Yes, it was especially moving. (I will look for your review.) I
covered my
angry at
roller
documentaries
experience
to say
Ack, sorry about the triple post. I blame it on "Tarnation exuberance."
;–)
I laughed and cried too. It was touching, sad, funny, interesting, and
utterly captivating. I had to look away during the pumpkin scene. It's
hard to stare craziness in the face like that. That was one of those
"unflinching" moments of good domentary film making that are sometimes
difficult but necessary to see. Also difficult to see was the deep
denial of Adolph and the utter insanity of Rosemary.
Yes, the pumpkin scene was definitely one where I was looking at an art deco
muted light above the row I was in and away from the screen. Peeked back at
her a few times and was just horrified at how crazy the scene was. It was a
necessary scene, though.
When he was eleven years old pretending to do the skit of the woman I was
uncomfortable, too. Not because he was a boy, but because of how *intensely*
he seemed to understand what it felt like to be a woman. His acting at that
age was phenomenal to the point of scariness.
*LOTS* of shit with Adolf pissed me off, but I still looked at him and never
turned away. I've always been like that, though. There are certain Senior
Citizens in this world who try to get away with acting like selfish,
spoiled, helpless little children and I always look them straight in the eye
so that they know that I'm watching and are fully *AWARE* of their rinkydink
little games. Adolf is that type of person. He doesn't hold himself
accountable for anything. It's all not his fault in his mind. He's off Scott
Free if you ask him. That's half a man, basically. He'll take no
responsibility for his daughter or grandson's suffering. It's just pathetic.
He's the type of person where if he were my grandfather and I got a phone
call that he died in his sleep, I'd *not* be upset, I'd definitely *not*
cry, I would attend the funeral for the sake of the others who needed me at
their side, but I'd not want any connections to him afterward, nor would I
accept anything from the estate. I'd basically go, attend, and forget I ever
had the pain of knowing his sorry soul.
At one point Johnathan referred to him as "Dad" instead of Grandpa and that
brought it all home to me about how Johnathan never had a dad and how lame
of a replacement/surrogate father Adolf was. What a shame to have to be
related to that miserable old bat. I liked how this film did not edit
anything that was shamefully warped, though. Any irresponsibility or mocking
was *included* in the footage to let the viewers know what certain
characters in the film had to put up with and go through.
JN