Doc Watch: Quick hits

A pair clocking in at under 90 minutes:

REMOTE AREA MEDICAL (B) - Welcome to the Third World, USA.

You don't have to go halfway across the world to find poor people in need of free health care. This documentary follows a crew of medical personnel, led by British philanthropist Stan Brock, as they venture to rural America for a weekend of serving throngs of folks lining up for health services.

The cameras keep a respectable distance, with little to no voiceover, among the residents of Bristol, Tenn. In stereotypical fashion, the event is held at a NASCAR stadium.

Brock's group used to travel all over the globe tending to dirt-poor people in far-flung lands. But now, rather than spend most of their time in Central America or remote regions of Africa, the team now spends 60 percent of its time in the United States because of the dramatic need.

Some of the stories are uplifting, others heartbreaking. One woman is treated to an x-ray, and physicians find a spot on her lung. As she contentedly heads to her car in the parking lot, she lights up a Pall Mall. One man is happy with his free teeth-pulling, but now he has to figure out how to afford painkillers. His plan is to score some hydrocodone on the street; we watch him back home as he crushes a pill and snorts it.

The staff is dedicated. A lensmaker tears up as he talks about the gratitude of the patients he assists, such as the teenager who never knew what a leaf looked like until he got his first set of glasses. (That actually happened to a friend of mine when he was in high school.)

Brock runs everything with military precision.  He patrols the grounds on his bicycle. He brags about always opening the gates on time.

The filmmakers -- the couple Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman -- like to meander away from the stadium's grounds to contrast it with the lush scenery of the hillside around Bristol. Meantime, the staff hustles to control the crowd and serve their mission. A technician chats idly to the filmmakers as he grinds away on a set of dentures. 

This is efficient filmmaking, lulling the viewer with a subtle take on an urgent message about the state of the union.

TICKLED (B) - This is a bit of a conundrum. A New Zealand journalist is curious about online videos that depict tickling as some sort of kinky sport. When he submits an innocent inquiry, he is sucked into a shadowy world of internet ghosts and extortionists.

David Farrier and Dylan Reeve are intent on spinning an elaborate mystery, with narrative dead-ends and plot twist after plot twist, leading the viewer into some dark places. The real story is too juicy to ruin here, and Farrier (who stars) is an entertaining host. The problem: this documentary sometimes feels as manipulative as the scam being perpetrated by "Jane O'Brien Media," the entity bankrolling the strapping young men who allow themselves to be strapped down and tickled on video.

Farrier takes his time with the set-up. He's fond of touting his own work as a chronicler of oddballs. By the one-third mark you might be anxious for him to start getting to the point. When he finally kicks it into gear, the result is part "60 Minutes," part "Catfish" and part "The Jinx." Farrier, while tracking down this mystery person, is a bit of a Barnum himself.

I went in with low expectations, but by the midway point, as the quirks began to pile up, I started digging in for the big reveal. While that unveiling is interesting, it is a disappointing anti-climax. I was reminded of The Thing, touted on billboards along I-10, a roadside attraction in Arizona. At first you chuckle at the silliness of the billboards, but as you drive on, something inside you feels compelled to check it out, even if it's a scam. (And it pretty much is. But the admission fee is cheap.)

Here, too, I watched the credits feeling like the movie itself was the scam. The lights went up. This way to the egress.