Review of Following Sean (2006) by Joan T — 24 Jan 2009

For the first 45 minutes, I was somewhat annoyed that Arlyck insisted on weaving the more tedious strands of his personal life into what I expected to be a story about Sean. By the end, though, I felt that including the journeys taken by the Arlyck family as well as Sean's extended clan made for an intriguing and worthwhile project.

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After seeing footage of 4 year old Sean, viewers will inevitably form expectations for his adult self. I'll admit that mine were the obvious (Arlyck acknowledges them): he'll either be some spacey guy who dropped acid too many times and wanders around inappropriately dressed at street festivals; or he'll be conservative, conventional, perhaps with an unsettling authoritarian streak. By following both the subject's and filmmaker's family stories, we get to meet a cast of characters who mostly fall somewhere in between--showing that a loopy, hippy past has multiple possible outcomes.

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In defiance of cliches, Sean actually turns out to be pretty ordinary in a rather Gen X way. It's entertaining (if not unexpected) to see the generational difference in attitudes toward the 60's brand of counterculture, not just from Sean but also his grandmother and Arlyck's sons. Their cynicism about that era stands in contrast to and, frankly, really hits the spot amidst Arlyck's sometimes rhapsodic nostalgia.

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Good editing and use of archival and personal historical footage. Ends up encompassing a lot more than expected, which can be enjoyable if one keeps an open mind.