Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Just because a film is a documentary does not mean it should be exempt from a narrative or a three-act structure. To my disappointment, this film does not tell the STORY of Jasper Mall. It is just a stream of clips that have little to no connection to each other. No attempt is made in the documentary to explain why the mall is failing. It sure is something the locals would like to know. But no, the very topic isn’t even touched on. Which is so odd, given that the point of intrigue for this mall is its mass exodus of businesses. The film focuses way too long on the boring and irrelevant, the editing is so amateur. There’s literally minutes of this movie that just films a random customer shopping for knives. Riveting! The footage just has no structure, you could watch it in any order and it’d mean just as much to you. The movie did not have a theme, it did not have a goal that the audience could recognize. And so the movie just...ends, leaving you wanting so much more. Every documentary should be made with one question in mind: Can you show the journey? In this case it would be the journey of the mall from rise to fall. I can’t say I ever saw a journey in this movie. I’m assuming the director and editor are relatively new to filmmaking though, so I’m genuinely hoping they gained a lot of perspective from seeing the finished product. It’s not my intention to be mean or to condescend, I just want them to learn something from this. :) I wish them good luck!