This Is Paris

I have to admit that it was both refreshing and odd to see this side of the socialite.

This documentary seems so intent on excavating her trauma, up to and including animated re-enactments of her time in purgatorial prep school, that it loses sight of her.

This Is Paris isn't apt to change the minds of any Paris Hilton detractors. But as a whole, it stands as a fascinating study of what happens when a human being's personality is entirely subsumed by the construct she creates.

The documentary makes it evident that while we were busy viewing her as a social experiment, we were the social experiment all along.