The theme of filmmakers Joseph Litzinger and Eric Michael Schrader’s documentary Will Work for Views is that of persistence—holding on to a dream of success year after year that may one day arrive as a reward for one’s work and vision. Unfortunately, the example of determination offered here is of a middle-aged man named Paul Petroskey, who has spent decades trying to achieve media stardom by shooting juvenile videos of himself acting like a dork. Although his passion preceded the arrival of the Internet, Petroskey found his perfect home as a YouTube performer. When he’s not acting the fool or playing original music online, Petroskey is seen working in his job at a video store and trying desperately to attract attention on a street corner for a club date where he’ll be singing his nonsense tunes (in fairness, he does have a small cult audience that turns up at these unpaid gigs). It’s not that a viewer should feel contempt for Petroskey—the guy can live his life however he wants—but why would anyone want to squander 90 minutes of their own lives watching class-clown silliness from Petroskey’s archives, or listen to his despair over whether he’ll one day be recognized as a cultural asset. Not recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)
Will Work for Views: The Lo-Fi Life of Weird Paul
(2017) 86 min. DVD: $24.99 ($299 w/PPR from edu.passionriver.com). Passion River (avail. from most distributors). Volume 34, Issue 5
Will Work for Views: The Lo-Fi Life of Weird Paul
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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