Thank you for your kindness, courage, inspiration, and motivation to help others.
Knowing Lizzie Velasquez, she will probably read each and every review here, so from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you. You are a special person and are here for a reason. Get some help from someone or call one of the hotlines that are available. So please everyone out there who is having a tough time or being bullied, just remember, it gets better, I promise. Some are very young kids with their whole lives ahead of them. Its so sad that people have killed themselves because of this. But people just do not realize the impact they have when they pick on other people. I was called many hateful names and each and every time it hurt. At times I had an extremely tough time in school. I think everyone has been bullied at one time or another in their lives. Its impossible not to shed a tear during this documentary. This is not really a review of the documentary but more of a thank you to Lizzie.
It's occasionally too slight for its own good but then again, there are few directors who could really measure up to the potency of a subject with this kind of immediacy and not steal her thunder. This doc should be mandatory viewing for teens. It doesn't matter in the end because Velasquez steals the show with her effervescent sunshine optimism (even when she's looking very beaten and tired she still radiates hope). I felt there was more to Lizzie's story that might have been even more painful than the You Tube stuff and Bordo perhaps just didn't want to dwell too much on the negatives. I will say that I don't think Bordo went deep enough into Lizzie's psyche with this film, or into what I think is supposed to be the major thrust of the piece (and long overdue): Lizzie's fight to finally hold kids and parents accountable for the criminal act of bullying. she fought fire with fire and won hearts in the bargain. What Lizzie went through, when a group of mean-spirited teens threw a video of her up on You Tube and how she positively transformed what could have been a suicide-inducing experience (for most people) is uplifting to say the least. it's one of admiration and courage for her and her amazing family and friends. Sara Hirsh Bordo effectively introduces her and if you can get through the first ten minutes of this film without choking up, you're made of stone. Velasquez was born with a disfiguring disease that she's never let stop her once. It's rare that a documentary has such an explosively powerful subject at its center that you wonder sometimes if a frame will contain her, but Lizzie Velasquez *is* that subject.
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