40. Fyre - The Greatest Party That Never Happened: movie review
Cert 15
98 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong language
I have just deleted a sentence which could have been seen as critical of people who spent thousands of pounds on tickets to a music festival in the Bahamas without nailing down the detail.
I was going to suggest they should have done their homework with greater vigour and then I realised we have paid more than £1,000 on our accommodation for this year's Glastonbury Festival following internet recommendations.
The temptations of Fyre Festival, which was aborted at the last minute, was even greater.
Its organisers even paid internet influencers to say how excited they were about the paradise island weekend which was meant to take place amid splendid luxury.
As Chris Smith's extraordinary documentary reflects... it turned into a giant rip-off.
Fyre is a splendid example of quality storytelling - combining contemporaneous footage with interviews with those impacted by the scandal.
True, there are no direct contributions from those accused of being at the heart of the fraud but they were so obsessed with publicity that there is no shortage of real-time comment.
Fyre festival organiser Billy McFarland is seen to be an over-confident young entrepreneur who bites off more than he can chew when tries to set up his event on an island once owned by drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Throughout the project, he is seen to set the bar as high as possible in terms of acts, accommodation and his team which includes rapper Ja Rule.
Such quality comes at a massive cost so the party-goers have to pay a high price even though it becomes ever clearer that targets will be missed by a mile.
Smith's film grabs because of the way he builds up the lip-smacking prospect of Fyre with supermodels splashing around in clear blue seas and then counts the clock down towards the reality of its collapse.
Mrs W and I were staggered how McFarland fooled so many people for so long but, hey, we are the people who have faith in luxury accommodation at Glastonbury which isn't yet built.
We have all been suckers at least once in our lives and people like Billy McFarland are waiting to pounce.
But are they? Did he really intend to rip people off or was he just a really bad organiser?
The question still hangs, at least partially, in the air.
Reasons to watch: A documentary which superbly builds up tension
Reasons to avoid: Those who don't understand music festivals might be left scratching their heads
Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 8/10
Did you know? Tickets for the ill-fated Fyre festival started at $450 for a basic day pass and went up to $250,000.
The final word. Chris Smith: “I didn’t know how you could live with yourself and not feel some sort of sense of responsibility,”
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