Curapedi
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Taraparain
Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
Nayan Gough
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
wilsontennis132
This was potentially the worst documentary I have ever scene. Although the point of this video was to make people aware of the dangers of Vinyl, I feel as though I want to use Vinyl more just to spite the main character. Ha, Im surprised the Genre was labeled "Documentary", if you are interested in viewing a good comedy watch this movie! I will never retrieve that hour and a half in my life. She literally gets owned at every step of the way and eventually achieves a grand total of nothing. I was forced to watch this for my environmental science class and came out as a changed person (but not in a good way). Save your self some time, life, sanity, and go watch Casino Royale.
ktatlow
Blue Vinyl is lefty scare-mongering propaganda, but nevertheless worth a viewing. Helfand gives enough names and references to provide the viewer with opportunity for deeper research if desired. Chemical-phobic true believers will love the film, and skeptics will find plenty of examples of bad science and misleading presentation to debunk and debate.JH's crusade against vinyl chloride is so intense that she seems unaware of her daily use of hundreds of other synthetics, such as the toxic-spawned semiconductors in her cameras, phones, and transportation. She inflicts this intensity upon her parents, who seem to bear fairly well a level of hectoring that would surely shorten my lifespan if I had to endure it like they did. (I would have had a stroke sometime during the days-long sales presentation by the California mud architect.) She concludes that wood is a dandy safe building material, and recommends old planking recovered from demolished picturesque mills in New Hampshire, at premium cost. Since the supply of quaint old mills and barns is limited, sooner or later she's going to have to start cutting down forests, and that will probably upset some of her allies. It's not as if there are any work-related injuries or deaths in the lumber industry! (And if your house catches fire, be sure to breathe in that harmless innocent wood smoke; it's so much better for you than PVC combustion products.) Let me mention just two specific problems with the film: 1) She depicts the Bucket Brigade, a grass-roots air-sampling project in a Louisiana community. But she fails to show whether any _control_ samples were taken, which would establish whether the samples were perhaps contaminated by the _plastic_ bags in which they were collected. 2) She interviews a spokesperson for the vinyl industry (a PhD organic chemist.) She goes out of her way to demonstrate her frustration that the interview is limited to 30 minutes. Well, guess what? She doesn't even show you the full 30 minute interview; she edits it down to about two minutes, most of which is taken up by her canned questions. The least she could have done was to include the full, unedited interview in the DVD extras, but I have a feeling that would have been too fair to her nemesis.
doctor21st
Though I did enjoy this movie especially how Judith Helfand went all out to find out information that worried her. However, the only problem I have is that the majority of the people she used for her scientific information were Green Peace scientist.Now, even though these are legitimate researchers, Green Peace has an agenda and they want complete protection of the environment. I feel that this actually hurts her attempt to prove her point. This just makes the movie extremely bias.By talking to these scientist the only thing she does is raise her own anxiety while making her movie a Green Peace Platform thats message will most likely be ignored.My tip, next time stay away from biased scientist all together. Other than that the movie was very good, very well thought out and shot.
kberg
Judith Helfand and Daniel Gold have created a wonderful documentary in Blue Vinyl. Judith's parents have put light blue vinyl siding on her house... but Judith suspects there are serious dangers from vinyl to humans... during its manufacture, if it burns, when its disposed of. Having lost her uterus from DES poisoning, she shares a bond with the cancer victims who work in and live in the shadow of the vinyl and PVC factories. Judith has this gravelly high voice, a quirky sense of humor, and a vulnerability in the face of corporate America that makes her irresistible. Blue Vinyl is also beautifully and imaginatively shot... I saw this at Sundance (2002) and Daniel Gold won the prize for documentary cinematography. There is also wonderful use of music and animation. Highly recommended.
