Review of Grey Gardens (2009) by Alex S — 03 May 2009

I confess to not really being in on the ground floor with the target audience of this movie. The Kennedy relation is lost on me and watching a documentary focusing on a couple of eccentric and deluded (albeit very charming) women is kind of uncomfortable.

Yet it works for some strange reason. I make it sound like I am a heartless individual who would laugh at the idiosyncrasies of a mother and daughter well past their prime and abandoned by society for 90 minutes.

While some may very well do so (and I have a feeling they do as, apparently, this film has achieved "Rocky Horror Picture Show" levels of cult status), to do that would be missing the point of how existence and life carry on regardless to how you may feel or act (though this will all change once I invent my time machine).

Yes, it is surreal (Big Edie wearing a festive garden hat while singing in bed, Little Edie leaving snacks in the attic for the neighboring family of raccoons, etc.) and yes, it is uncomfortable at times (the birthday celebration and Little Edie's flag dance immediately jump to mind) but it is also painfully heartfelt and real (or as "real" as one would imagine someone would be knowing the expertly talented documentary makers, the Maysles brother, have a camera trained on them).

Not my type of film exactly, but not at all bad.