The Nature of Existence

A A A Comments (2) By Andrew Schenker Thursday, Jul 22 2010

The Nature of Existence: We'd all like to get to the bottom of the titular conundrum posed by Roger Nygard's The Nature of Existence, but traveling around the world asking religious leaders, skeptics, scientists and a few ringer celebrities "life's big questions" is probably not the best way to pursue such a personal journey—at least, it doesn't seem terribly productive in the case of Nygard's travelogue. There's something a tad disingenuous about the director's quest for meaning, as if the whole arc of the project has been contrived to adhere to a scripted template rather than to document a genuine search. Otherwise, we would expect him to actually interrogate his subjects' responses instead of giving us little more than sound bites of the religious espousing basic doctrine, the nonbelievers waxing skeptical and the scientists spouting string theory. When Nygard does devote more than a minute of screen time to a colorful subject, it's often useless to his mission, as when the aggressively puritanical evangelist Jed Smock shows up to harangue college students about their promiscuity.

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Jack 07/27/2010 11:54:00 PM

While the title and synopsis sound very intriguing, Nygard fails to deliver on this one. The viewer is taken on a narcissistic personal journey of the filmmaker, that due to his naivety as an interviewer, yields very little substantial or new information. Chuck Bowen in his review stated, The Nature of Existence was bound to fall short of its deliberately and ridiculously broad title anyway, but one still wishes for more; namely, a sensibility, a point of view, or something that carries the faintest whiff of originality (Chuck Bowen). Beth Accomando was a tad gentler, His film isn’t so much bad as it is bland and when tackling something as big as The Nature of Existence you need to be more provocative (Beth Accomando). Bland? You said it! Sure, there are a lot of strange people and odd opinions paraded in front of you, but all they amount to is a barrage of mere sound bites coming at you at one after the other. Just when you think Nygard might have accidentally uncovered something interesting, you are torn away to a completely different sound bite. This editing technique was annoying and left me wondering if he was truly the inept interviewer he appeared to be or if the best parts of the film were left on the cutting room floor. Similarly, Eric Monder’s review for filmjournal.com comments, …Nygard’s childlike inquisitiveness limits his degree of probing. (The film’s fast-paced editing, jumping from person to person, papers over the fact that Nygard doesn’t seem to have studied for his interviews or to have asked many follow-up questions). And Beth Accomando added, Nygard seems more interested in creating an innocuous montage of comments rather than something thought provoking (Beth Accomando). As an interviewer Nygard is weak at best and fails in many places to expound upon profound statements uttered by his subjects. One of the most glaring examples is when evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), a devout atheist, accidentally utters the phrase God Knows, then winces. This was the perfect opportunity for Nygard to pursue him on that, or perhaps on the power of indoctrination in shaping and preserving beliefs. If Dawkins himself were not a victim of such indoctrination the words would have never left his mouth. The film is riddled with such missed opportunities. Missed opportunities inevitably abound. One wishes Nygard would've dropped his broader existential dorm-room bong-water pursuit to allow some of the admittedly interesting stories to fully emerge (Chuck Bowen). But, alas, he does not. Another problem for me was the extremely subjective selection of religious points of view and the glaring absence of African religions and beliefs, whether in Africa or in the U.S., Cuba, Haiti, or Brazil. Nygard seems to dismiss their relevance as though they would add nothing to his personal journey, whereas a group of screw-loose, fanatic Christian wrestlers in Georgia were somehow deemed more appropriate to the search. I also felt that in an attempt to convey humor, Nygard appeared arrogant and condescending. One of the more careless and rude moments was when he and his friend Geoff Bolt visited the Spirit of Goddess Shop. As the artist explained her beliefs in crystals and mystical powers (which have nothing to do with the topic of the movie) Bolt was seen rolling his eyes in disbelief and Nygard delivers a very patronizing Oh, yeah. In his review, Eric Monder agreed, [T]he cutaway shots of Bolt rolling his eyes heavenward disparage and undercut the words and gestures of the women. But are these women really that sillier or more worthy of ridicule than the ‘spiritual’ males of the film (who are never treated this way) (filmjournal.com)? Sophomoric decisions speckle the film making it far less than it could have been and nearly impossible to take seriously. I anticipated this movie with great interest, but was terribly let down as it failed to deliver on many levels. In the end, I was left not pondering what I had seen in the movie, but what I had not seen. Steven Hawking had no interest in this film and neither do I.

Jack 07/27/2010 11:51:00 PM

While the title and synopsis sound very intriguing, Nygard fails to deliver on this one. The viewer is taken on a narcissistic personal journey of the filmmaker, that due to his naivety as an interviewer, yields very little substantial or new information. Chuck Bowen in his review stated, "The Nature of Existence was bound to fall short of its deliberately and ridiculously broad title anyway, but one still wishes for more; namely, a sensibility, a point of view, or something that carries the faintest whiff of originality" (Chuck Bowen). Beth Accomando was a tad gentler, “His film isn’t so much bad as it is bland and when tackling something as big as “The Nature of Existence” you need to be more provocative" (Beth Accomando). Bland? You said it! Sure, there are a lot of strange people and odd opinions paraded in front of you, but all they amount to is a barrage of mere sound bites coming at you at one after the other. Just when you think Nygard might have accidentally uncovered something interesting, you are torn away to a completely different sound bite. This editing technique was annoying and left me wondering if he was truly the inept interviewer he appeared to be or if the best parts of the film were left on the cutting room floor. Similarly, Eric Monder’s review for filmjournal.com comments, "…Nygard’s childlike inquisitiveness limits his degree of probing. (The film’s fast-paced editing, jumping from person to person, papers over the fact that Nygard doesn’t seem to have studied for his interviews or to have asked many follow-up questions)." And Beth Accomando added, "Nygard seems more interested in creating an innocuous montage of comments rather than something thought provoking” (Beth Accomando). As an interviewer Nygard is weak at best and fails in many places to expound upon profound statements uttered by his subjects. One of the most glaring examples is when evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), a devout atheist, accidentally utters the phrase "God Knows," then winces. This was the perfect opportunity for Nygard to pursue him on that, or perhaps on the power of indoctrination in shaping and preserving beliefs. If Dawkins himself were not a victim of such indoctrination the words would have never left his mouth. The film is riddled with such missed opportunities. "Missed opportunities inevitably abound. One wishes Nygard would've dropped his broader existential dorm-room bong-water pursuit to allow some of the admittedly interesting stories to fully emerge" (Chuck Bowen). But, alas, he does not. Another problem for me was the extremely subjective selection of religious points of view and the glaring absence of African religions and beliefs, whether in Africa or in the U.S., Cuba, Haiti, or Brazil. Nygard seems to dismiss their relevance as though they would add nothing to his personal journey, whereas a group of screw-loose, fanatic Christian wrestlers in Georgia were somehow deemed more appropriate to the search. I also felt that in an attempt to convey humor, Nygard appeared arrogant and condescending. One of the more careless and rude moments was when he and his friend Geoff Bolt visited the Spirit of Goddess Shop. As the artist explained her beliefs in crystals and mystical powers (which have nothing to do with the topic of the movie) Bolt was seen rolling his eyes in disbelief and Nygard delivers a very patronizing “Oh, yeah.” In his review, Eric Monder agreed, “[T]he cutaway shots of Bolt rolling his eyes heavenward disparage and undercut the words and gestures of the women. But are these women really that sillier or more worthy of ridicule than the ‘spiritual’ males of the film (who are never treated this way) (filmjournal.com)?” Sophomoric decisions speckle the film making it far less than it could have been and nearly impossible to take seriously. I anticipated this movie with great interest, but was terribly let down as it failed to deliver on many levels. In the end, I was left not pondering what I had seen in the movie, but what I had not seen. Steven Hawking had no interest in this film and neither do I.