Review of Tarnation (2003) by Eric S — 10 Feb 2011

Undeniably skillful collage of home video, movie clips and stock footage. That said, this seemed to be a film chronicling Jonathan's deliberately cinematic reactions to his life, as opposed to his life. And as a result, I still can't decide if his life has really been all that bad.

To the extent Jonathan's narcissism is the point/tragedy of the film - the result of his childhood - then the omission was cause and effect. We see dysfunction and mental illness, of course, but I can think of a handful of people I know offhand who grew up in more dire circumstances and don't need this sort of attention. How did Jonathan's upbringing specifically lead to such exaggerated self-centeredness? I'd enjoy that movie. Instead, we just see the self-centeredness.

Without more focus on the family dynamic and underlying triggers, I kind of suspect the premise of the film was just an excuse for Jonathan to put all the footage of himself he had made since childhood into one big film by, about, and most notably FOR Jonathan.