What? You expected a state prison psychiatric facility to be humane and well run? And therein lies the reason why this vaunted documentary from Frederick Wiseman failed to "get" to me. It doesn't tell me anything I don't already know and it does so with such poor sound quality that it's hard to hear what the inmates and guards are saying. Also, by eschewing a more targeted approach, wherein the focus is on one or two inmates and jailers, and thus build empathy and identification, Wiseman simply chooses to rub the viewer's nose in an institutional slop bucket for an hour and forty min. Consequently, after about 30 min, one says "I get the point" and pulls the plug. Give it a C plus.
Review of Titicut Follies
