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A great documentary only needs one thing to be successful. It needs to have a hook, a story that is worth filming and worth sitting through long periods of shaky camera work and muddled dialogue. Fantastic editing and copious amounts of background work can are feathers a great documentary can stick in its cap but if there's no hook then there's no real point.
Cropsey, regrettably, falls into a sort of gray area. The film technique here is wonderful - the opening menus and contextual interludes look great - and the filmmakers effectively utilize first and third person sources in telling their selected story. The problem is the story itself. On paper Cropsey sounds intriguing. It promises to explore the dark, dirty secrets of Staten Island as it uncovers the truth behind a series of child abductions. Indeed the documentary lays down a solid foundation as the filmmakers give us a good sense of place by exploring numerous sites of ill repute dotting the woods on the island. Even the possibly tedious background information regarding the area's numerous kidnappings works in building up the stakes.
Unfortunately the central arc of the story, regarding the incarcerated child abductor accused of the crimes, seems largely pointless. This is a big issue when almost three quarters of the film is devoted to a scruffy old man and his involvement (or apparent lack thereof) in the larger Cropsey mystery. The documentarians did an admirable amount of footwork scoring interviews with the victim's families, eyewitnesses and even striking up a jailhouse correspondence with the accused himself but it all feels pointless. The identity of the accused is revealed early on and its hard to tell what the filmmakers hope to accomplish. They veer all over the place. One moment they're talking to a random guy who describes being kidnapped by the accused from the local YMCA with a busload of children the next they're talking to a guy who insists the accused was wrongfully arrested. They even attempt to inject some mystery to the story by introducing a mysterious second kidnapper and picking some holes in the official story.
However, none of these loose ends are tied together and, at the end of it all, I felt no more enlightened about the child abductions of Staten Island than I did going in. Rather, it felt like I read a bunch of random newspaper clippings and was simply left to sort it out for myself. There's no denying that these were some talented people that made this film but talent can only take you so far in the documentary world. Choosing interesting things to film is the real key to making a documentary...well interesting.
6/10
