Film Review: Muddled Messages in ‘America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments’

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CHICAGO – Americans, as everybody knows, are obsessed with weight issues and dieting. It is a society that has obesity and anorexia as opposing problems, has restaurants that pride themselves in huge portions and watches a TV program called “The Biggest Loser.” Chicagoan Darryl Roberts gets weighty in “America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments.”

Rating: 2.5/5.0

This is his second documentary called “America the Beautiful.” The first one dealt with the idealization of beauty in this country, and interviewed magazine editors, academics and modeling agencies. This second doc takes the same approach, but this time it is about weight obsession. It is not as effective as the first film, and is weakened by a constant focus on Robert’s own battle of the bulge. It jumps around from topic to topic, with no focus on the thesis – which in the end is acceptance of oneself and others, despite weight difficulties.

This is a talking head and participant-style documentary. Like Michael Moore, Darryl Roberts often makes himself the story in the film, both in his own struggles with weight, and the reasons for the outside American’s struggle with the same. Roberts goes through a number of dieting treatments, raw food, Weight Watchers and exercise. At the same time, he reviews statistical and medical evidence of a dieting commerce system that wants overweight people to feel bad and buy their products and systems.

Roberts seeks out a variety of sources in the documentary. Spirtual guru Deepak Chopra, Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius and former Surgeon General David Satcher are a few of the experts that expound on the subject, and Roberts even throws in a bunch of friends and colleagues who have their own stories. The America of body image is magnified once again under his microscope.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments”

Darryl Roberts Contemplates Weight Issues in ‘America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments’ Photo credit: Harley Boys Entertainment

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments”