[Fyre] is a story of shallow excess-how we're in an era in which how something looks is more important than what it actually is-but it's also a reminder that everything still has a cost.
It doesn't question the necessity of the fest. The Fyre Festival didn't work, but wouldn't it have been insanely cool if it had?... Thus, the Netflix doc may be a stepping stone to the inevitable exculpatory whitewashing feature film.
If you love a story of absolute, no-holds-barred, extravagant disaster, you'll probably want to watch both. But if you just want a better idea of what the heck happened here, the truth is that either film will serve.
This alone is evidence of McFarland's magisterial ability to swindle. While his previous partners' testimonies attest to McFarland's crimes, his former colleagues' insistence on his charisma and charm is universal.
As Fyre makes painfully clear, just about everyone involved with the project had to have known they were tumbling down a mountain at rapid speed and headed for almost guaranteed scandal and disaster
What's most haunting about the movie isn't the transformation itself so much as the emptiness of the desires that fuel it-essentially the same empty desires that both propelled McFarland and destroyed him.
Still, "Fyre Fraud" edges out Netflix's film by stepping back and delivering on the stronger, more despairing theme here, which is very clearly this: Society... is losing its ability to sense a snake in the grass.
