Thursday, June 17, 2004
Something you need to do RIGHT NOW
Stop what are you doing. Get $4.50. Get in your car. Drive to Blockbuster. If you don't have a membership, get one. Rent Capturing the Friedmans, which is probably one of the best documentary films I've ever seen, and possibly the best movie I've seen this year.
Arnold Friedman is a well liked and award-winning teacher in his little Long Island community of Great Neck. He has what appears to be a very happy family with his life Elaine: 3 boys, David, Seth, and Jesse. Both Arnold and David seem to love breaking out with the home video camera, so years and years of the family have been recorded, and are often brought back into the film.
In 1988, when the boys are all adults (the youngest, Jesse, being 18), the Postal Service discovers a child pornography magazine addressed to Arnold Friedman, and when the police search the house, they find it all over the place. Soon after, they learn that Mr. Friedman has been conducting computer classes in the afternoons in his own home, with all of the communities young boys, aged 6-10 or so....
When the police begin to question the computer class boys, they find evidence that Mr. Friedman and his youngest son, Jesse, had been sexually abusing the boys on a regular bases during the class.
The director, Andrew Jarecki, does a wonderful job of completely convincing us of the Friedmans' guilt, but then turning the tables on us, bringing us back and forth to the point where all we know is that we're dealing with a really messed up family. One of the sons, David, actually videotaped the family at home while the trial was pending, and we begin to learn how the Friedman boys gradually turn against their mother, believing that she wasn't supporting Arnold.
Once the director, Jarecki, has us in a state of confusion and uncertainty, he slowly begins to reveal a darker side to Arnold Friedman, a side that certainly makes the audience shiver.
This movie, while not very light topically, is definitely something everyone should see. You come out of it more aware as to what lies beneath what initially appears to be happy, smiling surburbia. Please, go rent it. Rent it over any other movie I've recommended this summer.
