Title: Fyre
MPAA Rating: TV-MA
Director: Chris Smith
Starring: Billy McFarland, Jason Bell, JaRule
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

What It Is: Yet another documentary about the failed Fyre Festival. This time it’s Netflix that take a stab at it. Discussing the failures of the music and culture festival that was to be held on an island in the Bahamas. From the lies and deceit of festival creators Billy McFarland and JaRule. Instead of Dom Perignon and Filet Mignon, there was barely any bottled water and half-assed cheese sandwichs. So what went wrong? What led to this happening?

What We Think: Whereas Hulu’s doc looked at this festival from a social media perspective (down to the presentation) this looks into the criminality of MacFarland’s actions. This was not nearly as entertaining and I think not actually having an interview from MacFarland (like Fyre Fraud did) that took away from this one’s pathos. It doesn’t hit with the same flare that Hulu’s did. Structurally it falls apart quite a bit where the other sticks together throughout. Interestingly Hulu wins the battle of the Fyre docs for me. This is just not all that engaging. I lost interest several times while watching.

Our Grade: D+, This is a dumpster fire of a documentary. Not well directed, which is a surprise because Chris Smith directed the wonderful Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond. Something that was done so gracefully and with a ridiculously good eye for detail. Not getting MacFarland is a huge error for me. He adds the gravitas and hatred needed to really push the story along. This needed its villain. Where Hulu had him this didn’t and it hurt. I do not recommend this, not with all the incredible content Netflix themselves are putting out. Perhaps go with one of their other features.