Review: Art & Copy sounds like a boring documentary you are supposed to watch while taking a class on marketing. One can imagine this boring lecture combined with interviews of super rich white guys who think they understand teenagers. But, if you are a person with any knowledge of documentaries, you should immediately get excited seeing Doug Pray’s name attached as director. The exciting director who previously made Scratch turns his eye towards the world of advertising and makes it into something truly remarkable. The funny thing about advertising is that the industry is set to be fast paced, inventive and stimulating. But, when someone sits down to analyze it, the whole thing becomes bland. Luckily, Pray knows how to keep his subjects alive within his work. In fact, the whole thing plays out as if it were an advertising campaign for advertising. This may upset quite a few people who see advertising and marketing as a beast that is killing society, but I sorta enjoyed it. Yes, it is frivolous in some aspects, but taking a step back and enjoying the purity of the industry helps put perspective on a lot of things. And above all, sometimes it’s just great to see something cool. That’s what Doug Pray offers in Art & Copy. Not to over blow his status, but Pray in many ways is the Spielberg of documentaries for me. He just knows how to make a great film that not only analyzes a subject but also makes it into a living breathing entity. Unlike Michael moore who forces his subjects to adapt to his style, Pray adapts the direction to his subjects. Now, lucky for him, Art & Copy has some bizarre/interesting/fascinating/deranged characters that make it easy for him to do so. If it’s one thing I learned from this documentary, its that the advertising industry is nothing to look at in a lab, it is an animal best studied in its natural, wild habitat and Pray lets the viewers witness it in all its glory. From a technical standpoint, it is everything a film student could want to learn about direction and editing. No matter how you feel about the subjects, it’s hard to ignore the high level of production quality in Art & Copy. These are not necessarily in your face, very obvious special effects, but rather the best things are the small, minute actions Pray incorporates into his documentary to just push it that much further over the top. The end result is a film laced with dedication, love and quality. Now, despite all this praise, Art & Copy will most likely be overlooked by a traditional documentary film audience seeking a story deeper then the surface-level quality presented here and the mainstream movie audiences wondering how boring a documentary on advertising could be. Don’t let that mistake happen to you. Art & Copy is a sleek, cool film that has enough absurdity in its characters to keep you entertained from the first to the last frame. Review by Matthew Abshire Informative: 4- not much historical background, but a wide range of titans of the industry are presented Entertainment: 4.5- it’s like a series of great ad campaigns, not because you’ll wanna buy the stuff, but because it’s that much fun Technical: 5- does the little things right to push it over the top Overall: 4.5- a great film that honors the industry’s successes, while ignoring its faults
 
Format: Theaters Year: 2009 Running Time: 86 Min Distributor: Arthouse Films Producer: Jimmy Greenway and Michael Nadeau Director: Doug Pray Date Reviewed: 6-1-2009 Story: Explore the fascinating and sometimes mysterious world of advertising with this compelling documentary from filmmaker Doug Pray that features a host of interviews with some of the biggest names in the business. Meet the talented minds who created taglines forever embedded in the American psyche, including "Just Do It," "Where's the Beef?" and "Got Milk?" Hal Riney, Ed Rollins and many others share their insights (NetFlix).