Burning Man: The Burning Sensation

A look at the wildness that ensues annually out in the Black Rock Desert, Alex Nohe's documentary plays like a travelogue for what mostly resembles a real-life, big-budget NC-17 version of Tank Girl. Chances are it'll make you want to go and slide around in the mud with the nudists, performance artists, pyromaniacs and all the rest, but Nohe offers only a cursory mention of the hardships associated with such: fierce sandstorms, bringing enough food and water to last a week in the desert, etcetera. There's even a throwaway bit about drive-by shootings that ought to be followed up on; not that it's Nohe's obligation to make the event look bad, but a bit more on the difficulties would make it an even greater testament to those who do make it out there. And the film feels like a violation of the festival's philosophy of "participants only, no spectators": Who, after all, is going to sit in a theater to see this but a spectator? It is fun stuff to look at, though.