At the movie theater I go to (the Clearview Bow Tie in Montclair, NJ), there's a wall where people can write short reviews and post them. I wrote for the Oscar nominated live action short films overall: "Holy cow, these shorts were a barrel of laughs!"- (signed Lars von Trier, probably). I think a lot of that feeling comes in particular from this short, which is basically 20 minutes of misery porn in the guise of an "important" look at a stomach churning true story from 25 years or so ago when two ten year olds killed (and is more than strongly suggested raped) a toddler in Northern England.
I think that the controversy regarding how it was put together is one thing; I didn't know about this until reading some reviews on here, and it is ghoulish and unseemly of the director to make this without informing the *dead baby's mother*. The actual quality of the thing is another, and that's where I have an even greater issue. The director has less than zero sense of a) making it a unique artistic statement (a film like Son of Saul, for example, is a traumatic cinematic experience, but it's because of how it's shot and presented that the artistry transcends the horror of the real life story), and b) avoiding melodrama.
Detainment should have been, at best, one of those documentary TV shows where the dramatization happens in little parts between the interviews with the real-life subjects. The way it's shot is screaming at you with the mis-en-scene, close-ups and "realistic" hand-held of the day-of with the kids and the baby, plus overbearing music, and while there is something on an intellectual level that can be striking (who is a true sociopath/psychopath and who is just misguided and stupid as a kid can be seen between these two killers), emotionally it's a thousand grim sledghammers banging away at the same time.
Sad story? Sure. Should it have been made into a motion picture done up with lots of good quality equipment and professional acting? I dunno. But it's not an experience I ever want to revisit for the rest of my days.
I think that the controversy regarding how it was put together is one thing; I didn't know about this until reading some reviews on here, and it is ghoulish and unseemly of the director to make this without informing the *dead baby's mother*. The actual quality of the thing is another, and that's where I have an even greater issue. The director has less than zero sense of a) making it a unique artistic statement (a film like Son of Saul, for example, is a traumatic cinematic experience, but it's because of how it's shot and presented that the artistry transcends the horror of the real life story), and b) avoiding melodrama.
Detainment should have been, at best, one of those documentary TV shows where the dramatization happens in little parts between the interviews with the real-life subjects. The way it's shot is screaming at you with the mis-en-scene, close-ups and "realistic" hand-held of the day-of with the kids and the baby, plus overbearing music, and while there is something on an intellectual level that can be striking (who is a true sociopath/psychopath and who is just misguided and stupid as a kid can be seen between these two killers), emotionally it's a thousand grim sledghammers banging away at the same time.
Sad story? Sure. Should it have been made into a motion picture done up with lots of good quality equipment and professional acting? I dunno. But it's not an experience I ever want to revisit for the rest of my days.