Perfect dolls and perfect music showing an imperfect story. Watch the 'trailer'

Exploring the life of Karen Carpenter, and more importantly (and interestingly) the issue of anorexia, with all the characters played by barbie dolls. Ranks as one of the more ludicrous ideas I've heard for a film yet the end result is surprisingly effective and makes for a dark and haunting look at eating disorders.

The way Haynes makes us care for Barbie dolls is nothing short of masterful. Geniously inventive documentary.

To call a Todd Haynes film "gimmicky" is almost redundant. The strength of this film is that he uses the gimmick toward creating genuine pathos as well as an interesting juxtaposition of The Carpenter's and the loss of innocence of America in the 1970s (also helping to underscore the complexly ironic sadness of their music).

Brilliant in an odd way. It's a shame it's not widely available.

Ick.

Really silly and yet oddly effective in its portrayal of anorexia. Worth watching just for the originality of the production.

Almost too campy to stomach, but hilarious and oddly moving in its own way.

A good short film. While it does make the sympathy derive from the terrible behaviour of the Carpenter family - which lessens the tragedy a little - it's a very well-edited and disturbing piece, which says a lot for a film made with Barbie dolls. Very campy but very good - and affecting.

Unevenly switches between student art film and one of those silly educational videos you saw in high school on a crummy VHS which made your heart lift when you saw the TV being wheeled into the classroom and you get to waste even more class time by having to find the right cords to plug in and carefully resuscitating the tape to make it play with any flickering pictures or wobbly sounds. But that nostalgia doesn't do much to stop this cheesy film not achieve the seriousness and education it need

Exploring the life of Karen Carpenter, and more importantly (and interestingly) the issue of anorexia, with all the characters played by barbie dolls. Ranks as one of the more ludicrous ideas I've heard for a film yet the end result is surprisingly effective and makes for a dark and haunting look at eating disorders.

Ugly wish-fulfillment fantasy for gay people who delight in the agony of clean-living middle-class heterosexual folks. Sort of how normal people watch offal like "Dallas" or "Dynasty" to watch rich people suffer

The hokey parodies of documentary films and 70's pop psychology seemed annoying at first, but in the long run they probably helped to humanize these inhuman set pieces. The treatment of the Barbie doll as actor gimmick in this film goes so far beyond mere restraint -- and yet never dives fully headfirst into pure kitsch -- that it almost has to be seen to be believed.

Bratz couldn't have done this better.

The use of Barbie dolls was brilliant and I can't imagine the film being anywhere near as effective with live actors. The human tragedy combined with top notch experimental filmmaking. Well worth the 45 minutes.

Anorexia Nervosa is....inventive, yet didactic.

Weird at how effective this is when it is a preposterous idea at the outset.

I found it silly at points when it wasn't trying to be... though, I can see why people would like this.