And so the push-back backfires again: Cries for Detainment's nomination to be pulled at the Oscars, not because of ineligibility, made me seek out the short. Classic Streisand effect. Detainment was bound to be controversial from the start. Based on transcripts from the interrogations from the murder of James Bulger, Detainment goes into a case that has caused extreme outrage that lasts to this day, with people adamant two 10-year-old boys should have been hanged for what they did. The crime was indeed horrific, and the allusions during the interrogation is part of what makes Detainment so challenging to take in, even if it's only 30 minutes long. Shorts can have an impact, and Detainment is one of them. But another thing that makes Detainment a challenging film is looking at the difficulties inherent in interrogating a child, particularly seeing an innocent parent having to sit through this and realize what their child has done. Ely Solan is a revelation as Jon.
The short really paints a picture of Jon and Robert. Even though they both pin the crime on each other, it becomes obvious Robert was the dominant and most sociopathic personality, given how stone-faced he is in his interview compared to Jon. Detainment doesn't diss James Bulger, doesn't whitewash what Jon and Robert did, but it is more interesting than the (oddly comforting) notion of dismissing the boys as monsters out of a fairy tale, confronting us with the horrors of reality.
The short really paints a picture of Jon and Robert. Even though they both pin the crime on each other, it becomes obvious Robert was the dominant and most sociopathic personality, given how stone-faced he is in his interview compared to Jon. Detainment doesn't diss James Bulger, doesn't whitewash what Jon and Robert did, but it is more interesting than the (oddly comforting) notion of dismissing the boys as monsters out of a fairy tale, confronting us with the horrors of reality.