Joel, I assume, was trying to make something meaningful; and while, it's most likely meaningful to him, its absolutely meaningless to any outside viewer. For the rest of this review, I'm going to be comparing this movie, to "As I Was Moving Ahead...", because I feel like that's what Joel was going for here. However, Jonas Mekas had something to say for his movie, "As I Was Moving Ahead..." he had narration going over the 5 hours of home videos. He had stories to tell, and life lessons to teach. He had a clear message that he was trying to convey. Joel, however doesn't make the message clear enough, or the message is non-existent. This makes the movie useless, to anybody except him. While I respect his effort, and I respect that it's probably very meaningful to him, its meaningless to anybody else. Now, I have some suggestions. 1. Put a narration track over the film. This will help Joel convey his message, by explaining what's happening or just flat out telling us. 2. Make it longer. One of the reasons "As I Was Moving Ahead..." is so good, is because Jonas Mekas made sure he had enough time to convey, what he was trying to convey. He did this by making the movie nearly 5 hours, this gave him time to say everything he wanted to say. 3. Finally, edit the movie in a linear way, and wait till you have more footage. Another reason "As I Was Moving Ahead..." is so effective, is because of how personal the movie is. You see the birth of his daughter, and you see his daughter grow up. He edited it in a way where we could see his daughter grow up before our eyes, making the message of the movie hit 10 times harder.
