Monday, April 03, 2006
Tarnation
I liked Tarnation. This documentary/movie/montage mixture was definitely visually stimulating. It's a chronicle of a gay man's, Jonathan, childhood and his mentally ill mother, Renee.
Jonathan, in his 30's, gets a call that his mother overdosed on lithium but survives.
From there, the movie goes back in time to when Renee was a child, who was small-time model and actress. Then, the movie jumps in time gaps to Jonathan's birth.
Jonathan was practically born with a video camera in his hands. Can you imagine the amount of tapes accumulated for a span of 30 years or more? Throughout this film, you'll see recordings of Renee, the grandparents and Jonathan, himself. You will see Jonathan doing short monologues, short films and confessionals, even while he was tripping on acid.
His family was definitely weird. However, Jonathan made the best of it, living both behind and in front of the camera. He eventually moved from Houston to NYC and became a small-time actor and eventually a director.
Tarnation is definitely worth watching!
I remember when I was a kid, really a teenager, I was the first one in our families to get a "mini" camcorder. Of course, it wasn't really a mini camcorder as they are today. It was more like half the size of those camcorders you had to mount on your shoulders.
My cousins and I were excited about this. Man, we did skits and some crazy stuff. We even created our own special effects. We would have our families gathered around and show them the tapes. We'd all be laughing. Then, we'd be off to make new recordings.
I wish I had kept up with the video recordings. That reminds me, I had asked my dad to mail me the camcorder and the tapes. I'll have to remind him.
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