The Pitch: I don't know. This is a two part documentary that aired
on HBO. Both parts were feature length. Should I count this as a series or a
movie? That's more of a question for how I'll enter this into my spreadhseets
later, I suppose. I want to talk about it though.
I really dig the idea behind this. It's taking the Roshamon
approach to documentary storytelling. Part one essentially tells the story
from the boy's (or boy's family's) point of view. Part two comes to the
girlfriend's defense. That's a great idea. I often complain that documentaries
hide their bias or fail to recognize it. This makes that into a feature, not a
bug. It also uses this as a way to sympathize with multiple sides and comment
on how media narratives take hold. I'd love if more documentaries were told
like this. Too often, documentaries find the easy argument and make it. This
idea is much harder and, in the end, more valuable.
I guess I'll weigh in with my opinion of this case,
based only on what I learned in the documentary. I'm the prick who has asked
questions like "Does Charlie Manson really deserve to be charged for
murder just because he told other people to do it?". I understand the
nuance, but fundamentally, I'm bothered by anything that absolves a person of
free will. Charging the girlfriend in this case with manslaughter seems too
severe to me. Harassment, maybe. Something more along the lines of a misdemeanor.
And that was my opinion before I realized that she was also mentally unstable.
This was an unfortunate mix of personalities but not criminal. This is one of
those cases that hits people on a gut level though. The opposite opinion to
mine sounds obvious to other people too. I err on the side of not sending
people to prison though.
All that said, this was a hard watch. I was already
in a down mood, then there was all this talk about depression, hopelessness,
and suicide. I had to immediately follow this up with Mission: Impossible -
Ghost Protocol for some escapism.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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