Inspired By: The Wrestler, Rocky Balboa

I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about non-fiction films that fall under certain dramatic genre conventions. The most recent examples, The Cove and Man on Wire, have found great success by aligning their stories with a sort of espionage/thriller presentation. It seems to me that although documentaries provide a opportunity for non-traditional story telling, the films that seem to stand out as true accomplishments are those that naturally follow a classic narrative format. How many times have you seen a documentary that's blown you away simply because the story was like 'something out of a real movie'!

Early on I'd thought that Beauty Day could also fall under certain genre conventions. In my eyes, the story feels like a sports drama, even though Ralph isn't a sports athlete. I've always been citing films like The Wrestler and Rocky Balboa in reference to Beauty Day, and it's definitely been a helpful reference point while sorting through all of the possible directions the film can go in the early editing stages. Having said all of that, the film is first and foremost a character piece and the 'plot' exists only as a thread to hang the individual characters stories on.