By Gregory Crofton
If you’re in search of a splashy, colorful, visually striking documentary in “THE CHALLENGE,” like the one I expected to find, don’t bother going.
If you’re looking to see if the documentary genre can be stretched into new some territory, then maybe you should see it.
But be prepared to make a slow march through the sand dunes. Surely you’ll put an eye out for an oasis. None appear. I took my parents to see this lustless loop of celluloid and had to elbow my mom to wake her up at one point.
I wanted to be a fan of director Yuri Ancarani, the Italian who directed this 70-minute film. Ultimately his project sinks under the weight of pretension especially after you realize he meant this study of rich Arabs and their pricey falcons to be a new sort of Spaghetti Western.
Skip it.
Since I’m on the the topic of Westerns within the documentary genre, I’ll mention “WESTERN” (2015), a documentary directed by the brothers, Bill Ross and Turner Ross. Stay away from this film too.
I swooned over the brothers’ first feature “45365” — a documentary about “a city and its people.” This is a truly fantastic work of art. Unfortunately I had a hard time staying awake during their version of a Western.