Bama Rush

"Poor me" story from the director who made the entire doc about herself and lazily tries to equate her alopecia with Bama Rush. If you're saying, "huh?", then believe me, the disaster of watching it is actually worse than it sounds. Glosses over important issues such as racism, eating disorders, etc. In favor of non-stop flashy pop ups of Tik Toks. Literally 30 minutes of the doc is dedicated to the directors own plight with alopecia. Sloppy filmmaking with no point of view or really anything to say. If you're looking for saliciousness, there isn't any, and ditto if you're looking to learn anything.

This is marketed as a window into Greek life at Alabama, but I have no idea what is happening here. There is virtually nothing about fraternities and sororities, and a lot of scenes of the director re-saying information that's already been said, more or less verbatim. For example, first they tell you what a NY Times article says, and then they'll pan to the director saying, "There was a New York Times article..." This is when she's not talking about alopecia, begging the question: Why didn't you make a movie about alopecia? It seems to be what she actually wants to talk about, and uses a handful of awkward people pursuing sorority life to talk a lot about her trauma from wearing wigs. Honestly, it's baffling.

Would have been a good documentary if it weren't for the director making the entire thing about herself.

Sucks you have alopecia but it has absolutely nothing to do with joining a sorority in the state of Alabama.

Trying to compare your struggles with your subject at every turn has single handedly ruined your film and left your audience feeling click baited.

If every scene with the director in it was cut from this film I would have probably rated it an 8 out of 10.

Seeing what these girls put themselves through is absolutely crazy.

Next time keep your issues in check and you might make a decent film.

If you think you're getting a juicy exposé on Alabama sororities, you are going to be disappointed. It is not an exposé at all. In fact, around 50% of the screen time is dedicated to the director of this movie who trauma dumps about being bald, comparing her baldness to rush in some contrived analogy that makes zero sense. When the women of color share their stories about the racism they faced at the University, heavy themes are explored. A Black alum explains how a cross was burned on the porch of her black sorority. Not even 10 minutes of screen time are given to her. Instead, the director inserts herself and cries about being bald once again, something incredibly jarring to see in juxtaposition with the real injustice and trauma that these women face. Bald lady aside, this is just not the documentary you think it is. I literally learned nothing new and it was incredibly boring. Do not waste your time. It was hilarious when the director kept inserting herself into the documentary, however. I cannot make this up.

I was highly anticipating this film. I felt it lacked a little depth - there was such room to dive deeper into the exclusive nature of sororities and fraternities and there are way more secrets to be shared (coming from a former sorority girl). I felt there needed to be more concersation about how intense the actual rush process is - how expensive, how time consuming, how emotionally intensive it really is. Hugeeeee miss here. Also could have dove deeper about how the sorority girls rank those PNMs. There's a lot of undercover discrimination that goes on there, too. Overall, I think this documentary focuses too much on mental health and what it takes to look like a sorority girl than exposing the truth of what rush is. This was a bit disappointing, lacked focus and was extremely underwhelming.