What loving demands is that we face the fear of losing each other

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Movies of 2020...

#22 : Dick Johnson Is Dead

Film-maker Kirsten Johnson’s startlingly creative response to her former psychiatrist father’s dementia, in which she stages a string of hypothetical death scenes and afterlife fantasies.

I've heard of this film and I've also heard that it's eye-wateringly bonkers - it hadn't quite made it on to my "I'll watch it at some point" list but I was intrigued to watch it nonetheless.  And you certainly get the feeling that things might go places you don't expect when the film starts off with a cute family scene and then has Dick walking along the street when a microwave comes out of nowhere and lands on his head...

And well, it doesn't really make any attempts to get any more conventional from that point onwards.  It's basically a combination of family back story, scenes of everyday life, interviews with various random characters about aspects of death or dementia, carefully staged death scenes in which Dick Johnson dies in a variety of fashions and some corresponding afterlife scenarios.  Which is an odd enough combination, but it's made even more jarring because the death scenes and afterlife scenarios are not signposted so you never know whether Dick is just walking down the street or whether he's about to get a nail in his neck from a careless builder and bleed to death on the pavement.  

So, all in all, it's a disconcerting experience - but not unpleasantly so.  It makes some interesting points and asks some interesting questions, without forcing the answers (and accepting that there often aren't answers).  The final scene is a very interesting idea and very movingly done - but at the same time it's really very bonkers as well.  I'd be interested in discussing it with anyone who's seen the film as to whether they think it works - but I can't give any more details here without spoiling it for those who haven't seen it.

That's all I have to say about the film really - there's no acting, script, characters, dialogue or any other such filmy nonsense to talk about.  It's a very difficult film to pigeon-hole - it's really not much more than a collection of ideas and what-ifs, but I enjoyed watching it without necessarily feeling I can recommend it.  You'd have to be in a certain place or, probably more accurately, not in several certain places in order to be in the mood for it but if you fancy something quirky that poses you some tricky questions, then this could be the film for you.

At the time of writing, the film is available to watch on Netflix - and given it's a Netflix film I'm guessing it's going to stay there.

#23 - Interesting but disappointing
#21 - Believable plot and characters - whatever next?!?