Popular reviews

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  Review by Peter H ★★★½

  Whole feels incredibly amateurish, with some of the most bizarre framing I've seen in any movie. One woman is interviewed through a mostly closed door (with no visible reason it couldn't be fully open) while another is interviewed in a long shot from a camera that seems to be held somewhere between chest and naval. The tops of people's heads are constantly cut off. Intertitles tease separate stories without citation or explanation.

  Despite this, director Melody Gilbert achieves her goal surprisingly well. The subjects of this documentary are presented compassionately. Their unusual desire to lose a limb brings them onscreen, but it is carefully couched in the recognition of the whole person. As these people are introduced, we learn that…

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  Review by 림헌류 ★★★★★

  The biological body is not an apparatus that functions, but is instead the raw material for an apparatus whose constitutive function produces effects in the biological body.

  “The Selbstbewusstsein, considered to be constitutive of the cognizing subject, is an illusion, a source of error, because the dimension of the subject deemed to be transparent in his act of taking cognizance of some entity only begins with the coming into play of a specific object, which is the one that the mirror stage attempts to circumscribe, namely, the image of one’s body, in so far as, faced with this image, the subject has the feeling of jubilation on account of being indeed faced with an object that renders him transparent to himself.”

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  Review by zadmando ★★★★½

  A well done documentary about people who believe that their lives would be better if they had fewer limbs.

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  Review by 𝒜‧₊˚

  "if i'd end up divorcing him, people will ask what happened. what would i say, uh? my husband chose to cut off his leg rather than stay married to me... it's not even another woman that i'm competing with, it's a leg!"

  my heart goes out to all these poor wives and mothers who God has decided to put such a burden on their shoulders for who knows what reason for. i hope life only gets easier on them from now on, and that they can find some peace someday.

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  Review by Thispal Lovesmovies ★★ 1

  Had to watch this for my Bioethics class. I don't know if it was because it was 1:30am but I just couldn't really get into it unfortunately. It was still interesting to actually hear people who have this talk about it rather than just reading about it from outside sources.

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  Review by pufferfeet ★★★★

  SUCH an interesting documentary!!! have to write a thousand word essay on it so i will keep this brief but this is very very interesting. is it the most technically well made documentary ever? no. does it good a good job of communicating these peoples lives and their thoughts? yes!

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  Review by Kubrickosawa ★★★★

  Feel bad for these folks that want to lose a limb but cannot get this done safely. The extreme measures these poor individuals have to take to become who they want is a real tragedy. This doc discusses the psychology behind this and many great subjects that help people understand this. Saw it on the Netflix exclusive DVD.