Already the purported budget of a mere $218,32 makes clear that Jonathan Caouette's "Tarnation" is the film that is destined not to please the regular film watcher - and as a consequence it has split audience reactions right in the middle. A good thing to know from the outset, as you should be prepared for something different. After all we're dealing with a biographical documentary here that was made in a highly experimental form consisting of a collage of snapshots, Super-8 films, answering machine messages and video diaries covering a life over thirty years. The footage is at times amateurish some say, however its use is ingenious say others. Well, what's for sure is that you get the director himself in the center of attention: he's gay, he's burdened, he suffers from mental disorder of depersonalization and derealization, yet he's extremely creative as the film shows - and there's Caouette's mentally ill mother of course, primary cause of his troubles and object of his unconditional affection. "Tarnation" is all about this difficult relationship, which has shaped the life of a child, a youth, an adult. It's also about love under harsh conditions and the abysses that lurk in schizophrenia. And its all accompanied by a brilliant soundtrack that made the lion's share of the extra $400,000 that secured the completion of the film and a theatrical release. Along with one of the most brilliant editing jobs possible to accomplish with free software, the added music and sound effects contribute tremendously to the unique coming of age experience that is "Tarnation".
What is evident right from the first frame is that this is no run-of-the-mill documentary, but a visceral piece of life, with all its inadequacies, challenges and hardships, processed in video format in order to understand it and extract its essence, to appreciate what life is living for despite its shortcomings. It is a document by Caouette made for himself as an act of self-therapy, shared with viewers who are willing to connect on an emotional level. Caouette shows unbridled pleasures of raw life as well as its brutal horrors through the lens of home videos and psychedelic images inspired by them, generating something new, memorable and lasting. A therapeutic exercise in self indulgence as some claim? Maybe. Inspirational, moving, personal, gritty, real, shocking nevertheless - in spite of its MTV-like cutting style. In short: a wild ride packed with emotions on all levels that gives us at least a glimpse on what it is like to be tarnished by damnation.
What is evident right from the first frame is that this is no run-of-the-mill documentary, but a visceral piece of life, with all its inadequacies, challenges and hardships, processed in video format in order to understand it and extract its essence, to appreciate what life is living for despite its shortcomings. It is a document by Caouette made for himself as an act of self-therapy, shared with viewers who are willing to connect on an emotional level. Caouette shows unbridled pleasures of raw life as well as its brutal horrors through the lens of home videos and psychedelic images inspired by them, generating something new, memorable and lasting. A therapeutic exercise in self indulgence as some claim? Maybe. Inspirational, moving, personal, gritty, real, shocking nevertheless - in spite of its MTV-like cutting style. In short: a wild ride packed with emotions on all levels that gives us at least a glimpse on what it is like to be tarnished by damnation.