Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

coolhand1979 This is a truly awful, trashy documentary. Filmed in a conceited, MTV, cynical manner. It is more like some junk "reality TV show" than a professional documentary.Kate spends the first 45 mins of the film making each yoga practitioner look like a complete fraud / fool. She shows no respect for any Yoga that is not taught in India.... As though enlightenment is only available to those who travel to India and study with a particular guru.Complete BS - Kate Churchill is a Yoga snob - Yoga is about opening your heart to yourself and all beings. Her snobbishness is irresponsible when covering such a beautiful subject. There is magic here though, and it has NOTHING to do with the people BEHIND the camera. The magic is the interviews with the many and varied yogis, to be able to see these charismatic characters and feel humbled by there straight talking, no BS perspectives on life and happiness, was a true pleasure.However, Kate spends too little time with these Yogis, and far too much time with the complete pratt she chose to be her guinea-pig. He too is ignorant and slots neatly into the MTV, pop-culture, self absorbed, smug category. He is absolutely, positively, the very last person on earth that I would wish to have drinks and conversation with. He gives these snide little looks to the camera as if to say "yea, I know all this Yoga stuff is bullshit really, I'm cool, I'm hip". When in fact he's just revealing his own school-yard / peer-approval seeking lameness. Grow. Some. Balls.However, the film-maker's ignorance serves to frame the enlightenment of the Yogis beautifully... Their ignorance seems to provide the shadow while the Yogis provide the light... if you get my lingo :) A happy accident has happened unbeknown to Kate Churchill and I love it! Guerilla Yogis!!You could edit this movie down to 30 minutes, giving the entire screen-time to the interviewed Yogis, and you would have a very rewarding experience.The other 60 minutes are pure rot.

druid333-2 Yoga, which is a mind/body/spirit experience is practiced by millions. For the ones who truly take it to heart,it can be a liberating path to Nirvana (and we're not talking the late 1980's/early 1990's band here, folks). For others,it's probably a whole bunch of nothingness. Kate Churchill (the film's director/co-writer)is a long time follower of the path. She decides to choose somebody who probably wouldn't get much out of it,just to prove her point. She chooses Nick Rosen,a journalist,who decides to go along for the ride. What we get is a portrait of a man who seems to be more content with earthly delights, rather than the path to inner peace. Several visits to different practitioners of the various realms of Yoga result in interviews,with their individual take on the path (some seem to point out the physical aspects,while others offer their take on the mind/body/spirit triad of it all). The film seems to take a "road trip" approach from here (it was filmed in several parts of the country,including a trip to India to meet with several Yoga masters). As previously stated,the ones who truly take Yoga to heart,this film will be an illuminating view on a skeptic who is questioning it all. For others who view Yoga as a big bunch of bunk (as Rosen seems to contend),they need not bother. Not rated by the MPAA,this film serves up some rude language,but little more that would offend.

jeffwink At first glance this film has a relatively straightforward premise: immerse an average American male in yoga and chronicle his transformation or lack thereof. This viewer had high hopes that something "enlightening" would result. Ultimately, the film fails to "enlighten" in nearly every respect. Ironically, it is Nick's honest appraisal of his experience and apparent rejection of yoga that is the film's bright spot. Nearly everything else is frustratingly muddled and disjointed. Here are some of the more troubling aspects of the film:First, for people unfamiliar with the prominent western teachers who are presented in this film, take what you see with a large "grain of salt." The manner in which the director has presented them is disturbing and disingenuous. In general, these people are serious, knowledgeable practitioners of yoga, the director portrays them as simple-minded, hyper-commercialized charlatans (although the ex-pro wrestler is probably presented accurately). It is not clear why the director has chosen to present these western teachers this way. Is she trying to undermine yoga as it is practiced in the West? If so, this can be done honestly without needing to resort to the artifice of creative editing.Second, the film's presentation of the various yoga traditions is so muddled that it borders on misrepresentation. The uninitiated will not walk away from this film with a basic understanding of the yoga tradition and its major principles. "Non-yogi" viewers of this film, presumably had at least some open-minded curiosity about yoga and some desire to see what it is all about. Sadly, these people are likely to walk away with the impression that there is no need to look any further. I wonder if this was the director's intention. Third, the director doesn't let Nick's experience unfold on its own. She repeatedly injects herself into the process in a way that is distracting. It seemed as if she had an agenda and was frustrated when Nick didn't do or think what she wanted. I was left wondering if she needed to have Nick's experience go a certain way so that she felt better about her own experience with yoga.Finally, afriendofyoga's comment is spot on. If you want to "enlighten up," just go to a yoga class and skip this movie. If you want a basic overview of the yoga tradition, go to wikipedia. Ultimately, this stilted view of a westerner's brush with yoga is a poor substitute for a personal exploration. Check it out yourself!

afriendofyoga I was looking forward to seeing Enlighten Up! The buzz has been palpable and WOW a film about yoga which might enter the mainstream, inform the zeitgeist, and acknowledge all of the hard work that yoga teachers in places like New York and the West Coast have been doing to promote yoga in the U.S. But then I saw an advance copy of Enlighten Up! and although its trailers, advertising and press releases introduce an interesting premise, it's sad and unfortunate how badly handled, biased and back handed the film turns out to be.Don't get me wrong, I'm generally seduced by films that are provocative and make me think about the world differently. The production values are polished and the locations are really great and occasionally beautiful in a colonizer's view of the world. But as I was watching I couldn't help but think (in addition to "couldn't I be spending my time in a yoga class instead of watching this?") that Kate Churchill, the director, really has an axe to grind.We are led to believe that she has the key, the understanding of how to attain enlightenment, and she lays out the red herring of a thesis: take someone, preferably some cute, clueless-seeming 20-something guy and see what he does in the habitrail of this myopic film. Running at just under an hour and a half, coincidentally (or not?) about the length of a yoga class including savasana (aka final relaxation), Enlighten Up! introduces Nick Rosen as that clueless guy who "obviously" needs enlightenment.The montage of yoga teachers introduced in the beginning is highly edited. It's obvious that sentences are misquoted, spliced and taken out of context to support the thrust of Ms. Churchill's supposed thesis. Contemporary Western yoga teachers are illustrated as mostly capitalists, an insidious assertion since it is their students who Ms. Churchill wants to exploit. Most of these yoga teachers are presented as fodder for laughter, as are many of their students, and the way it's done is nothing short of cringe-inducing.Ms. Churchill essentially exploits all of these yoga teachers and teachings in the same way that she suggests teachers exploit un-enlightened students and presents herself as an ultimate expert. Nick's journey towards enlightenment is clearly secondary while Ms. Churchill self-indulgently chugs the film along, ending with the film maker and her artifice, illustrated in her unfortunate ending yoga pose. She talks a good talk, but she doesn't walk the walk or even headstand the headstand like when she falls out of a headstand "super-fakey like." It is clear she has aspirations of being Michael Moore via Roger and Me or Errol Morris in his acute investigations of subject matter but Ms. Churchill opts instead for cheap and easy á la "just another reality TV show," a ruse with all the real parts edited and all remaining pretense subjugated, exploited and marketed. There are no real "a-ha" moments outside of realizing you've been duped into watching an old episode of Amazing Race/Survivor/I Love New York/Project Runway with a bit of Single White Female and Fatal Attraction spliced in.It's interesting how Whole Foods, the mainstream, high-end, food conglomerate, is a sponsor of the film, while those in film presented as enlightened live so simply and with little. Like any vacationer who travels to an exotic land, Kate Churchill wants the REAL experience under her auspices and still comes back to the comfort of her own enlightened lifestyle. Many of the teachers she initially tries to exploit give money in support of not-for-profit organizations in the US and elsewhere, have free and inexpensive yoga classes, work in partnership with schools, and so on. One wonders if any money Ms. Churchill generates from this film will go anywhere except into her own pockets? One eventually wonders who the real audience for the film really is: yoga practitioners, non-yoga practitioners, people on the fence about it, people who loathe it? It probably doe$n't even matter to her.It really is unfortunate that the film couldn't have been a much better one. Ms. Churchill must have squandered some serious funding. One wishes the film was a more inclusive one, one where community and conversation could arise, one that supports the diversity of yoga communities; engendering "yoga" aka union or relationship. Instead Ms. Churchill illustrates the "one" and only way to access enlightenment, her way, not Nick's, not yours, not mine; along the way she demeans others' hard work, and others' own paths to enlightenment.If you're curious about enlightenment, consider studying with nearly any of the great yoga teachers she tries to exploit, all of whom have lived longer, practiced longer and have a longer view than Kate Churchill's.As a reviewer it would be unprofessional to call Kate Churchill a myopic control freak whose best intentions are undermined by her own self indulgence, desire for attention and motivation to make a quick buck. But as a yoga practitioner (moviegoer, citizen of the earth, etc) how could I not? Any truly unbiased documentary film maker should leave themself out of the film, without on-screen breakdowns by the director/narrator/producer (that means you Ms. Churchill), with no on-screen antagonizing of their subjects (also you Ms. Churchill) and for god's and goddess' sake if your subject wants to go on a date with someone he's met, he can, and your meddling to prevent his freedom or dictating how to do that says more about you than about him.