Tarnation

The other movie I saw on the weekend was Tarnation. Brilliant film. The blurb says
Filmmaker Jonathan Caouette's documentary on growing up with his schizophrenic mother -- a mixture of snapshots, Super-8, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, and more -- culled from 19 years of his life.

It's a classic gay identity film; the difference for me was that unlike many others of its kind, where the hero manages to escape his awful family and make his way to the big city and endure hardships and then find his own (usually successful) way in the world without looking back, this movie had an incredible amount of compassion for his family. The empathy and love this man has for his mother carries through to the end of the film, and you know that it will actively endure until the day she dies. He's not just caring for her, he's CARING for her in a very physical and concrete way that affects the path that his career will take.

And the visual qualities of the film (made for under US$300 , if my memory serves me correctly) are wonderful. I especially liked the way he used his computer to produce intense colours within the old films. He also referenced Liquid Sky, which is a film I haven't thought about in a long time.

Highly recommended.