Of the hundreds/thousands of documentaries - and the 38 I have seen in 2022 so far - this has the most dismal, lackluster, bland and annoying opening I have ever seen. It was so droll and miserable that minutes into it, you just wanted to turn it off! I unfortunately sat all the way through it (as I always do in order to reach a final conclusion about the subject viewed) and, it took a lot of willpower, effort to stay awake and the constant thought going round and round in my head...WHY?

The supposed fictional story, told as a documentary, of a historical event that never took place, actually never did for the viewer! The people in this were talking about things totally unrelated to what it was supposed to be about (I truly hate arty productions that are of a sense known only to the creator; be it film, theatre, art etc). It was a film way too long, at 1:49 minutes plus, that said nothing, told nothing and ended having delivered nothing that the viewer could connect the dots with.

The only things that I discerned from this tragedy was... a) New Mexico, though barren and aridly boiling hot, is a breathtaking landscape of treacherous beauty... b) The city of the title came across as a dismal depressing place to live where hardly anybody in the film smiled/laughed... c) gave you an unpleasant constant thought, as you viewed certain sections of it, that suicide may be a common event in this miserable Town/City!

The CONSEQUENCES of watching this will be total boredom, and that is the absolute TRUTH of the story without a tale!

When I think of independent film, I adoringly think of films like "Truth or Consequences". That is, they are films that try to do something different, are uncompromising (ideally in a good way),and express a unique, personal vision. This film has all of that in spades and is also both an intriguing piece of art and an interesting film to watch and experience.

If you're looking for a standard PBS doc this might not be the film for you, but if you like stories of different sorts of people, odd places and philosophical questions then you're in luck here. It's a wonderful, timeless film that is waiting to be discovered.

Truth or Consequences is a small, dusty city in New Mexico with a very strange name and this documentary is ostensibly about it -- but that label might be a bit misleading, especially if it sets expectations of talking heads, confessionals or explanations of things. ToC is not remotely interested in explaining anything to anyone -- it's an elegy for a place in the process of vanishing or has vanished or never was. Rejecting many conventional hallmarks of documentary filmmaking (or just narrative filmmaking in general) in favor of open spaces and hushed silences, ToC is nonetheless anchored by an unwavering humanity toward its subjects -- and, I'd argue, its viewers. A lyrical exploration of things lost and remembered, ToC also manages to evoke New Mexico, one of our greatest and most elusive states, more than all the maps, photos and "realism" in the world. Provided you don't go in expecting a travelogue, ToC will haunt you long after you're gone.