, Peter Jackson is one of the many former associates interviewed about Lee, all of whom seem to feel a great affection for the actor. It turns out that, unsurprisingly, Lee felt terribly constricted by being cast repeatedly as a blood-sucking freak or some other kind of evil entity, but could never turn down a part. Although Dracula ended up haunting him, he didn’t lack for a sense of humour. One of the most fetching parts of the film tells the story of his vocal collaboration with a European heavy metal band Charlemagne when he was in his 80s. Fabulous.
The Truth Vs. Alex Jones (Neon) 9/10
This two-hour HBO documentary film should be required viewing for both students and grownups. It really is that important. The Truth Vs. Alex Jones skilfully weaves several stories into each other – that of the horrendous 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre and the rise of conspiracy theorist TV broadcaster Alex Jones – and how Jones’ vile lies would impact on the parents of the slaughtered kids and influence public opinion. Jones spread the lie that the Sandy Hook event never happened through his popular InfoWars channel, resulting in the dead kids’ parents – already barely coping with losing their kids – being harassed, threatened and vilified. The core of the documentary follows the eventual court cases against Jones, which found him guilty of spreading lies.
What might sound dry is in fact nail-bitingly intense, as the long-suffering parents come face-to-face with the despicable Jones, who for brief moments is forced to admit that the Sandy Hook massacre did happen, but then returns to his channel to continue spreading lies for profit. This is important stuff because, despite the book being thrown at Jones, Infowars continues infecting the public with its outrageous bullshit, and people believe it. At one point, the documentary acknowledges that even after the trials, a sizeable percentage of Americans still believe that the Sandy Hook massacre never happened. I guess that with Trump running neck and neck with Kamala Harris in the lead-up to the US election this kind of outrage has been normalised, but it’s a sobering indictment of the human capacity to accept lies when the truth is staring them in the face, no matter how inconvenient it is.
Brandy Hell-ville: The Cult Of Fast Fashion (Neon) 8/10
Fashion isn’t really my thing, so I came to the feature-length Brandy Hell-ville: The Cult Of Fast Fashion with a residue of inherent boredom. It wasn’t long before I was bug-eyed with surprise at this story about the US-based “fast fashion” brand Brandy Mellville and the frankly awful men that own it. This is the kind of documentary that, just when you think they’ve told you all you need to know, they uncover more reasons to be outraged. Cleverly structured by experienced documentarian Eva Orner, it explains the amazing rise of Brandy Mellville and how its clever marketing captured the tween and young teen market. So far so boring.
But then the revelations begin: worker exploitation, sexual exploitation of young and vulnerable girls, highly discriminatory employment policies, body image shaming… the list goes on. And to top that all off, it turns out that these “Italian” garments are made very cheaply by Italian-based Chinese factories that employ virtual slave labour. But perhaps the most disturbing section is where they detour to explain how fast fashion items are quickly disposed of in the West and mostly end up literally dumped in the sea in Africa. Required viewing, again.
Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric & Elizabeth? (Neon) 6/10
This 3-part series from Max investigates the kidnapping/murders of two young girls (8 and 10-years-old) in America’s Midwest in 2012, together with several other possibly linked double-kidnappings. Crime documentaries are one thing, but programmes about the abduction and murder of children are really upsetting. In Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric & Elizabeth, the show’s director has a real advantage, as he’s a local who has followed the case from the start. What’s intriguing about the way it’s done is that the main ‘cast’ (the respective mothers, fathers and the girl that got away) are interviewed at different time periods, so they age on camera, change their look and express their anguish in different ways.
The most unsettling thing about it is the way the dysfunction of one of the girl’s families is revealed after some time, leading the viewer to suspect that their involvement in drugs and low-level crime could have somehow led to what happened. Ultimately, however, the series struggles to justify its length, especially as it has no conclusion to offer, as the culprits are still out there. While there’s a certain amount of newsreel footage the extended running time means that there’s an awful lot of contextual filler and especially, drone footage. I hasten to add that I love the way the drone footage maps out the neighbourhoods and it’s somehow hypnotic to watch, but they could easily have reduced it to a single feature-length film.
They Called Him Mostly Harmless (Neon) 8/10
In 2018 the body of an emaciated man was found in a tent in a Florida swamp, having been there for some time. They Called Him Mostly Harmless is a feature-length Max documentary that explains the subsequent events and the hunt to find his identity leading ultimately, to a disquieting conclusion. Sometimes shows with a slow reveal are the most intriguing and that’s certainly true of this film. The first hints as to the dead man’s identity come from trampers who had encountered him and sometimes befriended him. One of them took some video of the mystery man, who described himself as “mostly harmless”, hence the show’s title.
Oddly, none of those who had met him in the bush knew who he really was, although several of them had struck up what they thought were meaningful relationships with him. In fact, one of the most fascinating aspects of the film is how other trampers assumed they knew him, one of whom clearly felt romantically towards him. This, even though the mystery man gave very little away, not even his real name. It would be churlish to spoil the surprise ending, but it turns out that Mostly Harmless wasn’t such a great guy, despite so many attempting building a myth around him. Well worth a watch.
Chimp Crazy (Neon) 7/10
Along with Love Has Won: The Cult Of Mother God, the four-episode Chimp Crazy should be nominated for a new category award for the most outrageously bizarre show. Directed by Eric Goode (Tiger King), this HBO documentary follows wild animal broker and chimpanzee obsessive Tonia Haddix as she plays cat and mouse with animal rights group PETA, who are attempting to close her show down. Haddix had been running a primate facility that PETA took to court over alleged animal welfare abuse. So, on the one side, the rare animal traders who seem stuck in a 20th century mindset, and on the other PETA, who get a court order to place the chimps in a proper sanctuary. The show also takes several diversions to look at horror stories where domesticated apes have attacked and seriously mauled humans.
What’s unique about the film is the level of access Haddix grants to the documentary crew, who she thinks are sympathetic to her cause. Unfortunately for her, this open access simply exposes her conniving, vain and unbelievably selfish attitude to chimps that she calls “love”. The series is a revealing portrait of Haddix, who apparently is known as the Dolly Parton of the chimp world. Scenes of her weekly tanning clinic sessions and getting her lips filled out with gunk made me want to spew, frankly. Chimp Crazy is a compelling look at the psychology of those who are literally mad about chimps, but I got really sick of having to look at the obscenely ugly humans that convince themselves that chimps belong in our world.
Great Photo, Lovely Life (Neon) 8/10
Not an easy watch… no, make that a very uncomfortable viewing experience, Great Photo, Lovely Life is almost a fly-on-the-wall feature in which photojournalist Amanda Mustard returns to her former home in Pennsylvania to confront a dirty, disturbing family secret: her grandfather’s paedophilia. Striking a good balance between well-shot, well-lit scenes and grimy, spontaneous “caught on camera” moments, the film slowly reveals how her grandfather’s actions impacted on the lives of everyone around him, not to mention the countless, faceless victims of his chiropractic business.
What’s so different about the film is the grandfather’s candid admission of his crimes, and his naïve delusional belief that his prepubescent victims initiated or enjoyed the abuse. What’s astonishing is that, despite having served a brief prison sentence in the early 1990s, for most of his life he was able to continue abusing little girls, and even his own family weren’t immune to his actions. He dies during the course of filming but not before his granddaughters have a chance to tell him what they think. Unfortunately, the many years of his abuse were only possible because of the Christian conditioning of the family and the wall of silence around his crimes.
