Doc Watch: Abusive

Two from Netflix:

AMERICAN FACTORY (A-minus) - With incredible access, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert chronicle a Chinese company's retooling of a former GM plant in Moraine, Ohio, for the purposes of making auto glass. The culture clash is captured in fine detail.

Led by the spectrumy "Chairman" Cao, Fuyau Glass brings in a raft of Chinese employees, mostly to supervise what is perceived to be a lazy and entitled crop of American workers, many of who remember the heyday of earning around $30 an hour, now beavering away at $12 or $13 per hour. (In the '50s, '60s and '70s, Frigidaires were made there.) The candor on display is incredible. We see a Chinese executive lecturing a roomful of his countrymen on how to deal with (i.e., coddle) their spoiled American counterparts. Frustrations spill over on the assembly line.

For my money, the film spends too much time documenting a union organizing effort by the United Auto Workers, trying to wring drama from what looks from the start to be a fait accompli. Bognar and Reichert do best when they just let the cultural distinctions play out naturally. The Ugly American stereotypes can make you wince -- especially when a contingent of beefy-to-obese, under-dressed all-male Americans visit China, looking like frat boys at a corporate board meeting. They stare in awe at the efficiency of the Chinese workers. At a celebratory conference, we see sophisticated local entertainment involving impeccably choreographed dancing children and prim chanteuses singing traditional songs of inspiration, all of which gives way to the visiting goofballs jumping around to a recording of "YMCA."

The moral of the story is inescapable: It's only a matter of time before the Chinese eat our lunch.

TELL ME WHO I AM (C+) - This odd bit of victim porn is unexpectedly tedious and tawdry. A pair of 54-year-old twins tell their story (and spill their emotions on the screen): At age 18, one of them, Alex, suffers a bad motor accident, erasing everything in his memory except for recognition of his twin, Marcus.

Marcus teaches Alex how to cope again, all the while filling in Alex's memory about their childhood. Except that Marcus skips the part about them being abused by their parents. This film, from Ed Perkins, essentially serves as separate therapy sessions for the brothers. The story's arc is predictable, and it drags over 85 minutes, unspooling its secrets gradually and annoyingly. Re-enactments are coy and corny. Occasionally this is powerful storytelling, but too often it feels too personal and lurid.