The People Vs. George Lucas (Alexandre O. Philippe; 2011)

Assembled primarily of interviews with irritating, whining Star Wars fans, The People Vs. George Lucas kind of tries to offer a fair shake to the man who made THX-1138, American Graffiti, and Star Wars, but it falters by giving a surprisingly disproportionate amount of screen time over to those who buy into the delusion that their childhoods were sodomized by the very man who (by their own admission, much of the time) provided such a massive inspiration during those formative years.

I’m an unabashed Star Wars apologist. The Special Editions are, at worst, a mild irritation, and I (!) like the prequels, but I think even most jaded Star Wars fans would be embarrassed if they saw themselves reflected in some of director Alexandre Philippe’s interview subjects.

The film is entertaining and moves at a brisk pace. Some of the angry fans were fun to laugh at, and it was nice to hear the occasional reasonable person weigh in (Neil Gaiman was a nice surprise), but sadly, The People Vs. George Lucas offers no new argument. It’s just the same fan bitching you’ve heard since 1999, formatted into a watchable, but unremarkable package.