A mother leaves behind home movies, audio diaries and recordings documenting her emotionally abusive husband. Sounds compelling enough.

Films such as this have a long history of attempting to be indictments of American life, as if troubles don't inflict all peoples - just white suburbanites. This is a very white leftist attitude. They set up the concept of "the white picket fence", the perfect, but false world of Leave it to Beaver. This concept has been linked to the prosperity and relative social order of the 1950's and early 60's. Since humans never lived as perfectly as the image of the "white picket fence" ideal, it is used as a straw man today as some big lie we've told ourselves. This false fraud we're guilty of is used then to trash the American culture in general. You see this played out in the trailer below. They show the apparently loving family. Then the tape rolls and it turns out the father and mother were troubled people. The critical blurbs fly by and the message is presented, this is you - you're troubled.

Will this be a good documentary? I guarantee this will be a fascinating watch. Secrets are interesting, private thoughts and compelling. I am also willing to bet the summation of the piece will be a little hard to swallow. Here's, to be hoping to be wrong.





Writer: Morgan Dews
Director: Morgan Dews

Labels: documentary, film, movie trailer