''Point and Shoot'' is a 2014

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

written and directed by

Marshall Curry Marshall Curry (born ) is an Oscar-winning American documentary film, documentary director, producer, cinematographer and editor. His films include ''Street Fight (film), Street Fight'', ''Racing Dreams'', ''If a Tree Falls, If a Tree Falls: A ...

. It was produced by Marshall Curry, Elizabeth Martin and Matthew VanDyke.

Synopsis

''Point and Shoot'' tells the story of

Matthew VanDyke Matthew VanDyke (born June 11, 1979) is an American documentary filmmaker, revolutionary, and former journalist. He gained fame during the Libyan Civil War as a foreign fighter on the side of the uprising and as a prisoner of war. As a journali ...

, a sheltered 26-year-old who left his

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

home and set off on a self-described "crash course in manhood." While on a 35,000-mile motorcycle trip through Northern Africa and the Middle East, he struck up an unlikely friendship with a Libyan hippie. When revolution broke out in Libya, VanDyke decided to join his friend in the fight against dictator

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

. With a gun in one hand and a camera in the other, VanDyke joined and documented the war until he was captured by Gaddafi forces and held for six months in solitary confinement.

Release

The film was acquired by theatrical distributors

The Orchard The Orchard may refer to: * The Orchard (company), American music and entertainment company * The Orchard (band), Canadian country music duo * ''The Orchard'' (Lizz Wright album), 2008 * ''The Orchard'' (Ra Ra Riot album), 2010 * The Orchard (t ...

and was released in theaters on October 31, 2014.

Reception

The film has a 74% approval rating on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Thrilling and thought-provoking, ''Point and Shoot'' captures one man's fascinating — if troublingly narcissistic — 'crash course in manhood.'" On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Ann Hornaday described the film as an "absorbing, ingeniously crafted documentary" that gives the viewer a "street-level glimpse of the realities of war."

Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...

wrote in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' that the film suggests "the addictive rush of battlefield adventure is hard-wired into the male psyche." Peter Bradshaw criticized the film in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', stating that the movie focusses on VanDyke himself and fails to explore the wider geopolitical context of the Libyan conflict.

Awards

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

, Best Documentary Feature (winner) *

Independent Film Festival of Boston The Independent Film Festival Boston is a not for profit film festival in Boston, Massachusetts. History The Independent Film Festival Boston (also known as IFFBoston or IFFB) was created in 2003 by the non-profit organization the Independent ...

, Special Jury Prize (winner) *

Little Rock Film Festival The Little Rock Film Festival (LRFF) is an annual film festival held in Downtown Little Rock, Arkansas each spring. Based in the historic River Market District, home to the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library, the Little Rock Film Fes ...

, Special Jury Prize: Extraordinary Courage in Filmmaking - Matthew VanDyke (winner) *

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

, Outstanding Graphic Design & Art Direction (nominee) *

Gotham Independent Film Awards The Gotham Awards () are American film awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, the city first nicknamed "Gotham" by native son Washington Irving, in an issue of ''Salmagundi'', published on ...

, Best Documentary (nominee) *

International Documentary Association International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Filmm ...

, Best Documentary (nominee) * Cinema Eye Honors, Outstanding Achievement in Editing (nominee)

References

External links