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Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

A bowl of milk with cereal letters showing the names of the filmmakers opens this documentary about milk. It begins with the filmmaker Sebastian Howard describing milk how it was seen in his early days, a perfect food that can satisfy both thirst and hunger at the same time, and apparently everyone agreed it was good for us. But is it? That seems to be the premise of this documentary. The filmmaker then goes to the streets, asking some "ordinary" folks about their opinions of milk. Most people seem to be brainwashed to believe that milk is a super food! A wholesome food that is vital for our bone health! This part also contain the most stupid (and probably the funniest) comment in this documentary, "what else are you going to drink if you're not drinking milk?" - Random dude on the street.A bunch of farmers are interviewed. They spit out claims about studies showing how wonderful milk is. I would think twice about trusting any person saying that his/her product is healthy for you. I especially like a quote from one of the farmers, saying that dairy products are great nutritious foods but also admits that he may be biased because he actually does work with dairy production. I concur. There are however several so called experts being interviewed. Some of them are convinced that milk is great food, some are sure that it is quite the opposite, deadly poison. I personally think in the question if milk is healthy for you or not is answered in one quote from the film, "in many of these controversies the truth is always somewhere in the middle".There are two people I really dislike. One of them is Robert Cohen, writer of the book "Milk: The deadly Poison". This anti-milk guy wearing various pro-vegan/vegetarian shirts pop-up now and then with the most ludicrous remarks that almost makes me want to run to the closest supermarket and devour some milk. The other one is Michael Schmidt, a raw milk producer, he describes milk as liquid love, seeing milk as something not only healthy, but even holy or religious full of love. If milk is liquid love, then sperm or vaginal juice must be the healthiest most loving liquid ever! Where can I buy a bottle!? While Robert gives vegans a bad rep, this guy makes me wanna quit consuming dairy products altogether. I guess the filmmaker chose to have these two gentlemen in his documentary to show that there are stupid people on both sides.I really liked the montages in the film, short clips with just one statement from everyone being interviewed contradicting each other with dramatic background music. The last montage ends with a glass being filled with milk, eventually pouring over. This could represent the feeling of all the contradicting statements going over our heads. A good way to show how controversial the belief of milk really is.This documentary is OK, not very good, nor really bad. It is very unbiased, which I think is nice and refreshing considering that most documentaries usually are extremely one-sided. Because of that the documentary may however make you feel even more confused about milk than you were before the film, just like the filmmaker himself seems to be in the end. I did miss some more animations with stats from studies. And there might have been too many interviews with farmers, considering that we are mostly talking about if it is healthy for us or not. But definitely worth the watch if the controversy of milk interest you.

This movie creates a false sense of being presented in an unbiased way. Hearing "both sides" (namely scientist and farmers) is not really the way to go about this. In one of the voice-over clips, the interviewer mentioned that there was a lot of disagreement about the data which is found in research. To me, this indicates that there is data on the subject available. This data gets very little viewing time. The only counter arguments for milk being good for you is made by non-scientist.It's a nice try and it was interesting, but the interviewer talked to the wrong people to answer the question he proposed at the beginning of the film.

According to the narrative, Sebastian Howard was confused about whether or not milk is supposed to be good for humans. He then set out on a two-year journey to find the answer. He interviews industry veterans, food scientists, dietitians, proponents of veganism, and more in his heartfelt search for the truth. Now, I don't know for sure how representative this narrative is to the man's real motives, but I believe it. Why? Because at the end, he admits to being just as confused as he was when he started. He advocates that people look into the matter themselves and interpret the data as best they can. I can't remember the last time I've seen such an unbiased documentary!True, I don't tend to trust the anti-milk scientists all that much (they interview the guy behind "The China Study," a book which is pretty much useless, for instance). That's hardly the point, though. The most prominent people on all sides of the debate (pro milk, anti milk, pro raw, pro pasteurized) are given their time, and it's our job to judge their credibility.Hopefully, in a few years we'll have more iron-clad scientific data on the subject. Until then, this documentary is a good place to start when looking into the subject.

This important documentary about milk screened at the 2012 New Hampshire Film Festival in Portsmouth, NH. The first thing I want to say is that I loved Sebastian Howard and Mark Westberg's editing. In at least two places they spliced their subjects into sound bites and had them all contradicting each other in staccato segments, sometimes as short as one word, "Yes!" or "No!" and let the audience see in summary just how controversial the simple subject of milk really is. With so much lackluster editing in film, I was delighted to see someone getting creative in their story telling and it reminded me of similar devices used in the novels of Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Chandler where the key images are summarized in a montage of memory at the end of the book. The subject of the film was how healthy is milk and Howard interviewed some of the leading industry, medical, scientific, and nutrition authorities in North America, yes including Canada, on this topic. As a person who does not drink plain milk, raw or pasteurized, I was happy to see someone investigating this health issue in a balanced way that tells both sides of the story. I also wished I could hear more on the topic of how cultures and bacteria change the properties of milk when it comes in the form of various cheeses and yogurt and how experts view the health impact of these foods as opposed to plain milk. What I did not expect in the film was the moving portrait of a Canadian farmer producing raw milk who was persecuted and later exonerated by the Canadian government and his inspiring cry for freedom to make, drink and sell raw milk. In his words, "Politically, food is a weapon". Wow! And that was just the beginning. This film is well worth seeing for anyone who is interested in the political and health issues related to the production of food and milk.