Review of Following Sean (2006) by Tony U — 08 Jul 2007

Following Sean initially had me skeptical. Ralph Arlyck's style seemed cliche to me. But then it occurred to me that he has been around longer than famed "documentarian" Michael Moore and I patiently decided to stay with this story about the journey in life of a 4 year old kid. Only the journey had 27 years deleted in between. We meet Sean in the Haight-Ashbury District in 1969 where our Arlyck interviews him. This young "innocent" child was cute despite openly admitting to smoking and eating pot and having a natural dislike for "speed freaks.".

When our director meets Sean at 31, he seems like an unobtrusive, boring kind of a person. At that point, I nearly gave up on this movie, but Arlyck meticulously continues to develop our grown up Sean. Through this, we are able to see bits of ourselves in him. Through his story, we are able to look at life and how generations change when intersecting new times, new history.

Arlyck also comes off as very unique because he selflessly points out his cliche. There's a great scene when his grown up kids point out his attempt at "reaching for something" while on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.

This movie is also about the life of our director who lived in the Haight during its peak and where his life flowed after that experience. The most powerful scene was clearly when he asked his beautiful newly wed wife where they'd be in 5 years. The way she was filmed was beautifully innocent. The kind of innocence everyone feels when they are in love.

He also has footage of his father at various times all the way up to when he was 93.

Suddenly the movie becomes an examination of our director's life. I am certain that Michael Moore's style of narration has to be directly influenced by Arlyck.