The Presidents of the United States of UnBelonging

I don’t want to beat one of these over this, since it’s been mentioned in a few posts already, but UnBelonging succeeded as a portrait for me in the very basic sense that I could understand and follow what was going on.

Surname Viet, Given Name Nam was, in a few of parts, unintelligible. I read up on the film and understood a little more about what the director was attempting, which made me respect the piece more. There’s so much being presented here, though, between the rumination on translation and the meta-interview structure, that I think the basic element of portraiture gets lost.

UnBelonging, on the other hand, is a much clearer window to look through. I’m not trying to argue that simpler is better – UnBelonging goes a few layers deep with its reflections on war, personal loss and filmmaking – but there are bound to be problems when the piece clouds its subject matter because of all the moving parts.