Critics Sold on Greatest Movie

Morgan Spurlock helms documentary on advertising
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2011 12:30 PM CDT

Morgan Spurlock, the guy behind Super Size Me, calls his latest documentary—an exploration of our ad-obsessed culture—The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. And critics seem to agree:

  • Spurlock “has this habit of making documentaries that come hidden in the Trojan horse of silly and then stab at your conscience,” writes Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. “As ever, he makes you laugh till it hurts.”

  • Spurlock "spoofs himself into an exuberant documentary that demonstrates the all-pervasive influence of modern advertising by satiric example, and with great ingenuity,” notes Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal.
  • Spurlock has an appeal all his own, adds Stephen Holden in the New York Times: It’s “the gift of gab along with an undeniable star quality," making him "a superb promoter of himself as a brand."
  • But “something gets lost as the distance between filmmaker and subject disappears—I think we call it objectivity,” warns Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. Still, Spurlock offers “some surprisingly salient observations.”
(More advertising stories.)

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