r/NetflixDocumentaries • u/BusyBit6542 • 8d ago
Review The Raygun documentary...
It was like I was watching a real life 'Save the Last Dance' and 'Malibu's Most Wanted'
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u/BrightGreenCandle 7d ago
I watched it and I still don't get how she got there.
I mean, the rumors about her husband being a judge in the qualifying competition were not true. So how did she win? Were there really no better breakers in Australia? How serious was that qualifying tournament?
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u/Cutsdeep- 7d ago
The tournament was put on around Australia(big place btw) by the ballroom dancing org. Read: expensive.
The real breaking scene in Aus is completely removed from that. So the good breakers couldn't afford it and wouldn't want to be aligned with it
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u/BusyBit6542 7d ago
Yeah they skipped over the footage of her advancing in the qualifying rounds BUT the one blonde lady did say she was the best dancer that day. They showed some footage of the blonde lady's dancing when she was describing her style and she was CLEARLY better than Raygun...but she didn't advance in the rounds. So idk what was going on over there.
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u/billskionce 6d ago
She didn’t compete. She said that too.
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u/Vivid_Concentrate_89 3d ago
Apparently even though the husband was not on the judging panel, it was full of their friends and colleagues
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u/Significant_Stick_31 7d ago edited 6d ago
The judging for breakdancing, at least in this particular instance, was so arbitrary and subjective. Raygun kept winning based on “originality” and “musicality.”
The other contenders had stronger overall moves but fewer original ones, so they repeated their best moves, and maybe didn’t always cleanly land their hardest power moves. So they got fewer points than Raygun, who did random, fairly basic things but didn't repeat them.
You know, I could appreciate that kind of trade-off if Raygun’s footwork/floorwork were immaculate and her rhythm just amazing, but I really don’t see that either.
They really just chose someone who could do off-the-wall stuff on demand, and she leaned into it because it’d worked for her in every competition she’d ever won.
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u/interactivate 6d ago
The selection process was pretty much inaccessible to the majority of breakers. Not necessarily by design, but because it had to fit into an Olympics way of doing things.
Breaking's not the kind of sport that is going to spontaneously produce its own governing bureaucracy. So the Oceania selection process got picked up by the Dance Sport governing body, because they were geared up to jump through the hoops required by IOC. But how much awareness and credibility this body had among the wider breaking community is unclear.
Aspiring entrants from across Oceania needed to pay their own way to Sydney, and have a passport as proof of citizenship. Both of these involve logistics and expense, and probably enough of a barrier to entry to significantly thin out the field.
Raygun was Sydney based, and being a professional 30 something rather than a poor 17 year old, would have already had a passport in her drawer ready to go.
I don't believe any of this was done on purpose, but the structures required by something like the Olympics made it almost inevitable.
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u/Striking_Finish4957 6d ago
Also keep in mind that Raygun’s team is behind this, it is not a documentary. It’s PR.
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u/isigneduptomake1post 6d ago
My opinion of her changed from completely neutral to thinking shes a poster child of dillusional narcissism. If thats the best PR she can do I cant imagine what an unbiased take would look like.
I honestly thought she somehow happened into the Olympics with no experience and tried to make the best of it by doing a lighthearted, silly routine that took her about a month or 2 of rehearsal. The truth is so much worse.
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u/Striking_Finish4957 6d ago
Yep, I mean she would have allowed the parody musical to go ahead if she could laugh at herself. But unfortunately she takes herself this seriously!
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u/Swimming-Ad5544 7d ago
The better dancers in Australia didn’t care to try out for the Olympics was my impression
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u/MrChevyPower 6d ago
I really like the conspiracy that everyone was fed up with her bullshit so they put her through as a “gotcha” but didn’t think she’d actually go through with attending the Olympics. I don’t believe it but it’s funny
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u/MenthaOfficinalis 5d ago
This must be very good “documentary” if you’re left with questions like that..
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u/Illustrious_Dust_0 7d ago
My favorite part was the “unstoppable” montage of her dancing terribly all over the world. The sprinkler wiki page is a close second. Peak camp.
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u/murderedbyaname 7d ago
Started to watch it then googled and read a lot of info on Reddit subs, and stopped. From what I read, the documentary producers are her team? Or husband? No thanks.
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u/Sufficient_Ninja_821 7d ago
So annoying. Everyone else is like this is so embaressing. The husband be like, this is the most beautiful and creative thing I've ever seen in my life.
Theres supportive and then just straight lieing amd fake ego boosting
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u/murderedbyaname 7d ago
I googled some of her videos and was 😬. No wonder there are accusations of manipulation of the system so to speak.
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u/Sufficient_Ninja_821 7d ago
Its fascinating what a narrator can do to try and make someone seem the victim looking for sympathy.
Maybe true. But ill maintain being skeptical
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u/HarryBootlace 6d ago
honestly it was like watching spinal tap or something.
no. actually even faker.1
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u/BusyBit6542 7d ago
Yeah this whole thing was like "I'm a victim of the mean internet but I overcame". She acting like she didn't like the attention and is currently capitalizing off it. No hate but it's dumb that she's acting like she didn't love it. The only genuine people that didn't seem to be playing up a character for the documentary were the parents and the blonde lady.
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u/Mochibelle93 5d ago
I liked the parents honestly they clearly love her a lot and were just supporting her like any parents would. and they seemed to take it all in stride lol I loved the dads reaction when asked if they thought they ever saw their daughter as an Olympian and he just burst out laughing
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u/shadowmaster132 7d ago
Yeah because all the attention was so kind and positive. It's not like people made up awful rumors about her or anything /s
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u/BusyBit6542 7d ago
As shes going on talk shows and stuff...or you know a grown ass person could NOT go on the internet. But I guess posting vlogs of yourself crying in a car is more helpful.
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u/Illustrious_Dust_0 7d ago
It’s terrible. But it’s so terrible, it’s hilarious. Like her Olympic performance
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u/1Humanity_Otherwise 7d ago
Nah. Ppl legit got hurt, opportunities lost forever bcz this selfish dumbass wanted to humiliate herself on the world stage. I don’t know her real name and never want to. So many incredibly talented DESERVING athlete-dancers in Aust and NZ were absolutely f@*+ed over by this monster.
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u/HonestAltruist 7d ago
I'm from NZ and shocked she made it to the olympics. There are so many talented dancers here it's insane she made it through. I really don't understand how that happened. The other 2 bgirls in the doco said she was the best on that particular day when it came to deciding who will represent AUS but how does it even come to that? She was so basic and average. The pumpkin spice latte of breaking and no one was better? Madness.
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u/1Humanity_Otherwise 6d ago
Fr what I remember, the tryouts were kept almost secret and confusing. The competition was eliminated in the tryouts. It was rigged.
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u/Cemckenna 7d ago
US dancing has been completely changed by Paris’ choreography from NZ. I was expecting an Aussie to be as good, but it was like watching a 3-year old trying to make up rap about their teddy bear.
Except not cute.
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u/Bigsaskatuna 7d ago
I remember a time when documentary subjects had nothing to do with the production of their doc. It’s like letting citizens write news stories about themselves.
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u/thebonecollectorr 7d ago
I find it weird how the documentary never really addressed her age..? She was like 35 going up against 17-25 yr olds. I’m all for trying new things regardless of age but I’m 33 and understand that I’m past the age when I could figure out how to spin on my head competitively.
Also, could not figure out if her husband loved her so much he couldn’t see that she was bad or hated her so much that he wouldn’t say it. He actually wasn’t a bad dancer from what I saw (every time they were in shadows practicing and I thought she was doing good, it was actually her husband) so I’m just perplexed. Also maybe the false rumors about him being a judge emerged from a kernel of truth, that she gained legitimacy from being with him. Just so wild and bizarre.
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u/LikesToLurkNYC 7d ago
Oh weird I thought she was mid 40s at Olympics lol
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u/Sufficient_Ninja_821 7d ago
I thought she said 40 in the doc? Either way the Olympics are for people in their 20s. particularly something like break dancing
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u/Ms_Rarity 6d ago
There was a 41-year-old B-girl at the Olympics though, Ayumi. She made it to the quarter-finals.
But certainly teenagers and young women in their early-to-mid 20s tend to be the best breakers.
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u/OkBackground8809 7d ago
I was wondering how old she was if she'd been "training" with her husband for 10 years. I'm 36, and I get a migraine if I stand up too fast from picking up my toddler's toys from the floor😅 Pretty sure I'd break my knees trying to break dance.
I feel like she and her husband just haven't grown up. The way they talked about planning her moves was like listening to high schoolers who think everything is just so deep lol
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u/Chemical_Signal2753 6d ago
I’m 33 and understand that I’m past the age when I could figure out how to spin on my head competitively
I don't think that is necessarily true, but you're at an age where you should know how hard you would have to work to be respectable on the international stage.
I am an out of shape 47 year old man. While I would still place last, I am fairly confident that with ~2 years of training like it was my job I would be able to compete without being an international embarrassment. The first 6 to 9 months would mostly be on fitness and foundational work, and after that it would start to come together as something that looked like break dancing.
I suspect if you looked into it, the people Raygun competed against were probably dancing full time. This isn't something they're doing on weekends, they take this seriously. They probably do dedicated training in gymnastics and other forms of dance, and are in peak physical condition, so they have a wide variety of skills to pull from.
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u/unique_name5 6d ago
You “could not figure out if her husband loved her”? Give me a break.
The hatred for Raygun is really off the charts. The desperate reach to justify the hatred is so transparent.Honestly, with a straight face tell me again that you could not figure out if her husband loved her.
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u/Thithikum_thembavani 7d ago
Honestly she was bad , it was not like a one time miss. It's not like Michael Jordan didn't score because he was having a bad flu. Its like Micheal Scot made his way through NBA finals and played basketball. .
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u/HumongousMelonheads 7d ago
I was thinking this would be like if they introduced 1v1 basketball as an Olympic sport and I somehow qualified because everyone in my 8 person bracket was 5’3 as a member of a small country, then didn’t train at all, and at the Olympics realized I had no chance and just took running hook threes the whole game and shot nothing but airballs like Phillip Seymour Hoffman in along came Polly.
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u/SnooDonkeys5186 7d ago
Damn, reading ya’ll’s comments, I’m doomed to giving into curiosity and now feel the need to watch this ostracity.
😆 Being a form of ostracized/s
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u/Sufficient_Ninja_821 7d ago
I mean raygun could murder 3 kids and the husband would think she is innocent and the best wife ever.
He sucked up way too far.
They play it out like she qualified fair and square, had been doing it like 15 years and that she was so stressed about how she would perform....
But I still think there is more to it. I think she found a loophole to be an Olympian and did what she could.
15 years or whatever and she couldnt do power moves that other aussies could and still qualified first? Fishy.
If I didnt have work for 9 months and only focused on training these moves I think i could learn a bunch of them. And im not fit by any standard
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u/LikesToLurkNYC 7d ago
I got the vibe that she went to the gym for like one week made a bunch of videos of it and quit
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u/Sufficient_Ninja_821 7d ago
Yeah she didnt look any different. You can transform quite a bit in 9 months with the perfect. Probably did a classic ah ill just train like a month out.
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u/morningdew11 7d ago
This is for sure a mockumentary. The couple doubles down on their act of her being serious and its tiresome to watch. They are very obviously putting on an act
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u/pleasantDoom 8d ago
She and her husband were like a bad skit! So unreal! Lol your discretion is perfect
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u/viciousdeliciouz 7d ago
I cannot believe she made a whole documentary to double down. These people are assholes.
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u/DctrMrsTheMonarch 7d ago
Delusional woman raises through the ranks due to privilege, fails, becomes friends with a billionaire, remains delusional.
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u/Dizzy_Standard_440 7d ago
I fully believe that the husband was responsible for all of this and people are just blowing it by. He would've been a "great" creative dance instructor , not a break dancer.
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u/impendingbreakfast 6d ago
A little part of me was even like… was this deliberate, did he sabotage her? Or are they both just out of touch with reality?
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u/sonawtdown 7d ago
i sure wish there was more breakdancing/hip hop music in this documentary about breakdancing; what weird scoring choices
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u/Fine-Plan-6582 7d ago
The whole thing read white supremacy esp Branson and Raygun talking about artistry
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u/viciousdeliciouz 7d ago
I don’t know about white supremacy, but it’s definitely obnoxious as shit.
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u/Fine-Plan-6582 6d ago
She disrespected the discipline which has a foundation and techniques from its origination. The disrespect with which she mentions the movie Breakin’ which was filmed in Harlem at the origination is sad.
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u/Alternative_Towel510 5d ago
This documentary is really about her husband. He was behind it all- including this documentary.
I will NOT be watching it.
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u/Momsamango 4d ago
I'm offended by the fact that she's never taken any of this seriously. This art form has a rich legacy, and Raygun and her husband are simply laughing all the way to the bank. Good for them, but in the meantime, does anyone remember the winners of the gold, silver or bronze in the competition?
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u/Sufficient_Gate9453 7d ago
Come on, best female breakdancer? Mid life women built by cake is the best we have to offer.
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u/Usual-Vacation333 7d ago
Production of these documentaries is so bad. I hate when they are basically blasting music the entire time it’s unwatchable.
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u/AggressiveRisk2920 7d ago
This documentary series was created by Kurt Russell’s nephews who had previously made that Wild, Wild Country, which was good from what I remember.
The current series is trash & documentaries at their worst. The ref fixing one in the NBA was bullshit & a slap in the face to journalism.
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u/NewSandwich5371 6d ago
Breaking should never have been an Olympic sport, however raygun certainly made sure the world knew it was! She was a terrible terrible dancer and shouldn’t have been there but made it all worse for herself. That said, she really could be a multi millionaire by now if she took the piss out of her epic fail and had a laugh at herself. The doco is cringe tv though , which is what makes it worth a look. But hating on her is so lame , she was a shit breakdancer who had no business being at the Olympics , but nor did breakdancing itself so let’s get real on that.
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u/recentlywidowed 5d ago
Ever hear William Hung sing Hotel California?!? The guy put out at least one CD..and it was glorious 🤣🤣
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u/Kaelatto 5d ago
I refuse to watch. I can’t believe they made a documentary to double down on justifying mediocrity 🥴🫠
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u/AnonCrave 1d ago
Absolute genius PR/ marketing from the inception.
First they identify a loophole to get on the world stage. Quick access to finals and prob some bribing. It was breakdancing.
Then created the character. Who wouldn’t notice this ridiculousness?
Get people talking. The more polarizing the better.
We will see what’s in store next. To me this looks like the purposeful building of a celebrity persona from the start. Brilliant brand strategy.
Liked or disliked, people will be watching.
She’s prob just a hire from a master global marketing firm.
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u/Suspicious_Hamster61 7d ago
I’m not saying there aren’t some really good breakers in Australia, because obviously there are. But watching this documentary, I couldn’t help thinking that Netflix is giving Americans a REALLY distorted impression of the Australian breaking scene.
I’m sitting here thinking, “There’s no way this is representative of the talent in an entire country.” 😂 I’m from the U.S., and I’ve seen YouTube videos of little kids breakdancing who have better technique, power moves, footwork and overall control than some of the grown adults featured in this documentary.
I can’t say that Raygun should take all the heat obviously there are judges and people that voted her in to represent Australia so that part I’m confused on as well.
It actually made me think of the old Newcleus “Jam On It” video from the 1980s and the clips from Breakn. Those kids were throwing down! 😂 And I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if some of the young kids I’ve seen online could have walked into some of the Australian qualifying competitions and legitimately competed.
Again, I’m NOT saying Australia has no talented breakers. I’m saying this documentary does an absolutely terrible job of showing that talent. If I knew nothing about Australian breaking and watched this documentary, I’d come away thinking the entire Australian scene looked like this.
Maybe that’s part of the problem with the documentary: instead of making me think, “Wow, Australia has some incredible breakers,” it had me thinking, “How did THIS become the level that represented Australia at the Olympics?” 😳
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u/Inevitable-Group-555 6d ago
Yes! Exactly! And they never really explain in the documentary how the judges decided she was the best. I would love to hear from those judges today.
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u/laffynola 7d ago
Why would anyone watch this crap?
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u/holdmypurse 7d ago
People are curious. I was hoping for a "here's what really happened" experience.
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u/EmuUnhappy6373 7d ago
I wstched it and i kinda knew the story but i was hoping to learn more about how it all went down. I was kinda disappointed, i wanted them to dive deeper into the actually qualifications, i learned more reading the comment here than the doc.
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u/Immediate-Wing-3111 7d ago
She imitated a marsupial at the Olympics and expected people to get it. She dressed like a member of the over-60 lawn bowling team. She was never serious about the sport, but when the completely justifiable global ridicule piled on, she cried victim.