my blog partner, brandon, really, really, REALLY likes movies. (that's him at karoake acting like a fool through the window while we partook in cancer sticks.)
his movie collection is enormous and includes classics, contemporary and cult films like the seventh seal, rififi, run ronnie run, buttcrack and turkish star wars, to name just a few out of the thousands of titles he's accumulated at this point.
brandon has a well cultivated film palette and understands more about film than most people i know. when brandon tells me he saw a film and what what his opinion was, i pay attention and rarely do i disagree. there aren't many people whose opinions on film i value but he has the dubious honour of being one of those very few people.
which is why he will be our resident movie reviewer. here is his first review:
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father- *****
Dear Zachary was a movie that came out independently and disappeared faster than I could blink. But the reviews were nothing but heady, full-bodied praise, so I tucked the title back in my mind and went on with my life. LITTLE DID I KNOW.
The movie begins as an homage to director Kurt Kuenne's best friend, Andrew Bagby. Bagby was well-liked by everyone (as we see in interview after interview), and was living a great life until his fiancé dumped him. He fell into depression, and soon into the arms of Shirley, an unpleasant woman half his age. When he moved to Latrobe, PA (beer!), he dumped Shirley and started a new life as a doctor. Until he was discovered murdered in a parking lot.
All evidence pointed to Shirley, who fled back to her native Canada, announcing that she was pregnant with Andrew's son. Andrew's parents followed, quitting their jobs and pooling their savings in an attempt to bring Shirley to justice and raise their grandson.
The saga that follows is perhaps the most heartbreaking movie I have ever seen in my life. It's even more resonant because it's all true. Kuenne knows enough about film to let his footage of Andrew, and his interviews, speak for themselves. These are regular people who had a chance to meet someone special, and the range of emotions you see is all too real. So much so that it took me four days to get through a 90 minute movie.
The most heartbreaking are Andrew's parents, truly good people forced into a completely alien situation. There were times I wanted to beg Kuenne to cut away from them. You see EXACTLY what a child's death can do to their parents, and it's heartbreaking.
But Kuenne is also smart enough not to linger on the saddest aspects of the story. The majority of the film is devoted to how Andrew touched the lives of those he knew, and watching these people reminisce about their friend carries more weight and emotion than the more tragic aspects of the story.
I know that watching something so emotionally wrenching probably doesn’t seem like the best way to spend your precious free time, but it manages to speak volumes about life and why it's worth living, even at the worst of times. And sometimes we need reminding.
Click to view the trailer:
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