Once upon a time, Documentarians like Wiseman let the story organically tell itself. Then along came Michael Moore, and documentaries changed. The Director's began to cheat, and to steer the story. They inserted themselves into the mix, and the films became about them This is what Jamie Kastner has done in "Kike Like Me". His first glaring deficit is that he is not self-aware enough to know how un-funny he most often is. He preens, and poses as if everything he thinks or says is pure gold. Instead, he is rarely funny, and he throws away great opportunities because it is ALL about HIM. Perhaps it is generational, as his preciousness is to me off-putting. It certainly is not his politics, which are as shiftless, as his plans. He seems to just film like a Moth, turning his camera and his aren't I AMAZING personae upon the brightest light in view. Documentary is inherently powerful, but Kastner keeps jazzing it up with insights, and focus that is ham-handed. THIS is a heady, and painful topic for Jews, and the Director's tap-dancing, and patter are insulting. When at Auschwitz after failing at his first 3 attempts at irony, I simply could not watch any longer. The analogy I would give is making an ironic black comedy about "crib-death" and expect it to be cute to those who have lost a child. This is a big bad world, filled with hatred that killed 6 million Jews. Amateurs in both film-making and black comedy had best pick the lightest topic around, as it fits their style. In "Kike Like Me" Jamie Kastner has brought a pickle to knife-fight, and the result is not only insulting to Jews, but it insults thinking. This was a waste of film, and ultimately a waste to a topic that demands deeper thinkers than this dopey un-funny clown.
Review of Kike Like Me
