Review:
"Presenting Princess Shaw"
Release Date: June 3, 2016
Rating: Not Rated Running Time: 83 minutes The documentary Presenting Princess Shaw manages to tell an inspiring story of artistic courage and innovation in the most unremarkable manner possible. Director Ido Haar is blessed with a compelling and complex subject, aspiring singer-songwriter Samantha Montgomery, aka YouTuber Princess Shaw. He also has the opportunity to frame Montgomery’s rise to Internet sensation against the efforts of Israeli producer/composer Ophir Kutiel to create a video comprising of work posted on YouTube by amateur musicians and centered around one of Montgomery’s original compositions—without her knowledge or consent. Montgomery only knows that Haar is shooting a video about Youtubers. Haar takes such a plain, yawn-inducing fly-on-the-wall approach to following Montgomery through her everyday life that it’s all on her to keep us engage in her efforts to breakthrough as a singer. Her charisma is undeniable—she definitely has the voice, talent and presence to be a star—and she isn’t afraid to be real and honest. She’s a sexual abuse survivor who finds in her horrifying past experiences the motivation to build a better tomorrow. Haar also fails to find any magic in Kutiel’s artistic process, which is astounding considering the project that Kutiel undertakes is highly original and inherently intriguing. Presenting Princess Shaw finally comes to life when Kutiel posts the video of “Stay Here” and a genuinely surprised Montgomery learns about her “collaboration” with Kutiel when the video goes viral. Then she’s whisked off to Israel to perform live with Kutiel. What really can be taken away from Presenting Princess Shaw is that being YouTube famous isn’t necessary the same as being household famous. We’re still a long way off from that. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention to the talented unknowns who employ social media as a means to get down the door to stardom. Robert Sims Aired: June 2, 2016 Web site: http://www.presentingprincessshaw.com |
|