BEFORE: I got this one kind of by accident, I think maybe I thought it was this other film called "Dick Johnson Is Dead", only that film is a charming (or so I've heard) documentary about a woman dealing with her father's eventual death by filming him in different scenarios where he dies in various ways, I guess therefore softening the blow when he does pass away? Anyway, I've heard good things about that film, but this is NOT that film. Honestly I don't know what this really is, but it seemed intriguing, like a different kind of murder mystery or something. I think I used it to fill up a DVD with another film, but now I don't remember what.
Roy Wood Jr. carries over from "Confess, Fletch".
THE PLOT: Dick Long died last night, and Zeke and Earl don't want anybody finding out how. That's too bad, though, because news travels fast in small-town Alabama.
AFTER: A funny thing happens when we go on vacation, or even when we drive out to Long Island, I look around at the houses and I think, "That's a nice-looking house, I wonder who lives THERE, what's their deal? What's their job, how do they pass their time, are they married, do they have kids, do they feel happy and fulfilled?" But I don't have much time to think about it, because the car keeps moving and soon I'm looking at a different house, thinking, "That's an even nicer house, I wonder who lives THERE, what's their deal?" Since we're certainly not going to pull over and knock on anyone's door and ask them what their life is like, eventually I stop thinking about this. There are millions of people in this country, and I don't have time to find out what everyone's life is like, still I can't help but wonder.
Then we drive back into Queens and it starts all over again, only with apartment buildings instead of houses. The highway sometimes looks right into some people's windows, and not everyone pulls the shades down or the curtains closed, so sometimes I'll get a glimpse of a silhouette walking around in an apartment - what are they DOING? Probably just watching TV or making dinner or just reading a book or something. Are they comfortable in their little box of an apartment, are they entertained, are they fulfilled? How could they be if they're not in Manhattan three or four days a week, interacting with celebrities? I just don't get it. They're all the way out on the far side of Queens, aren't they bored? Well, if they are, it's not really my problem.
Watching a movie is a bit like that, it's a glimpse into the lives of people - fictional ones, sure, but the general feeling is the same, I'm passing by somebody's house and I'm looking through the window and I'm trying to figure out how they spend their time, and if they're happy about that, or if they just tolerate each day and move on to the next. Maybe there are aspects of their lives that I'll never understand, like the compulsion to have children and then watching them grow up, to me that seems only slightly less boring than gardening, but maybe that's just me. My point is that everybody's life is kind of a blank canvas and we all have to figure out how we're going to fill it, hopefully we all get a painting that we enjoy and don't mind showing to other people. Not every painting belongs in a gallery or museum, sure, but art is subjective, and if you like what's on your painting, congratulations, and if you don't, you'd better find something else to paint.
I'm dancing all around the subject of this film, because the film has really only one secret to reveal to you, and that's how Richard "Dick" Long died. Once you find out, that's it, you can't unlearn that and it colors everything and changes everything. Once you figure out what's going on inside the house, though, you may wish that you didn't look through the window in the first place. So I'm not going to reveal it here, but we live in an age of wonders, you can just look up the plot summary on Wikipedia and I'm not going to stop you. They had a woman on Jeopardy! last week who, as a rule, always reads the spoilers for a film before viewing it, and I just can't live my life that way. Sure, she'll never be disappointed when someone tells her the ending to "The Sixth Sense" or "Fight Club", but please, tell me, ma'am, who hurt you?
I will point out that this film premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival (The 2023 edition starts in exactly one week, I'm not going but I have two co-workers at the theater who are. I haven't been since 2004.) and I don't know, Sundance has often been known for provocative subject matter, but I think you have to draw the line somewhere. There was also a documentary that played at Sundance in 2007 on a similar topic, and either some programmer in Park City has a kink, or they're repeating themselves and they just don't care. We get it, already, Sundance, you're edgy.
I've already said too much, if you want to read between the lines or look up what went down in this film or that 2007 documentary, you might be able to figure it out. But then, once you do, you might wish you hadn't. And all that stuff in the real world went down in Washington state, but this film takes place in Alabama, probably had to change the location for legal reasons. But I have no doubt weird stuff goes down in both places, because there are some real sickos out there. Sometimes when we're driving through a rural area, we both point out houses or barns that look really shady or are falling apart and we say, "Look, there's a real murder shack!" Yeah, it's like that, only worse.
There's a part of the film that I can't be sure about, but it might be a reference to one of the segments of "Pulp Fiction", and that film also had a whole section about non-consensual S&M, and while that's NOT the topic of "The Death of Dick Long", it's still some freaky gimp material, maybe it's in the same ballpark, I don't know. But I also don't want to know. Proceed with caution, that's all I'm saying. Maybe if somebody asks you "Do you want to get weird?" you should really consider saying no. This movie only made $37,000 at the box office, so I think the voice of the public was really heard there, saying, "Please, no more movies like this one." Your Sundance cred doesn't mean much if nobody goes to see the movie after the festival.
Also starring Michael Abbott Jr. (last heard in "Hearts Beat Loud"), Virginia Newcomb (last seen in "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle"), Andre Hyland (last seen in "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping"), Sarah Baker (last seen in "Thunder Force"), Jess Weixler (last seen in "Ava"), Sunita Mani (last seen in "Can You Keep a Secret?"), Poppy Cunningham, Janelle Cochrane, Daniel Scheinert, Christopher Campbell, Randy Tumbleweed Smith, Nancy McLemore, Eugene Henry.
RATING: 3 out of 10 Arby's wrappers
No comments:
Post a Comment