TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "A COURTSHIP"
The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, runs April 15th-26th and features hundreds of features, documentaries, short films, and special events all throughout downtown New York City. The ArtsWire Weekly's three featured reviewers Mateo, Derek, & Chrisena are hitting the festival and bringing the reviews right to you! What you should see and what you should skip...
My parents were super strict when it came to dating rules. I wasn’t allowed to go on one-on-one dates until I was 16. I definitely wasn’t allowed in a car with a boy that drove until I was about 17 and sure as hell wasn’t allowed to have a boy in my room. That last one is still a rule in their household actually. Back then I thought these rules were over the top and rolled my eyes as loudly as possible each time they were enforced. Now I see how those rules were good ideas when I was a teenager, and sometimes wish that my parents could still tell me which boys not to go on dates with. Lord knows I could have saved a lot of time by having my mom have a chat with my suitors before I went to dinner with them.
However, having the option to choose whom I date, is a freedom that I take advantage of. I enjoy using the skills my parents taught me in finding someone who respects me. It is difficult sometimes to go on dates and have people be mean, disrespectful or just downright rude. But, I am glad that I get to use my own brain and my own heart to figure out who is the right man for me.
Apparently this is not the same for everyone. Meet Kelly, she is a single thirty year old woman, who teaches dance for a Christian dance studio and is looking to find her soulmate. The problem is, Kelly as decided to abide by the rules of courtship. This means that Kelly has relinquished control when it comes to any piece of the dating puzzle. She lives with a family that practices courtship and the father of this family must find suitors and arrange casual group outings for the couple to meet and gradually get to know one another. If the patriarch at any time decides that the match isn’t a good fit, he is allowed to step in and end it, and Kelly is expected to completely oblige.
Kelly is finally introduced to a man that is deemed a possible suitor, and she falls fast into a crush. Her adoptive parents make sure that Kelly and her suitor have the same beliefs theologically speaking and that her suitor doesn’t mind that Kelly accidentally gave away her first kiss already. After a small theological difference surfaces, things are ended between the two, and Kelly is left heartbroken by the exchange.
While I disagree with the theology of this sect of Christian thinking, I do feel that the filmmakers did a bad job of keeping their voice out of it. It felt like they had a strong opinion on how these people choose to live their lives, and so they voiced it. If you want to make a documentary about someone with a different lifestyle for an exploratory piece, you should keep your opinions out of it. Especially if you want to make people think. This film was occasionally edited so obviously to make the people sound simplistic and idiotic that I felt angry. If people are passionate enough about a lifestyle that they are willing to risk their wants to live in line with those ideals, it is a filmmaker’s job to show us why. Not to make fun of someone’s religious beliefs.
I do not agree with the ideology presented in this film, but I don’t agree with mocking someone’s beliefs and calling a documentary. I felt it was an unfair portrayal. If other documentarians can make films where their subjects are well-known terrorists and they can keep their ideas out of it, I’m pretty sure someone could make a film about a woman who chooses to specifically find a spouse in this way.
VERDICT: SKIP IT
DIRECTED BY Amy Kohn FEATURING Kelly Boggus, Ron Wright, Dawn Wright
Playing as part of The 2015 Tribeca International Film Festival. For tickets & schedules: http://www.tribecafilm.com
CHRISENA RICCI once went to a costume party dressed in an all black dress and black wig. No one there could guess who she was. So she shouted out, "I'm Christina Ricci, without the T or I and add an E!" Everyone stood there confused, she was annoyed, so she stormed off. She never returned to that apartment ever again. Which is fine, because she later realized she was at the wrong party. She now lives in New York City.