En Fuego

FYRE (A-minus) - A highly entertaining documentary from Netflix about the scam in the Bahamas that was the Fyre music festival run by a crook. The story sells itself. A con artist, Billy McFarland, bilked investors and duped thousands of (what we used to call) yuppies into believing there would be a music concert on an island in the Bahamas.

Netflix boasts exclusive footage of the planning and execution in the run-up to the event, planned in April 2017. Even after he was busted for the scam, McFarland invited cameras in to capture his follow-up fraud involving ticket access. The footage throughout, beginning with the initial marketing scheme involving the world's most sought-after fashion models cavorting on the beach, lends gravitas to the unfurling of events.

The key inside players are here, and they essentially admit to enabling McFarland and rapper Ja Rule as the party boys carried out the cruel shell game. The ridiculousness of internet "influencers" and the gullibility of their followers is exposed richly. This was a perfect storm of Trump-era ignorance and empty lives craving experiences. Some people shelled out tens of thousands of dollars expecting swank digs and exclusive hang-outs with models and rock stars. They were eventually greeted with FEMA tents and cheese sandwiches.

All of this creates a certain guilty giddiness in watching the clusterfuck unfold. The victims are not particularly sympathetic, so you don't feel so bad watching them "suffer" in economy class on their way to a non-event. And the character study of McFarland, mostly done through the footage he authorized, is sharp and insightful. What some of his underlings were willing to do out of desperation as the date of the festival approached might appall you or might make you skeptical. Either way, you will be entertained by this documentary.

FYRE FRAUD (B-minus) - Hulu weighed in simultaneously with its own take on the debacle. Their version is flat and less compelling. This one spends the first half hour exclusively on the background of Billy McFarland, which is way too much back story. The meat of the story about the festival doesn't kick in until about halfway through. Such strict chronological storytelling is a big mistake here.

There really is nothing much here that you can't get from the fuller Netflix offering. Hulu does sit McFarland down for an interview while he was under indictment, so we get to watch him spin and squirm a bit, but the strategy feels a bit like a stunt. Jia Tolentino, a writer for the New Yorker, pops up but is under-utilized in favor of much less insightful talking heads.

BONUS TRACK
The Netflix trailer: