This film managed to draw me in as it went along. Given the materials I read, there was hardly any new information in it for me, but the way it was presented made me feel much more vulnerable to media manipulations than I felt before watching this. Some stuff is just off base, such as suggesting that all of us really want to be on reality TV or be in the entertainment industry- -I don't have the slightest interest in either of these. I have never watched more than a few snippets of any reality show in my entire life, because I really detest them and can almost literally feel brain cells die when I'm exposed to them. On the other hand, it made me feel much more vulnerable to the desire for fame than I am comfortable admitting. Some other stuff was just annoying--in particular, the narrator's superior nerdy tone and the fame-craving little boy and his screwed-up parents that the film kept checking back on. Personally, I wish this kid would just go away, and maybe if we can get enough other people to agree, we can stop his fame train before it gathers too much more steam. Overall, this production starts a bit slow and is a bit condescending throughout, but the pace picks up as it moves along, and I was left satisfied that it coalesced pretty well at the end. Lastly, I can't let it pass that the title of the film is an obvious allusion to another term, and it was clearly chosen for it's prurient draw (which is why I put it in my queue--I guess it worked), but it's just a tease. I was really expecting (and, no doubt, hoping for) some salacious material, of which this film has only the most meager amount. Oops. I probably just killed the interest there. Sorry.

STARSUCKERS (dir. Chris Atkins) The only beef I have with the film is its unfortunate title, however this clever and informative documentary shows how 'The News and Infotainment Industry' has morphed into such an overwhelming behemoth that it now controls and commands nearly all aspects of life in the 21st century. Although the science of the film might be a bit questionable, the film's conclusions are undeniable. Misdirection and hypnosis by the media have convinced the weakest and most gullible that regardless of talent, background, or education, they have a god-given and constitutionally protected right to succeed in life, and an entire industry is poised and ready to sell them this wholly unrealistic and delusional point of view. The section of the film that dealt with parents who, against all odds, insist that their remarkably ordinary children are 'reality stars' of the future was particularly revealing albeit depressing. Also the documentary demonstrates how the News Media has all but capitulated, and we have now become a 'post-truth' society. It's no longer of any importance that verifiable facts are presented just as long as the overall message is delivered in an uplifting and entertaining manner. Fact checking is for suckers, and this is why Sarah Palin (and others like her) can entertain hopes of becoming world leaders. Citizens of planet Earth have devolved into 'Believers' instead of 'Thinkers', and it was most certainly NOT a natural process. MUST SEE

'Starsuckers' is an entertaining and pertinent documentary about our celebrity-obsessed media that is ultimately just a little too pleased with itself. While it's always useful to be reminded of just quite how powerful the media is, and of who really benefits from its wielding of power, most of what is presented here is something that a Guardian-reading liberal will already be familiar with. And some of the stunts seem counter-productive: demonstrating that newspapers are happy to print rubbish, as long as it's rubbish that will sell, by feeding them rubbish to print doesn't really hurt them at all - did director Chris Atkins really think that the popular press wouldn't be delighted to print the story of Amy Winehouse's hair catching fire, even if it wasn't true? Exposing it as false after the fact doesn't hurt a newspaper that already cares more about its reputation for entertainment than its reputation for truth. In among the stunts, however, there are some serious points - the one which struck me was that the proportion of children who think of themselves as important has risen 5-fold (to 80%) in the last 50 years. The real message we should be teaching is that you can be valuable yet unimportant (except at a local level); but sadly nothing in our culture seems to be moving in this direction.

Starsuckers is a documentary by Chris Atkins which concerns our obsession with celebrity and explores how we are genetically predisposed to want celebrity for ourselves. It shows how the media use this to manipulate us. While, for me, this was preaching to the converted I still found it interesting and the arguments presented seem well researched and sound. I was lucky enough to also see it with a Q and A from Atkins which was informative, compelling and funny.The manner in which the film is tied together is also interesting. Atkins uses images of magic tricks and illusion to tie together his arguments and this is, obviously, what the media and PR do. It also, and this was a point Atkins made during the Q and A, doesn't offer any solutions and really I suspect the only solution would be for us to stop absorbing and buying the media which obviously feeds us false and misleading stories to fill newspapers and airtime.As it attacks the media expect it to get either panned or ignored but see beyond that, seek this film out and watch it.