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Reviews for March 6th, 2013



Gut Renovation

Directed by Su Friedrich




            In the too simplistic Gut Renovation director documents the gentrification of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which commenced after new zoning laws were implemented in 2005. She had been living there since 1989, and now observes how mom-and-pop stores and low-rent buildings housing artists were demolished to make way for high-rent condominiums. Very rapidly, a neighborhood with the 99% was replaced with the 1%. Friedrich shows plenty of evidence of the gentrification and has every right to be enraged about it. However, she goes too far by expressing her anger via commentary in the form of intertitles. Some of those comments are witty and informative, but many of them are annoying and tedious. Adding to the tedium is that she continually counts the number of demolished apartment/stores in Williamsburg. By the 2nd time she counts them, the audience probably understands her point quite clearly.

      What point is there to vent her anger against the wealthy people in her neighborhood? She should be angry at our government (the pimps) rather than those who e or bankers. You'll feel as though you're being hit over the head by someone, much like Michael Moore, who prefers to point fingers and to complain rather than investigate objectively like a true journalist. Every issue has more than two sides; Gut Renovation ultimately fails to show the gray area. The recent documentary My Brooklyn does a more better tackling of the same issue calmly and insightfully, and also goes to the extent of humanizing the working class Brooklynites.

Number of times I checked my watch: 4
Released by Outcast Films.
Opens at Film Forum.




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