When I am perusing the list of movies available at a film festival, I have a general checklist running through my head. Which films have been popping up at other festivals and may be generating buzz for an awards season campaign? Which ones come from an established director whose work I’ve liked in the past? Which ones fall into the “beat” of films I tend to cover (in my case, Animated or Asian/Asian American films). There is only so much time I have to balance watching and reviewing films against everything else I do, so I have to be somewhat ruthless in what I prioritize. That said, there are just some films that speak to who you are that fall outside of the above categories that you must make time for. This is a capsule review of two such films from Hot Docs that speak to who I am.
Spreadsheet Champions – dir Kristina Kraskov
Final Rating: 3/5
If you’ve listened to any of my coverage of Oscars season, you know that I am a bit of a numbers nerd, looking at historical statistics to base my predictions. In my day job, I spend all day in databases and spreadsheets to optimize online advertising (which you can read about in my Hot Docs review last year of The Click Trap). So once I learned about this documentary about competitive Microsoft Excel, I knew I had to cover it.
Following six eponymous (national) spreadsheet champions, the filmmakers travel across the world in the lead up to the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship to be hosted in Orlando, Florida. Akin to documentaries such as Spellbound which covers the Scripps Spelling Bee or Speedcubers which follows the competitive Rubik’s cube scene, we are introduced to each competitor and get to know a bit of their personality and what makes them tick and want to compete.
All are clearly gifted, though they have different motivations. Some seek personal satisfaction, some seek to represent their country specifically well on the global stage. From there we move to competition weekend, learning about the structure of the challenge and what will be tested. Admittedly, I was left a bit wanting on the nuts and bolts details; perhaps that was me wanting to know how I’d stack up in the competition, but between a need to keep some level of secrecy for future competitions as well as not completely bore a general audience, I get it.
Overall the film does a decent enough job of playing to the structure of a competition documentary like this; there are technical setbacks involving autosave, there are tears, and moral support from coaches and teammates. Ultimately, I find it kind of anticlimactic that none of the highlighted competitors actually won or even medalled, though that’s just the nature of documentary filmmaking I suppose.
Where the film stretched itself a bit thin perhaps was in its choice of breadth over depth. Running at a tight 86 minutes, having to cover six competitors necessarily means one can’t linger with the more interesting personalities; One Directioner Carmina and ham radio enthusiast Mason stand out with a bit more main character energy. I would have loved to maybe zoom in on one or two competitors in more depth, much as how the aforementioned Speedcubers documentary focused on the relationship between its two leads.
Obviously part of the intent of the film is to show the global reach and impact of Excel (admittedly with some on the nose promotion for Microsoft as a brand), so the broad approach is in service to that. Ultimately, given its short length and inoffensive earnestness, I can’t fault the documentary for knowing exactly what it is trying to be – a heartwarming picture of some kids finding something they’re good at and doing their best.
River of Grass – dir Sarah Wortzel
Final Rating: 4/5
While I proudly call myself a New Yorker after living here for 11 years (including over the pandemic), I do have to acknowledge that it is the Sunshine state of Florida that raised me. The first year my family moved to Jacksonville, we had a whole semester in third grade about Florida history. And of course many summers when we weren’t visiting theme parks in Orlando, I’d be on camping trips with my Boy Scout Troop to different parts of the State. While I grew up in the Northeastern part of the State, I always cherished the chances to take in the natural beauty of the Southern half – something I admittedly do miss here in NYC. So of course, a documentary about the Everglades was one I’d have affection for.
River of Grass draws its name from the writings of journalist Marjory Stoneman Douglass, women’s suffragist and conservationist whose writings sparked the conservation movement of the region. In turn, her book takes its name from the Seminole word for the region “Pahokee”, meaning grassy water. It’s clear that these two influences inform Wortzel’s documentary heavily.
Obviously there is stunning footage of the verdant wetlands and wildlife that bring tourists to the region; interspersed throughout are archival footage of interviews with Douglass, which in turn is intercut with local indigenous activists on prayer walks, and again Wortzel’s own narration and musings woven in. We see different specific ecological issues facing the region – imported pythons who are released by irresponsible pet owners, harmful algal blooms caused by industrial runoff killing off other wildlife, black and brown communities who disproportionately suffer from commercial sugarcane burning – contrasted against the excitement for the capitalist growth of urban centers such as Miami and Tampa.
Rather than following any one story linearly, this web of vignettes shifting between conservationist and industrialist, present and past, nature footage and human activity, Wortzel’s own musings and those of Douglass, all serve the greater point that we as humans and nature are interwoven in countless ways. The cinematography and sound design allows for the glades to be their own character, in conversation with those who would both preserve and take advantage of it.
In particular, I am impressed at the choice to center indigenous Miccosukee voices who have been advocating for the Everglades for generations. By encouraging the viewer to build a personal relationship with the wetlands, rather than demanding the audience take action in a certain prescribed way, the film leaves the viewer no choice but to feel emotionally invested in standing up for the River of Grass.
