This documentary did not achieve what it set out to do. Instead of making an interesting documentary about viral sensation turned murderer, it instead managed to give a window into the merciless media exploitation, woeful mental health awareness and support, and broken criminal justice system in the USA. Its becomes an unintentional meta-documentary about this exploitation, an exploitation it participates in.
The first third consists of people in news and TV, execs, Kardashian producers, Jimmy Kimmel, etc. Summarizing Kai's rise to fame. These people cannot fathom that someone wouldn't want to be rich and famous. Therefore they completely misunderstand Kai's clear anti-rich anti-hollywood messsage (p*ssing on the walk of fame) and instead characterize him as dangerous and unstable. They talk about how hes clearly alcoholic and uses a lot of weed; the way the entice him to sign a contract is by promising a truck of weed to him. Despite Kai clearly needing some mental support and care they just see dollar signs.
The person who first interviews Kai (and his cameraman) are then revealed to have heard him sit on the curb and talk about his mental health, troubled upbringing, history of abuse. They exclaim their disbelief and talk about how they chose to ignore it, excluding it from the coverage. Everything these people say drips with their own monetary and career interest and no concern for Kai or his wellbeing.
Kai's childhood is explored briefly, but his claims of neglect and abuse are not ultimately proven or disproven. His mom, who is his alleged abuser, gets the last word for some reason as we move on without stopping to see if Kai maybe could have had a better chance at life, and how his foster care and ultimate homelessness (or home-freeness) came about. Next a man who met him at a bar says he overheard Kai saying that he spiked the weed in the car which caused the accident that launched him to fame - but the toxicology report completely refutes that... So what is the point?
We move into the murder case and despite Kai's claim of being r*ped, we only hear the investigators discuss the wounds and evidence of the murder itself. His story is given no credence, no word if Kai's claims are true or not. Why would this old lawyer have a 20 year old in his house in the first place? Its fishy and the only people to speak on the old mans character are his neighbours - dodgy.
The documentary ends on the depressing note that Kai is in a maximum security prison for 57 years. The documentary leaves no room for us to question this - though the man he fought off in the car accident gets 9 years in a mental health institution - something i guess was out of the question for Kai.
Coming out of a troubled home and childhood, out onto the streets living life his own way, Kai was thrust into this media frenzy of exploitation and chose to walk away from it while also literally p*ssing on the industry. He is one of many people to fall outside of the cruel system in the USA - no one caring for him, not getting proper support for his mental health and wellbeing, no one believing him, and the justice system doing what it does best - protecting wealthy white men. The documentary just capitalizes on this exploitation by handing money to everyone involved and not giving Kai's story a fair run on the screen.
The first third consists of people in news and TV, execs, Kardashian producers, Jimmy Kimmel, etc. Summarizing Kai's rise to fame. These people cannot fathom that someone wouldn't want to be rich and famous. Therefore they completely misunderstand Kai's clear anti-rich anti-hollywood messsage (p*ssing on the walk of fame) and instead characterize him as dangerous and unstable. They talk about how hes clearly alcoholic and uses a lot of weed; the way the entice him to sign a contract is by promising a truck of weed to him. Despite Kai clearly needing some mental support and care they just see dollar signs.
The person who first interviews Kai (and his cameraman) are then revealed to have heard him sit on the curb and talk about his mental health, troubled upbringing, history of abuse. They exclaim their disbelief and talk about how they chose to ignore it, excluding it from the coverage. Everything these people say drips with their own monetary and career interest and no concern for Kai or his wellbeing.
Kai's childhood is explored briefly, but his claims of neglect and abuse are not ultimately proven or disproven. His mom, who is his alleged abuser, gets the last word for some reason as we move on without stopping to see if Kai maybe could have had a better chance at life, and how his foster care and ultimate homelessness (or home-freeness) came about. Next a man who met him at a bar says he overheard Kai saying that he spiked the weed in the car which caused the accident that launched him to fame - but the toxicology report completely refutes that... So what is the point?
We move into the murder case and despite Kai's claim of being r*ped, we only hear the investigators discuss the wounds and evidence of the murder itself. His story is given no credence, no word if Kai's claims are true or not. Why would this old lawyer have a 20 year old in his house in the first place? Its fishy and the only people to speak on the old mans character are his neighbours - dodgy.
The documentary ends on the depressing note that Kai is in a maximum security prison for 57 years. The documentary leaves no room for us to question this - though the man he fought off in the car accident gets 9 years in a mental health institution - something i guess was out of the question for Kai.
Coming out of a troubled home and childhood, out onto the streets living life his own way, Kai was thrust into this media frenzy of exploitation and chose to walk away from it while also literally p*ssing on the industry. He is one of many people to fall outside of the cruel system in the USA - no one caring for him, not getting proper support for his mental health and wellbeing, no one believing him, and the justice system doing what it does best - protecting wealthy white men. The documentary just capitalizes on this exploitation by handing money to everyone involved and not giving Kai's story a fair run on the screen.