Starsuckers

Most helpful review Starsuckers

• The Fame game

   

  By Mark Harrison from Birmingham , 24 Apr 2010

  [Highly rated reviewer]

  Starsuckers is a documentary about celebrity and the addiction of fame, following those who want to have it, to those that want to exploit it and those that cover it and make it their business and how they keep this multi-million dollar cash cow well fed if not entirely contented.
  
  It uncovers the lies, the underhand tactics and lengths news media organisations will go to to get their story, and if they didn't get it, make one up. Fake a photo. Tabloid gossip looking for flaws and faults in it's money spinners.
  
  Pretty much stuff you think you already know, but as Charlie Brooker might say, 'Just the tip of a 'S**tburg' . You know nothing.
  
  It's the corrosive influence the all pervasive tabloid media, celebrity culture and reality shows have on the 'news' bombarded children growing up today that's a genuine cause for concern for any parent. A concern that an untouchable (and unaccountable) Media fuels the addiction of fame that is impossible to shut off or escape.
  
  Sounds like sobering stuff, but cleverly and amusingly packaged as a series of tricks to fool the gullible, i.e.: us, the Starsuckers, just more unwitting (and witting) junkies looking for a celebrity news fix.
  
  The star moment has to be Max Clifford and his (censored) revelations of the celebs he has to cover for. No wonder he tried to gag the film!
  
  I hired out the DVD also for the promised additional content. The extras are pretty good but the celeb interviews aren't what I expected; snatched comments from premiere red carpets rather than hoped for sit down frank discussions about the reporting of celebrity in today's media and it's detrimental effect on society, our morality and even the celebrities well being (Cue Brittany Spears). But then as Chris Atkins says, that would be like asking an alcoholic to talk about his addiction.
  
  There's a less a humorous look at the darker side of fame/ notoriety, when those seeking it go on campus killing sprees to get their posthumous moment in the media spotlight. (Personally I think it's more complex than the connections they make but it's worth reporting as a factor)
  
  Plus an amusing 'Making of' showing footage that didn't make it into the film, and some more of Kev the Pap, professional snapper and wannabe assassin.
  
  Meg Tilly offers us a glimpse at celeb honestly, but she's hardly a whistle blower. Are they going to bite the hand that feeds them? Or would they have a reporter blacklisted in Hollywood for asking 'the wrong question'?
  
  In fact It's testament to the filmmakers (and their lawyers) that this film got made and distributed at all, because whist the Media is happy to point the finger of blame for societies ills at film, TV and video games, it tries to ban and censor those who expose the harm the Media undoubtedly has on society and the impressionable.
  
  Sadly, the film will inform but not change us. We will all still snort up the latest gossip from the tabloid troughs, deciding if it's real or not depending on if we like the celeb in question and if it makes us feel good. Because we're already addicted and the supply is never ending.

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