His journey comes across as more of an internal transformation, whether it’s spiritual or psychological, probably because it occurs over hundreds of days rather than a mere month. But Mason’s story, even though caught already underway, could be nicknamed “Solar Size Me” or something along those lines. The film doesn’t begin with Mason or anyone else stating that they’re going to stop eating for thirty days, or however long, and instead only stare at the sun. “Eat the Sun” is so many things, including a mystery and also it’s similar to many of the Morgan Spurlock-variety experiment-based docs. Throughout Mason learns more about what he’s doing, but some of the education is less than encouraging. Mason accompanies the filmmakers around the country as they meet with scientists, ophthalmologists (one of whom is also a sungazer) and fellow solar-powered persons such as a Mormon who finds scripture hinting at the practice and a guy who does eat but bases his diet on what primitive people ate, namely raw meat and vegetables. Sorcher primarily concentrates on Mason, a relative newcomer to the ritual of sungazing, as he strives to reach the goal of HRM’s technique, which is a maximum sungazing time of 44 minutes per day. You’ll be relieved when the filmmakers, including editor-turned-director Peter Sorcher, grow skeptical enough with their own subjects that they begin trailing one character, hoping to catch him in the act of consuming a meal. The idea that tens of thousands of Americans are living without food of any kind, let alone that they stare directly into the sun and might have better vision and are more vibrant and productive than average people, is so unbelievable. But “Eat the Sun” is one of those docs about a subject most of us (I think?) have never heard of before. At the very least non-fiction films should be interesting and fascinating. I find it easy to throw the word ‘fascinating’ around in documentary reviews.
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