Contains spoilers... This movie cannot really call itself a documentary on the Amish, as the Amish themselves largely decline to be interviewed. One wonders why the film- makers bothered to make this movie, given the lack of cooperation on the part of their alleged subjects. The first few minutes of the "Commentary" feature on DVD sheds some light on this question: the film-makers seem to have been desperate to get something, anything, on HBO, and not until they came up with the tabloid story about an Amish kid who is hooked on crystal meth would they be accepted by HBO. Too bad they had to advertise it as a "glimpse into the lives of the rarely filmed Amish" -- this movie is simply not about the Amish. It does not give any context for the radical transition called "Rumspringa". It does not attempt to discuss how an Amish teen is prepared via their community for Rumspringa or how they perceive the "rite" before, during, or after going through it. The Amish are shown us utterly unreflective, and I can only assume that this is an utterly unfair representation of them. They were not ready to be filmed, for their own reasons, but the film-makers were all too ready to make this film, for their own, rather different reasons.
Review of Devil's Playground
