Great documentary! However, after watching the Hulu version, this version seamed disjointed with it's back 'n forth style of storytelling. The Hulu version is more a linear timeline, digging into who Billy was before the festival and some of his other failed companies before telling the viewer about the Fyre Festival. The Hulu version also has interviews with Billy himself as well as his girlfriend which are even more revealing.
Also, it's good to know that the Netflix version was produced in coordination with the social media company which put on the Fyre Festival - F**K Jerry Media. I found it interesting how the Netflix version mostly glossed over their involvement while the Hulu version had an interview with the actual designer of all the social media elements from FJM. He gave a lot more insight into their involvement, which is very interesting.
All in all, I'd recommend watching the Hulu version first, and then watching this version.
this documentary is INCREDIBLE - i can’t recommend it enough. billy mcfarland reeks of privilege and i was completely appalled and blown away by his blasé attitude to literally committing several counts of white collar crime - living in the lap of luxury in a penthouse suite after being released on $300,000 bail? after scamming bahamians out of $250,000 worth of unpaid manual labour? after setting up a brand new scam targeting victims who’ve already lost thousands of dollars to this catastrophe? after endangering lives through both the lack of adequate shelter and water for guests and the awful working conditions for the employees? and laughing and joking all the way through it like destroying financial livelihoods is nothing. this documentary has got me so riled up and disgusted which is a sign of a very well-made doc!!! my one criticism would be that i’d have much preferred a criminological critique at the end rather than the spiel about social media being a ~facade~ which we all already know. i think it would’ve been awesome to have instead looked at stats for how many people get away with this sort of thing, for how he got 6 years (6 years!) when some people are put away for triple that for dealing freaking marijuana, if the bahamians ever got that money, etc. - cause people love to say that white collar crimes are victimless crimes but somebody, somewhere is working for nothing. overall a fantastic doc providing many genuine wtf moments but lacking a commentary on race/class/wealth and privilege
I think everyone here agrees that Billy was a fraudster and should rot in jail for that. I miss two things here though.
First question that comes to my mind is: and who else? I really can't believe he pulled this scam off all by himself and no one else realized what was going on. The other people who were aware of it, but didn't try to put a stop to it are also responsible IMO (though to a lesser extent).
Another thing that bothers me is people saying: ah, but he stole from the rich kids, they had loads of money, so they deserved that... Well, that's some bullsh*t! Is that money any less stolen bc of that? I don't think so. Yeah, it probably doesn't cause so much harm to the victims, but a theft is still a theft, sorry!
I will never understand this influencer lifestyle cult.
I've said before that art / music / film can't be depressing. Just good or not so good. But this film may have actually changed my mindset. It's one of the most depressing films I've ever seen. To see the instagram age in motion, doing their thing, just to be seen, and heard, and noticed. Very sad.
Also very sad that all those Bahamians never got paid for their hard work which got undertaken in good faith.
A true horror show that looks inside what some of the people in the Western world have become.
Weird how when you straight up lie to people, it just blows up in your face. I did feel really bad for all the locals that got screwed over though.
I don't feel bad for anyone here except the locals, workers, and vendors who never got paid. The rest are social media dupes and con artists. Fuck 'em.
After reading comments I literally feel like these fucktards are still making money off this stupid Fyre festival by making documentaries about it and milking it like crazy. I didnt pay a cent to watch this so that's fine, and I think it was a decent enough film, but I got a crazy hatred for the sociopaths behind it now, and feel like this documentary doesn't do enough to hold them accountable. Also something seriously needs to be done about influencer culture, and they briefly brush on the subject in this by saying the rules for posting advertisements are getting stricter but that’s not enough - that’s maybe the only good thing about Fyre festival, it’s that these dumb rich kids got what was coming to them.
This film gave me so much schadenfreude that I'm arguably still high off of it. Seeing all these rich phony pieces of sh*t get completely screwed over was magnificent. Of course, seeing the local Bahamians and whatnot also get screwed over was depressing. So I guess it balances out. Either way, this was a quick 90 minutes and made me want to watch the other less famous one from Hulu so I guess I liked it well enough.
Fyre was an interesting documentary, showing the power of influence and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)
Netflix and Hulu both released a documentary on this, but Netflix took a bit of a disjointed approach to the story telling that got a bit tiresome by the end.
The interviews and footage used in the movie are quite interesting, and I definitely enjoyed watching it.
If you're interested in the Fyre Festival, I'd recommend both movies. If you're just curious to see what this was, I'd recommend skipping this for Fyre Fraud on Hulu.
I had never heard of the festival before this. As some of reviews suggested I watched the Hulu version first and then the Netflix version too. I agree, Hulu version gives great overview of how it started and what happened. For me Netflix version was nice addition, for details, more interviews and behind the scenes footage.
My comment deals with both the Hulu and Netflix documentaries about Fyre Festival, as they were released so closely together that it invites comparison.
TL;DR: I think the Hulu version is a far superior (and significantly more honest) documentary. I'm baffled by the fact that so many people seem to prefer the Netflix one.
The only upside of the Netflix one is that they have huge amounts of behind the scenes footage, but the reason the Netflix doc has so much behind the scenes footage is because it was produced by the same social media agency that marketed the fraudulent festival to begin this. Which is never even mentioned in the doc. That's a much bigger ethical issue than Hulu paying Billy McFarland to be interviewed in their doc, where they consistently contrast his lies with the factual truth, essentially showing you how a pathological liar operates in real time.
Out of both docs I found the Hulu one significantly more compelling, because it digs much deeper into Billy's past and the whole litany of financial crimes he committed. It's also much harsher on Jerry Media, the marketing company for Fyre Festival that produced the Netflix doc, and the influencers that peddled this crap. As someone who knew a lot about this story already, the Hulu doc added significantly to my understanding of how big a scam this was, how it fit in with Billy's past behaviour, and the lengths of deception he'd go to. Except for some marginally funny anecdotes, I thought the Netflix doc didn't add to my understand of events at all - it just covered what we already knew. Because the Netflix doc leaves out so much context and only focuses on the logistics of the festival, it also ends up painting almost everyone involved as good people with a great vision who just didn't quite manage to pull it off. When it should be portrayed as the intentional scam that it was.
I can't attest to this last part, because I knew the back story, but my wife hadn't heard of Fyre Festival and found the Hulu doc much easier to follow and significantly more insightful. She watched the Netflix one first and by the time it finished did not have a particularly strong understanding of what had actually occurred. I too found the way the narrative is presented in the Netflix doc fairly confusing.
On a more minor note, the Hulu doc also dealt with Ja Rule's involvement in a significant way, whereas he was basically ignored and absolved of all blame in the Netflix one.
I seem to be in a tiny minority here, but I'm baffled by the fact that the consensus view seems to be that the Netflix one is the superior documentary. It's a puff piece compared to the Hulu one.
this was just the stanford prison experiment for fucking morons.
This was an interesting and we-delivered documentary. I've always been fascinated with people like the guy that is the focus of this story. At some point was he at least a little bit well-meaning?
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Shout by Lee Brown Barrow Movie BuffVIP 3BlockedParent2019-01-18T15:23:02Z
Wowsers - this guy was a dick! It's not the festival goers I necessarily feel sorry for - they had money to burn by all accounts - but its the people who worked on this event, especially the Bahamians, who didn't get paid, that were hit the worst. Billy McFarland needs to take stock of his life and BACK OFF from doing anything like this again.
A great doc, certainly eye opening, and a valuable lesson for those people in Billy's shoes right now.