TV Review - Fyre Fraud vs. The Greatest Party That Never Happened

On January 14, Hulu released an original documentary called Fyre Fraud, which is about Billy McFarland, the creator of Fyre Media and a businessman in his mid-20's who was convicted of wire fraud, tricking investors out of nearly $30 million and resulting in a six-year prison sentence. On January 18, Netflix released an original documentary called Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, which is essentially about the same thing. Both movies tell the exact same story in the same form and use a couple of the same people. It's rare that two movies in the same form will be made about the same subject at the same time.

Typically, when it does happen, the two movies aren't released in the same week of each other. Last year, a documentary called Whitney (2018) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It told the same story as Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. They were basically the same movie, but one came out a year after the other. It's a kind of twin film, but not in the way Deep Impact and Armageddon are twin films, which came out within three months of each other. The twin films here are literally the exact, same thing with only slight variations. Those variations though can be make or break.

I suppose if one is pitting the first documentary against the other, which most did because their concurrent releases almost demands such a pitting, I would say Netflix's version is better than Hulu's. I watched the Netflix version first before watching the Hulu version, which could have colored my opinion. However, there were twin films about Truman Capote and his writing of In Cold Blood. The first was Capote (2005). The second was called Infamous (2006). In that case, I thought Infamous was better than Capote, despite having seen Infamous after Capote. In that case, I watched them in the order of their releases, which isn't the case with these two Fyre Festival documentaries. Yes, it could have colored my opinion, but I doubt it.

For some, there are marks against the Netflix documentary because that documentary was produced by Jerry Media. Jerry Media is the company that McFarland hired to help promote the Fyre Festival, which was going to be a music festival in the Bahamas that was meant to be a luxury island experience. It ended up being a disaster and a scam that cheated tons of people out of their money. The scam was perpetrated in large part through social media and Jerry Media was a significant contributor to that. Unfortunately, Jerry Media's involvement or culpability is absent from the Netflix documentary.

Jerry Media though is thoroughly condemned in the Hulu documentary. Hulu's version in general does a thorough job of condemning the social media culture that preceded this catastrophe and that fostered it in many ways. The Hulu doc critiques social media and even tech culture in a very appropriate way and in a way that some might not be aware, but any one who has been paying attention to social media over the past few years knows that it's just a game of FOMO, or fear of missing out. The Hulu version therefore has a level of insight about that FOMO that depends on one's level of knowledge. I was already aware of it, so Hulu's version didn't really blow my mind.

For others, the Hulu doc has a black mark because it includes an interview with McFarland himself. The Netflix documentary includes footage of McFarland. Some of it is contemporaneous of the time of the festival, which was in the spring of 2017. There's also some archival footage of McFarland prior to the festival and even after, including after June of that year when McFarland was arrested. However, it's only behind-the-scenes footage. McFarland is never questioned or interrogated about what he did.

The Hulu doc does have such an interview. Directors Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason somehow got McFarland to sit down while being questioned and interrogated. What hurts the Hulu doc is that McFarland doesn't really answer any of those questions or address those interrogations.

There have been a number of documentaries about men or women who have done things that were wrong or illegal. Those documentaries have gotten those men or women to sit down and talk about or answer direct questions about their misdeeds. Those documentaries include Icarus (2017), Citizenfour (2014), The Act of Killing (2013), The Imposter (2012), Man on Wire (2008) and Deliver Us From Evil (2006). Those films though have gotten more out of their subjects than this one gets out of McFarland. His appearance here ultimately is a waste of time.

However, wasting time is something that the Netflix documentary can't be accused of doing. The filmmaking and storytelling by director Chris Smith (The Yes Men and American Movie) are so on point and exciting. It takes you through the events from inception to implosion, step by step, but never in a boring way. The interviews and the footage detailing the experiences are very well edited, well paced, compelling and in a way like a thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. Plus, the Netflix version really gave voice to the people of color, the Bahamian people who were affected. The Hulu doc doesn't really do that.

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 37 mins.

Available on Netflix

Fyre Fraud
Rated TV-MA-L.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 36 mins.

Available on Hulu.