Review of Examined Life (2008) by Keaton P — 19 Sep 2009

One advantage to films as formally adventurous as this is that they permit readings or interpretations the filmmaker might not have anticipated. As someone whose only previous contact with Jacques Derrida came in the form of that old Scritti Politti record, I often found myself drifting away from the words in "Examined Life" - perceptive as they doubtless are - towards the images scrolling past in the background; in particular to those bystanders made subject to sudden blasts of applied ethics, and appearing intrigued or disinterested, or simply pausing to wave hi to mum.

This is the sort of project that could only be realised in the DV age: it thrives on its immediacy, its need to think about the big show *right now*. Taylor is smart enough to keep her camera moving - either to keep up with her subjects' trains of thought, or to prevent them from becoming bogged down in their own mental processes - and it helps she's chosen to shoot on bright, breezy afternoons: days when even the most casual observer of life is given cause to stop, look around, and consider one's place in this world.