Review of Tarnation (2003) by Tristan G — 24 Oct 2009

This film exhibits a certain kind of refreshing purity to it that lifts the spirits and drowns sorrows. I know that's cheesy, but that's the way I felt about this film. This is pretty much a documentary of John's schizophrenic mother and what his life has been like with her in it and all the things that they've suffered through together.

You don't really see this sort of friendship between two family members in very many films, especially in documentaries. It takes a certain sort of bravery and dexterity to pull off this sort of cinematic achievement.

The sort of ballsy kind of resilience to tell such a painful life story full of abuse and insecurity involving mental illness. The film combines home movies, phone messages, music, pictures, reenactments, etc to tell a deeply personal story and still give the audience a kind of up close look at this sort of lifestyle.

Of course the film is more about his mother than himself, so the film doesn't get too into details surrounding, for instance, his son. I'm actually really happy that he did it this way because it probably would have been too much of an emotional strain on the audience.

Of course, this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but early on the film draws you into details surrounding his mother and not around him. I also really like how he is able to take the fact that he is gay and instead of making it just another cross to bear, like most films do, he uses it as a positive reassurance to guide his life by, since it's one of the only things that he really seemed to actually know and be sure about himself.

I would like to see this sort of thing be done more often so that the issue involving homosexuality doesn't become such an unnecessarily touchy one. Another thing I like about this film is the use of music.

John uses music in a very Martin Scorsese sort of way, meaning that he mixes music in an ironic and intriguing sort of way. This is even better when you take in all these different films and types of music he's listened to.

It reminds the audience that there are still people out there who know what they're doing. It's quite an experience, and a fast paced one to boot. I wouldn't recommend the film to people who are really susceptible to seizures since there is a lot of bright colors and flashing effects.

Anybody who wants to have a cinematic experience while keeping with the fact that it's a documentary must definitely see this. Anybody who has a passion for film at all has got to see it. It's really a fantastic film.