I’m guessing a lot of you have never heard of this one. It was written and directed by Jonathan Caouette. He was slotted to be in Shortbus, but had to bow out. John Cameron Mitchell, director of Shortbus, agreed to help out Caouette make this documentary about his mother. That’s how I found out about it. It was mentioned in some of the extras of Shortbus.
This documentary is about Cauoette’s life and his mother. It’s definitely a sad story. Renee, Jonathan’s mother, started receiving electroshock therapy as a child and eventually became just a shell of her former self. This film actually reminded me a lot of The Devil and Daniel Johnston because of all the mixed media involved. In both films, many home recordings, both audio and video, were used along with modern footage to tell the story of someone’s life. Also, the subjects of both documentaries were a bit crazy.
Jonathan’s mother is suffering from schizophrenia and several other things. She also has a questionable past with her parents, who also raised Jonathan as a child. Caouette really went out on a limb here showing a lot of very unflattering footage of himself both as an adult and as a child. I’m not exactly sure what all to believe with things his mother was saying. Either way, it’s a sad story.
I really don’t know how many would really enjoy this. It took me a little bit to even get into the film. It starts off by jumping in headfirst and I really had no idea what was going on at first. Maybe if you were a fan of The Devil and Daniel Johnston, you’ll like this one too.
ugh, i did not like this movie at all. not at all.
I don’t know if I would necessarily say I liked this one either….it was interesting though. I thought it was hard to follow and stay interested through most of it.