As a neutral (well, kind of, Arsenal fan!), I understand why Manchester City Football Club would want to celebrate their record-breaking and historic 2017-2018 season, and I love the kind of football Guardiola's sides play. But 'All or Nothing' felt long-winded and repetitive to me. The excitement's over now, remember, we know what happened because we lived it (I mean the fans of the English Premier League). I realize the documentary's supposed to chronicle the whole season, but think the film-makers could have edited it down to just 1 or 2 episodes, perhaps a feature-length split over 2 parts. 8 episodes was just plain excessive.
The 'must-watch' comments I've read here exaggerate the access the film-makers were given. The club are not going to let sensitive stuff get aired publicly. Most of the talk was either obvious or, in the case of Guardiola's briefings, pretty indecipherable anyway. Other stuff would have been edited out at the club's discretion, it goes without saying. In fact, 'All or nothing' felt rather bland to me, devoid of much real drama and tension. If you're going to do 'fly on the wall' stuff, at least make it real and interesting. I enjoyed watching some of the chats and banter between players (for a few minutes, at least) and the football was presented professionally and in context (Ben Kingsley's voice began to grate, though).
People that follow football seriously kind of know what goes on in the background of clubs (through reports, local press, open days, interviews, biographies, sports documentaries etc.). You piece it all together. There's a mass of information out there for the fan, a lot of it ends up on sites like YouTube which I'm grateful for, and I'm not sure that this rather sanitized and 'managed' document of the season adds much to people's overall knowledge of 'The beautiful game'. The film's one saving grace for me was to give the outsider a glimpse of Pep's management style and his backroom staff which have a very strong presence around the players. There are some interesting characters among them, mostly Spanish people that followed Pep since he started managing at Barcelona. Look out for Manuel Estiarte, for example, a former Olympic water polo champion, Pep's so-called 'eyes and ears' around the dressing room (read: spy!). Sometimes you gleen more from things that are not said or referred to directly. But far too much of 'All or Nothing' was pretty inconsequential, and hard to take seriously with all its obvious show and publicity for the club and brand. It was a great season for that group of players and their manager, the football was amazing, but I couldn't get very worked up about the documentary itself. All the 10 out of 10's on IMDb are pretty meaningless. Football fans, try to be more objective and critical, please!
As a non-neutral, I was disappointed in Mike Arteta's involvement in the film, ill-advised. People can judge for themselves. Sorry, but I felt it was disrespectful to his previous club and its fans. Something unpleasant about Ya Ya Toure's final games for City, too. These are things 'All Or Nothing' doesn't really address, of course, just saying ...
The 'must-watch' comments I've read here exaggerate the access the film-makers were given. The club are not going to let sensitive stuff get aired publicly. Most of the talk was either obvious or, in the case of Guardiola's briefings, pretty indecipherable anyway. Other stuff would have been edited out at the club's discretion, it goes without saying. In fact, 'All or nothing' felt rather bland to me, devoid of much real drama and tension. If you're going to do 'fly on the wall' stuff, at least make it real and interesting. I enjoyed watching some of the chats and banter between players (for a few minutes, at least) and the football was presented professionally and in context (Ben Kingsley's voice began to grate, though).
People that follow football seriously kind of know what goes on in the background of clubs (through reports, local press, open days, interviews, biographies, sports documentaries etc.). You piece it all together. There's a mass of information out there for the fan, a lot of it ends up on sites like YouTube which I'm grateful for, and I'm not sure that this rather sanitized and 'managed' document of the season adds much to people's overall knowledge of 'The beautiful game'. The film's one saving grace for me was to give the outsider a glimpse of Pep's management style and his backroom staff which have a very strong presence around the players. There are some interesting characters among them, mostly Spanish people that followed Pep since he started managing at Barcelona. Look out for Manuel Estiarte, for example, a former Olympic water polo champion, Pep's so-called 'eyes and ears' around the dressing room (read: spy!). Sometimes you gleen more from things that are not said or referred to directly. But far too much of 'All or Nothing' was pretty inconsequential, and hard to take seriously with all its obvious show and publicity for the club and brand. It was a great season for that group of players and their manager, the football was amazing, but I couldn't get very worked up about the documentary itself. All the 10 out of 10's on IMDb are pretty meaningless. Football fans, try to be more objective and critical, please!
As a non-neutral, I was disappointed in Mike Arteta's involvement in the film, ill-advised. People can judge for themselves. Sorry, but I felt it was disrespectful to his previous club and its fans. Something unpleasant about Ya Ya Toure's final games for City, too. These are things 'All Or Nothing' doesn't really address, of course, just saying ...