Story: Steven Williams is an old school YouTube creator that became a viral sensation as his alter ego Francis, but he would be best known as Boogie2988. As millions of subscribers followed his YouTube account and his views went through the roof, it looked like Boogie was a true success story. He had been open about his past trauma and spoke of positivity and being grateful, but years later, his attitude would have a different tone. As he enjoyed remarkable success on YouTube and built a reputation as a kind, compassionate creator, his personal life was in shambles and a divorce would push him over the edge. In The Dark, Sad Life of Boogie2988, we are taken inside the epic fall from grace that followed, as well as how Boogie’s story has unfolded since.

Entertainment Value: This documentary delivers on the promise of its title, as we do indeed get taken on a dark, sad journey inside the life of Steven Williams, better known as Boogie2988. I do think the filmmaker lets Boogie off the hook too much and doesn’t press on some topics that he should have, but this is a well crafted, often riveting look at an epic fall from grace. Boogie was once a beloved icon of the internet, with a bank account to match, but his divorce seemed to spark something within him, to drop the friendly, kind persona he had created, in favor of a more real, darker presence. This is where I wish the filmmaker would have delved deeper, into the horrific things that Boogie said on his own stream and various podcast appearances. Instead, we get a short montage of some of those statements, which I think takes it way too easy on Boogie in the process. To be fair though, a lot of the content here is (deservedly) unflattering toward Boogie, so I am not saying this is a fluff piece, just that it glosses over some issues that deserved more time. At under an hour, this feels shorter than it should be, but it does make good use of the limited runtime. But I wouldn’t have minded under twenty to thirty minutes, in order to get that extra depth on some topics.

On the technical side, director Mike Clum has done some excellent work here and this is a slick, professional documentary presentation. I’ve seen some other “documentaries” on Boogie and while they were informative, they were basically clips from Boogie’s archive with some narration, whereas this looks and feels more like a traditional documentary. The editing is polished and the visuals are terrific, though some errors do crop up with the on screen text, which is unfortunate. I was impressed here however, as the presentation is skilled and defies the low budget roots of the production. Clum shows some real skill here and this is certainly several levels above the vast majority of YouTube documentaries out there. As I said above, I would have liked a longer duration to cover more ground, but the pace here is good and most of the runtime has solid density. So there’s little wasted time here, another sign of Clum’s skills as a filmmaker. Despite some minor complaints, overall The Dark, Sad Life of Boogie2988 is well recommended.

Use this YouTube link to watch The Dark, Sad Life of Boogie2988!