Filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his home town after the mysterious death of his two-year-old niece and the arrest of his brother-in-law as the culprit.... (Full plot summary below)
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Filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his home town after the mysterious death of his two-year-old niece and the arrest of his brother-in-law as the culprit.
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| The New York TimesNicolas RapoldOut of the fractured family documentary, what emerges finally is a drama of self-realization. |
| User Reviewaraminta2Compelling film. A personal story and an experimental approach that succeeds. But felt too long towards the last part of the film. |
| User ReviewBrent_MarchantIt’s indeed gratifying when a documentary attempts to takes an unconventional approach in telling its story, presenting a work of nonfiction in an unexpected way. That’s particularly true for offerings that have highly personal components. However, to pull off such a result, the director of such an undertaking must have a clear vision to make things work, something that’s decidedly missing in this title created for the PBS series POV. Transgender male filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax’s account of his dysfunctional Mormon family in a small western Michigan town spans five years, documenting events coming in the wake of the death of his two-year-old niece under mysterious circumstances. It’s a tragedy that brought a number of troubling issues to light – some legitimate, others falsely hatched out of sloppy investigative work, but all of which led to an array of painful outcomes. In telling this story, though, the filmmaker seeks answers that aren’t readily forthcoming. His attempt at making sense out of things comes up short, and that’s clearly reflected in the finished product, one that often makes little sense of its own. The attempted fusion of straightforward storytelling with poetic observations, home movie clips from his upbringing, arthouse cinematography and lofty philosophical musings simply doesn’t work. The picture often feels like it’s reaching to make a statement that it’s unable to define for itself, leaving viewers more puzzled than enlightened. This experiment is certainly commendable for its artistic audacity, but the result is a film that’s frequently inscrutable. As a nominee for the Independent Spirit Awards’ Truer Than Fiction prize, it’s apparent that the director possesses a singularly distinctive perspective, but he’ll obviously need to clarify it in a more accessible way in future projects to engage audiences rather than confound them. |
