This documentary is nearly twenty years old now, and it follows a gay couple as they navigate the stressful and exciting journey of their first pregnancy through surrogacy. You get to see it all— the hope, the nerves, and the dramatic hurdles they have to clear along the way. Back in the day, this was probably a massive deal, but since I’ve known a few gay couples who’ve gone through this exact process, some parts felt a bit dated to me. I liked bits and pieces of it, but I also felt like the film stays pretty surface-level. It doesn't really dive into the deep, complicated reality of life after the baby actually arrives. If only raising a kid were actually as simple as this movie makes it look! Erik and Mark have been together in New York for ten years, and since they feel solid in their relationship, they decide they’re ready to raise a child. They start the hunt for a surrogate and eventually connect with Wen, a wife and mom from Maine who agrees to carry the baby for a standard...
The film moves at a very fast pace. We see his earlier days in theatre, how he manages to befriend a few people dreaming of making films. He moves from different actors, characters and people while terrorizing everyone on the sets to make a movie the way he wanted it to look. We see how he was openly gay, sexually very promiscuous, a man who wanted to defy all norms of film making and a drug addict. You know that the film is not going to end well for a person with al these traits. With a life dedicated to cinema, churning out three to five films per year, a devout cinephile, promiscuous homosexual, and conflicted Marxist, his live-fast-die-young lifestyle was the stuff of a rock star, not a director.
Sadly the film never goes into the psyche of the person that Ould make you either appreciate him or hate him or even just understand better. You watch this film and you feel like you are watching a self absorbed guy who yells at everyone, has sex all around, does a lot of coke and somewhere in between finds time to make 3-5 films a year. How was he funding these films, where were the story ideas coming from, why were the actors dying to work for him when clearly his reputation was never the best; is never touched upon. Interestingly, this biography itself is shot in a mix of theatre, half-in, half-out experiments kind of film; which is how apparently all of Fassbinder films used to be like. The sets and location are bare minimum with complete focus on just the actors. We also get to see the few relationships that he was in with other guys. But as I said, never anything is explored in details. The film is mainly interested in what a monumental jerk Fassbinder could be, treating theater companies, film crews, actors, producers, lovers, and family members like obstacles, raw material, or garbage, depending. This is not my kind of cinema unfortunately. (2.5/10)
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