Veteran documentary filmmaker Elizabeth Sher deftly skewers America's obsession with cosmetic surgery with this highly informative, somewhat offbeat approach to the subject. Baby boomers, as it turns out, are the biggest consumers of the ever-increasing “all-you-can-eat buffet of surgical procedures” that include tummy tucks, breast implants, (the always wildly popular) liposuction, and far scarier procedures such as carbon dioxide laser resurfacing. Rather than lecture, Sher, a boomer herself, uses clips from old movies, sound effects, snippets from cartoons, and even a dream sequence from an episode of The Twilight Zone, to inject a little satire into a cultural phenomenon that already borders on the absurd. Sher interviews people on the street who admit they'd consider facial surgery if it were offered at, say, Wal-Mart; she wanders across a Brazilian clinic's advertisement offering surgery for free to anyone willing to have the procedure streamed live over the Internet; and--in one particularly surreal segment--discovers a California hair salon where a local plastic surgeon (who acts vaguely like a smarmy television talk show host) makes regular rounds of the salon's customers, administering Botox injections. In addition to presenting some horrible, true-life tales of surgical procedures gone really bad, Sher herself considers $20,000 worth of potential facial improvements that involve injecting substances like Gortex (yes, Gortex) in the space between her nose and mouth. Her decision to ultimately undergo cosmetic surgery on her lower lids is a little disconcerting, but her ability to poke fun at society at her own expense is, well, eye-opening. Sure to be popular, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (A. Cantú)
Younger, Thinner, Smoother
(2001) 51 min. $250. I.V. Studios/Elizabeth Sher (dist. by UC Extension Media). PPR. Color cover. Closed captioned. ISBN: 0-9642370-1-6. Volume 17, Issue 6
Younger, Thinner, Smoother
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