What I’m Watching: a pair of compelling documentaries Date: 3/7/2022 On Netflix: “The Tinder Swindler”
This true crime documentary should be required viewing for anyone using a dating app, but especially Tinder.
The cautionary tale tells the story of Shimon Hayutan, an Israeli con man using the name of Simon Leviev who presents a luxurious life on Tinder. He claims to be the son of a famous – and real – diamond merchant and has a jet-setting life going from one country to another to close deals for his father’s company.
The story presented is about three women, two of whom had a romantic relationship with Hayutan, who are conned out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by him.
Essentially Hayutan uses one woman to provide the money for him to continue his opulent lifestyle with another woman. He served time in prison in Finland for his Ponzi scheme but that did not stop him.
If a woman senses something is wrong, he has plenty of lies ready to try to keep them ensnared. He becomes verbally violent with them if the lies fail.
His con is pretty convincing as he will turn a first date into a trip to foreign county via private jet with luxury accommodations. His trappings of wealth obscure questions his victims may have.
It was estimated that he had managed to swindle $10 million from his victims.
Director Felicity Morris does a careful, thorough job in relating the experiences of the three women as well as the team of journalists from a Norwegian newspaper who take on the story.
What saddened me besides the fact that dozens of women were the subject of his con is how social media reacted to the newspaper story, with many people posting victim-shaming messages.
This was a fascinating film that is a true-life psychological thriller.
A postscript: Hayutan is now being sued by the Leviev family for impersonating being a member of that family.
“Downfall: The Case Against Boeing”
This carefully detailed film looks at how a change in corporate culture resulted in the death of hundreds of people in two crashes of the same type of aircraft.
The result is certainly a case for much greater oversight of the American aircraft industry.
In 2019, a Boeing 737 MAX jetliner crashed moments after taking off in Indonesia. Several months later the same kind of plane also crashed moments after takeoff in Ethiopia.
At first Boeing seemed to take the stance that both crashes were pilot error, but the flight recorders pointed to a different conclusion: a software program designed to keep the nose of the plane straight essentially over-rode the pilots’ controls causing two horrendous crashes.
The film sets up the history of the aviation giant as a company obsessed with safety. That culture changed when Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas and the new executive team started paying more attention to profits and the stock market. The result was cutting corners that should not have been cut, including training for pilots.
Director Rory Kennedy uses many sources to make the case that Boeing actually knew training was necessary but did not want to institute training because of the costs involved.
There is a public trust in any form of mass transit and this film shows how that trust can be broken.
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