Nonureva Really Surprised!

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

monoceros4 I really, really hope that the movie is not entirely representative of Harry Potter fandom.The documentary is in the worst tradition started inadvertently by Errol Morris. Thanks to movies like GATES OF HEAVEN (good) and FAST, CHEAP AND OUT OF CONTROL (not so good) there are now hundreds of third-rate amateurs who figure that all they need to do to make a documentary is find some group of quirky weirdos--or, worse, several groups of weirdos who actually don't have that much connection to each other--then roll the cameras for a few hours and print up the results. "We Are Wizards" makes only the vaguest attempt to force any kind of structure or point of view on what is, for the most part, an amorphous collection of interview and convention footage. Various assortments of losers come into focus for a few minutes hither and thither. There are a number of garage bands who write songs about the Harry Potter universe; none of the people we see can actually sing and nobody knows more than three guitar chords. The worst of the lot are a Harry Potter-inspired death metal wannabe (sporting a round physique, a balding pate and a mighty neckbeard that makes him look a lot like the Canadian folk singer Stan Rogers) and, worse, a couple of homeschooled kids who give off a creepy "Jesus Camp" vibe but for a different reason. There are people who live for running Harry Potter fansites and who--when the documentary makes a laughable attempt at drumming up tension--make a huge deal of theirdisillusionment when they find out that Warner Brothers doesn't care about Harry Potter fans. There's a spectacularly unfunny cartoonist who's got a sideline in recording ham-fisted parody audio tracks for the Harry Potter movies. Five minutes with any of these people is enough to make you run screaming to the asylum gates clawing to escape from the madness. And we get to spend eighty minutes with them!Roger Ebert has wisely told us, "A movie is not what it is about. It is about how it is about it." I'm not sure he is entirely correct; there must be some subject so arid, so devoid of interest and entertainment, that even the most artfully filmed movie about that subject cannot possibly hope to be good viewing. Of all the documentaries I've seen, "We Are Wizards" comes closes in that regard. All you can do is boggle at these people, singing their ghastly songs and recording their painfully belabored parodies, and ask them: didn't anyone, at any time, even suggest to you that maybe you need to improve your voice or write better jokes? Is this what enthusiastic fandom does to people? Make them into colossal bores?"We Are Wizards" makes one attempt to present an alternate viewpoint and it's so thoroughly misguided and formulaic that I must comment on it. You see, the movie opens not with bad Harry Potter music or worse Harry Potter riff-tracking but with a voice-over from a woman who believes that the Harry Potter phenomenon is seducing children to dabble with the occult. We've heard that line before and it raises the promise--cruelly dashed--that the movie will be about that ginned-up controversy and not just about a pack of talent-free musicians and cartoonists. The woman who thinks J. K. Rowling is turning children to the Dark Side, after that first voice-over, doesn't reappear until nearly the end of the movie, so that she has the effect of "bookending" the movie. What's more, while all of the miscellaneous losers we've seen have been emphatically American, the anti-HP woman has a British accent, the only one in the movie, and she's also the only real adult. Everyone else we've seen have been children and unformed men in their twenties who might as well be children. Therefore We Are Wizards casts opposition to Harry Potter mania into a familiar mold: it's the stuffy, Old World, schoolmarmish reaction to the boundless energy of fresh-faced American youths who just want to express their creativity. (Much is made, by the way, of how "creative" all of this imitative and talentless zeros are.) Worse, the introduction of this notion that Harry Potter books might be leading kids to dabble with witchcraft goes unexamined because its one voice in the documentary is given to a ridiculous and schematized figure. Why not dig into that more? For all I know there are kids who decide to buy books on Wicca after reading Harry Potter. Hopefully they thence discover that "witchcraft" is nothing more than warmed-over and sanitized 19th century British occultism and quartz crystals strip-mined from Brazil, but that's hoping for too much, perhaps. All the same, whether or not there actually is any real connection between Harry Potter fandom and interest in the occult--which is a real thing, just not the thing that right-wing crazies seem to think it is--would have been far, far more interesting a topic of inquiry than what "We Are Wizards" gave us to watch.All in all, a thoroughly wretched movie about unpleasant people and with zero insight into the phenomenon it purports to investigate. The worst documentary I've seen, and I've seen some wretched ones.

Soniatimmons This was probably one of the best documentaries I've seen in a long time. It's funny, entertaining and surprisingly informative. The film delves into many fascinating subjects such as "Wizard Rock" and a hilarious alternate soundtrack called "wizard people" by animator Brad Neely. I was very surprised to see so much about copyright and creative control in the film as well - it was both informative and eye opening at the same time.The film does have some strong language, so watch it before you rush to show your younger children. However, this film is as much about inspiring creativity than it is about Harry Potter as an icon. It makes my want to go start my own rock band, or make my own alternative MST3k style soundtrack. It celebrates creativity and is an incredibly fun watch. I highly recommend it!

Derek Williams I saw this documentary on Hulu. I am not a Harry Potter fan and found the first book and movie to be passable entertainment. I saw a few of the other movie adaptations and thought they were passable. I happen to be a Trekker and so understand obsession with a particular entertainment with wide culture changing appeal. So , going into this documentary I was keeping an open mind because I didn't want to be unfair to the subject.With all that said, I have to give this film a lukewarm rating. There was so much this documentary could have covered beside the mediocre musical performances from rock star wannabes and badly recited monologues from frustrated actors. For example, the school I used to work in had teachers who loved the Harry Potter books, do you think the director could have gone into the school system and perhaps secured an interview with a teacher and gotten some insight there? Or how about members of the Neo-Pagan community, and seeing what they felt about Harry Potter books and maybe reveal to us how they have used the books to enhance their craft? The documentary just falls way short of what could have been explored here.

Ghrifter I was lucky enough to see this at the South by Southwest film festival and absolutely loved it. The film consists mainly of interviews with prominent members in the Harry Potter fan community. Celebrities within their own field who tell of how they became enmeshed in the HP community and how it affected them. Ranging from the life-affirming to the heart-breaking, sometimes within the same interview, the film sought to truly connect the film with its audience.At the time of seeing the film, I had only seen the HP movies as they came out, had never read the books and wouldn't have considered myself anything more than a casual fan. The film goes that extra mile and allows itself to care for its subjects who include(if I remember): the site admin for the website, the leaky cauldron(a source of information to fans), the wizard rock band Harry and the Potters, and most entertainingly, web demigod and animator Brad Neely among many others. The film also goes into the confrontations fans had with media giant Warner Brothers over the right to make Harry Potter themed creations and a family whose extremely young sons make up the wiz rock band The Hungarian Horntails and the sons write their own songs. You can't help yourself but laughing and embracing these people for doing exactly what it is that inspires them.Although the documentary on fans always elicits the 'Trekkies' comparison, We Are Wizards doesn't take the same road that Trekkies did. Trekkies had a bad habit of embracing its fans with an aside snigger. We Are Wizards, however allows itself to genuinely care about its subjects and to dare you to do so as well.The kind of documentary that really brightens the rest of the day. If you have the chance go see it, if not lets all hope for a DVD release! Very highly recommended even for non-Harry Potter fans.