Renowned filmmaker Michel Gondry has an animated (I say that both figuratively and literally) conversation with the famous linguist, philosopher, and political activist Noam Chomsky. Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? takes an unorthodox approach by presenting the documentary almost entirely through animations; utilizing Gondry’s artistic imagination and skills. Described in the documentary as “the most important thinker alive”, many would agree that Chomsky’s brainpower is the equivalent to the creative talent Gondry possess. Both of these people are the masters of their craft, so it becomes a magical work of art when these two titans sit down to collaborate.

The documentary wastes no time on introductions as Gondry jumps right on in with picking Noam Chomsky’s brain. Some of the topics of discussion are how infants learn language, growing up in an progressive schooling environment, the idea of inspiration, and many other complex theories of our world. Because Chomsky is a linguistic mastermind, much of the documentary explores the origins and interpretations of our language. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), this conversation about language is between two people who do not even speak the same native dialect, which makes for an intriguing dynamic to witness.

One of the many fascinating anecdotes from Chomsky is on the importance of questioning the obvious things in life. He explains for thousands of years people just accepted that a ball fell to the ground because that was its natural place. It was not until we began to question why objects move that way that we actually learned about concepts like gravity. A compelling argument is made that without questioning what you taught you end up just becoming a copy of someone else’s mind.

Listening to Chomsky speak is much like listening in on a college lecture; incredibly insightful but absolutely crammed with information. So it is a relief when Gondry provides quick asides once in a while to give the viewer a break from the onslaught of information. At one point he deliberately cuts from Chomsky’s tangent to provide a summarization of what Chomsky went on to say—claiming the reason for doing so was because he was not able to come up with creative animations for it—but I do not buy it. A more subtle break is given when Gondry is not able to pronounce a word in his question without the help of a translator (he is French after all), which is something that could have been edited out of the documentary but wisely leaves in and serves as a welcoming disruption.

In fact, one of the best sequences of the documentary is when it suddenly pauses to interrupt itself after Chomsky and Gondry do not see eye-to-eye on a topic. The filmmaker believes his heavy accent and misuse of words muddled the point he was trying to make. So through editing Gondry gives himself a second chance to make his point more clear than it was during the interview. This self-aware effect is both humbling when the filmmaker admits to feeling stupid for the confusion, and at the same time gives the documentary personal charm.

The visual animations are equally as impressive as the actual conversations. Not only do the animations provide visual stimulation and showoff Gondry’s wonderful imagination, but they serve a purpose to illustrate abstract concepts that are being discussed. Furthermore, they act as graphical subtitles for Gondry’s acknowledged heavy accent that is difficult to decipher.

If you ever need to be reminded of your intellectual inferiority, Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? is the perfect watch. The result of the documentary is every bit as artfully creative and mind-bendingly perplexing as you would expect from the two involved. But despite all of that, Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? is not perfect. Often times Chomsky will answer the question he wanted to be asked instead of the answering the question that was actually asked. And even though his thoughts are downright fascinating, he tends to get off-track, making topics more convoluted than they were to begin with. Gondry proves his interview skills are not on par with his artistic abilities when his questions fall flat or disregarded all together. This is a documentary that will exercise your mind as well as your patience, however, you will be rewarded with an unique experience of enlightenment.

Watch the Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? trailer:

Morgan Spurlock, who is best known for his Super Size Me documentary that shook up the fast food industry in 2004, is determined to do the same for the advertising industry in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold? Not quite. The film offers more of a satirical look into product placement. He interviews people that go into how much product placements have gotten out of hand in TV shows, while they shameless zoom in on Spurlock drinking a beverage from a main sponsor.

His goal is to make a documentary by transparently showing the process behind getting corporate sponsorship for product placement. He wants to make a “docbuster” of a film with a ton of different sponsors that fund the film but at the same time it is a direct shot at selling out. The whole point is to be contradictory which that makes it interesting and at the same time questions the ethics behind it.

Spurlock gets some help from a bunch of different agency’s that try to help guide him along the process of getting corporate sponsorships. One of the first places he goes is to figure out what is his brand personality. They ask him a bunch of personal questions and eventually tell him he has a playful and mindful personality. That paradox is the exact fundamentals of the film so that came as no surprise.

After finding out what his brand personality is, he decides to start cold calling and pitching his film. He calls several companies such as; Ford, Red Bull, Guess Jeans, Nike and Nintendo but they all end up with the same answer, not interested. Some of their responses are quite funny such as when one said that nudity would help.

The first few companies that bite on the pitch are smaller companies who are willing to take a chance. The biggest concern they have with the documentary is the potential of negative press they would get, a logical concern to have. However, Spurlock is able to talk them into the positives of being a sponsor in a way that a seasoned salesman pitches clients; smooth talking, cracking jokes and a killer presentation.

Within the first half hour of the documentary, Spurlock gets his first large corporation, POM Wonderful. They not only want to be the official beverage of the film but also the main sponsor. He tells them that would cost a million dollars and they agree but not without some strings attached.

POM Wonderful’s contract states before he receives the money he needs to complete certain requirements. Some of them are; the film needs to be shown on over 250 screens worldwide, sell at least 500,000 DVDs, generate 600,000,000 media impressions and make more than $10,000,000 at the box office. Those are just from POM Wonderful’s contract, most of the others have some requirements as well.

One common requirement is that the brands wanted final approval of the film. This worries Spurlock into thinking he will not get to make the film he wanted to make because they will not all agree with the final film. He seeks help from his own lawyer, a former co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, Noam Chomsky and even Ralph Nader on what his options are. When asked if there is any truth to advertising Nader responses, “Yes. Advertisements that say they are lying are telling the truth.” But Nader’s witty responses do not end there, when asked where we should go if we do not want to see advertisements he says, “To sleep.”

Next he sits down and interviews some a few big name film directors such as J.J. Abrams and Quentin Tarantino about how important sponsors are now days in film. A few of them agree that if product placement is done in a clever way then no harm no foul, everyone is selling out to someone. But there are still purists who believe in the art of film and about story telling not story selling. One such purist that was mentioned was P.T. Anderson, my favorite director.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold ends up achieving what Morgan Spurlock wanted from the very beginning, a transparent look at product placements with product placements all over. The paradox ingeniously plays into itself and while he is half-jokingly pitching an idea about a shampoo brand, he is in-fact by nature pitching it to film audiences.

While the idea behind the film is smart and is genuinely interesting it is by no means groundbreaking. Most of us are aware to some extend of product placement in films and TV shows so the gist of the film is known. It briefly dives into the moral dilemma of what it means to sell out but the issue treads lightly. The only real obstacle he faces in the film is how to fulfill contract agreements. It does, however, provide some interesting information on what sponsors care and do not care about in a playful make-fun-of-yourself way.