An Anticipated Docu At Tribeca Film Fest Leaves Us Wondering

Where to begin regarding "Stockholm Syndrome" regarding hip hop darling A$AP Rocky and his controversial imprisonment in Sweden in 2019?  The documentary's screening took place during Tribeca Film Festival and featured commentary with everyone from notable Kim Kardashian to supermodel Naomi Campbell and more. Directed by The Architects, "Stockholm Syndrome," essentially could benefit from a bit of tightening, though. Here's what we mean.

The subject matter is, no doubt, provocative. To be taken behind the scenes of what was said to be a racially motivated and overblown arrest of Rihanna's current boo, is definitely of interest.  Techniques like the use of animated clay figures to imagine Rocky's time in the actual prison cell is a clever way to tell the story along with the artist's voiceover, as well..

The issue is that it takes quite a while until we actually get to the Sweden part of the story which is what this is all about, after all. Simply too much time is taken in explaining the artist's history from birth instead of typically intercutting or using having the history enter a bit later. In addition, once Rocky is released, we are then right out on tour with the artist with a few simple reflections from him and then onto the next thing. 

"Stockholm Syndrome" tends to flow more like a printed collection of short stories about a figure rather than a rich, fluid story that shows a rise and fall in a truly emotional and compelling manner so that we actually care about the subject. The result is a bit of a disjointed piece that could benefit from greater depth of editing as well as juxtaposition.  Shame, given the all-access vibe that this crew obviously had.