On Saturday, we watched a documentary, Dick Johnson is Dead.
Dick Johnson is real and plays himself. And he wasn't dead.
Kristen Johnson is the director and daughter of the subject of the film. As she deals with her aging father, she helps transition her would be future grief into filming her father dying over and over again in different ways - accidental ways. Dick Johnson is a willing participant. Kind of?
Well, that's the way it is sold.
What it really deals with is Dick Johnson's decline into memory care and brain health issues, which follows the path of his late wife, and Kristen's mother. There are parts that are incredibly nice and part that are incredibly sad.
.....and a lot of it is self-indulgent art for the sake of self-indulgent art.
I think Johnson (Kristen, that is) could have made a compelling documentary on a first (or second) hand perspective on coming to grips with a parent in decline. The idea of killing off her father multiple times in multiple ways could have been interesting, but they were just set-ups and not incorporated into the story - not really. Certainly not effectively.
But it was 90 minutes long - and still not as bad as Melissa McCarthy's Superintelligence.
2021 Movie Count / Goal: 08 of 15
Song by: Led Zeppelin
1 comment:
My dad had Alzheimer's. It's a long and sad way to say good-bye. Because my mom struggled with his decline badly, I felt I had no choice but to step in. My ex and I got the house across the street and rehabbed it so they could be closer. The daily visits, the constant care... it warps your life. At some point you don't recognize them or yourself. It took a toll on my relationship with my ex. So, I get that the director was trying to get at... to reclaim some kind of personal power over the disease. But you never do. It wins.
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