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There is definitely a rich and certainly colourful story with intriguing characters to examine, as it follows Andrew Logan as he organises the last alternate Miss World back in 2009 whilst also looking over his colourful life and the competition's history. All of which is genuinely interesting, involving a vast array of famous faces such as the late Great British Derek Jarman (who once won the competition) and been frequented by Andy Warhol, David Bowie and many others. All of which is put across with great care and attention by the filmmakers, who are clearly in love with their subject matter, an enthusiasm that that is incredibly contagious making it hard not to get carried away with its pure joy and rather odd sense of fun, which carries the film. For although comments on the political or cultural significance of the man and his work are definitely there, this is first and foremost a celebration of its subject which it becomes hard not to be at least temporarily fascinated and enthralled by.
The film itself is also extremely colourful simply in the way it’s constructed, as the various figures from Andrew Logan’s life appear in cardboard cut-out form with animation segments helping cut between scenes, or we are bombarded with bright images from the past of art projects or flipbooks of photos. All of which can be a little irritating at times, but for the most part works incredibly well, serving to help the audience enter what is a very strange world indeed. The whole thing moves along almost seamlessly so that everything remains joyful and bright whilst maintaining a surprising fast pace for a documentary feature, and crucially it does not feel like a long list of talking heads (although come to think of it there are actually an awful lot). Indeed it has to be said that director Jes Benstock has managed to do remarkably well in weaving this all together whilst maintaining a coherent framework.
What we have therefore is 98 minutes of joyous, exuberant celebration that can take even cynical souls like myself with no interest in such things and infuse them with at its madcap celebration. It might not be a deep film or without flaws, but as documentaries go it is enormous fun.
http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/York_Picturehouse/
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