It was both startling and sickening to see a documentary about a dying man that devolves into the filmmaker making it 100% about himself. By the mid-way point you are actually watching scenes from the director's childhood and interviews with his parents, all while he narrates. I was hoping there would be a great reveal or joke by the end, (spoiler) but it ends on a serious note.. I was shocked. The audacity and narcissism of the filmmaker is simply astounding. The film's narrative is basically one-third a document of The Amazing Johnathon's life and diagnosis, and two-third's a document of a filmmaker acting like a jilted lover. The woeful attempt at the end to merge the two narratives is only 5 minutes long and very cringe-worthy.
This documentary was shocking and shameless in all the worst ways. It does a great disrespect to the supposed subject of the film by making the director the star instead, and enduces extreme boredom in the process. It isn't entertaining or informative, serving only as a case study on narcissistic pathology in documentary filmmaking. It gets some stars from me because the first third was actually watchable and there was some decent photography throughout. Avoid.
This documentary was shocking and shameless in all the worst ways. It does a great disrespect to the supposed subject of the film by making the director the star instead, and enduces extreme boredom in the process. It isn't entertaining or informative, serving only as a case study on narcissistic pathology in documentary filmmaking. It gets some stars from me because the first third was actually watchable and there was some decent photography throughout. Avoid.