Art & Copy (Pray, 2009)

Doug Pray’s documentary about the rise of the advertising age, replete with interviews from industry giants and snippets from the greatest television ads of all time, was a real festival crowd pleaser. I found it superficial and celebratory at the precise points where it should have been the most probing and critical. If you are the sort of person who gets nostalgic when rearranging your record collection, this film should push all the right buttons. If you are the sort of person who rolls his eyes when someone says, “Well, most of Toulouse-Latrec’s paintings were advertisements and they are now considered important works of art…” then you may be in for a bumpy ride.