They Call Me Dr. Miami – A Distasteful Documentary

Plastic Surgery has been a somewhat respected practice for quite some time. However They Call Me Dr. Miami, the newest documentary originally planned for this year’s Hot Docs Film Festival, gives more than enough reason to believe that the industry deserves no respect. The film follows the internet celebrity plastic surgeon known as Dr. Miami whose real name is Dr. Michael Salzhauer. Dr. Salzhauer gained infamy for his arguably unprofessional mannerisms on social media, from livestreaming graphic surgerys to before and after pictures. He held back nothing. Over the course of the film, viewers get a look at Dr. Salzhauer’s work life and personal life, serving as a pathetic attempt to try and justify his disgusting ego and mindset. 

Today we live in a world where if it isn’t on social media it almost didn’t happen. For most companies and businesses, this is used to their advantage to promote and create attraction to whatever they are promoting. They Call Me Dr. Miami shows how Dr. Salzhauer incorporates this into his day to day surgerys. In a way, there’s this sort of expectation that viewers will find this cool or perhaps even the new norm. But in reality, it’s merely a greasy way of exploiting these body modifications in a way for him to capitalize and gain more traction. Furthermore we learn about his relationship with religion. A self-proclaimed Jew, Dr. Salzhauer claims to be devoted to his religion. This isn’t a problem, however his work ethics and posts made on the internet make him seem hypocritical when one minute he’s talking about his faith and the next minute videos of him calling women “bitches”and “ugly”are played.

Everything about They Call Me Dr. Miami is unlikeable. From Dr. Salzhauer himself to his methods of work which include but are not limited to, posting graphic surgerys on snapchat and focusing on things like angles of the video and not the procedure itself, degrading peoples regular looks and of course putting himself on such a high throne (he literally sits on a throne for many interviews). Plastic Surgery is the nice way of saying someone got fake blank and if there’s anyone who deserves to be in the spotlight for being a fake in a fake oriented world, It should be Dr Miami. 

To give They Call Me Dr. Miami some credit, the behind-the-scenes look at some of these procedures and some of the interviews were somewhat compelling but it all comes off in a way that seems so objectified, distasteful and hypocritical, making it all not worth the 80 minute running time. In the end, recommending this would be deceitful, only those who have interest in the field or perhaps those with a previous negative view of Dr. Salzhauer could sort of have fun tearing this man apart for everything he is.

At the end of the day, there are better subjects worthy of documentaries and there are already so many more insightful documentaries that can be viewed. Watching They Call Me Dr. Miami will not only make you hate it’s titular character even more but it will surely cause viewers to roll their eyes as they witness what the world of “influencing” is slowly devolving into.

*still courtesy of Hot Docs*

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram and check out my Letterboxd.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook. Also subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Jaeden Noel