Tarnation

Super-8 auteur Jonathan Caouette, a young gay man with an extremely turbulent life, reveals his troubled childhood through home-movies and stills. The worshipful son of a beautiful ex-child model/single mother/electro-shock recipient, Caouette manages, in surprisingly linear fashion considering the circumstances, to paint a vivid portrait of the ultimate dysfunctional family. His grandparents, who ended up adopting Jonathan after his mother was jailed and he went through the horrors of the foster care system, are revealed as loving yet unconcerned older folks with perhaps a secretive, defensive side; Jonathan's mother Renee, once a striking young woman, is the sad result of "medical expertise" gone shatteringly wrong. The film is alternately assaultive, theatrical (Jonathan revealed a highly acute sense of theatricality and love for outré movies at a very young age), amusing, narcissistic, boring, compelling and, finally, quite moving. There are just as many stretches of questionable sincerity on Caouette's part as there are exhilarating moments--a joyous romp on the beach with mom or a beautiful, revealing childhood lip-synching take on "Frank Mills". The alt-rock soundtrack is superb and Caouette, a handsome, playfully schizophrenic star-in-the-making, is a talent to watch. **1/2 from ****

I know I should, but I don't watch many documentaries. It's a different world inside of film-making, one in which everything is, among other things, real. Another feeling that a documentary generates is immediacy; a sensation of present time even if it's telling something that's older than you. "Tarnation", a life story, is a striking view of a unique personality.

Jonathan Caouette, its director, is now in his thirties; but it's like he had planned it all his life, like if he had known it would be a completed project all along. Here we see a lot of films inside of the big film, that Caouette put together to show who he is, what he does, how he feels and how the people who live around him act.

More than the rest, there is a focus on his mother, Renee LeBlanc, who suffers from schizophrenia and didn't live with him for a long time. She lives with him now and Jonathan lived with his grandparents for a lot of years, and he didn't know his father but he tried to find him; and he also lived with foster parents and he always knew he was gay.

This and more is seen in the images he put together in a program anyone with a Macintosh –Apple- computer can use. I don't want to say much more because "Tarnation", although not great, is really magical and inspiring…Magical because is like nothing you've ever seen before; inspiring because it shows and speaks of the creativity of the filmmaker. It will give to anyone who's thinking about doing cinema ideas about tons of things, unstoppably.

And "Tarnation" is also a film for any true cinema lover, because it contains references to a lot of names and important influential cinematographic figures. But influential for him, who, as he inspires us, shows us who inspired him…One example that comes to mind is the fact that Caouette and a friend made a musical stage version of David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" when they were in high school.

He says it in the film's tag-line: "Your greatest creation is the life you lead", and he is right. So be encouraged, and if you feel that you should make a film out of every day you live, don't worry and write about it; or carry a camera with you through the day. This is the kind of message "Tarnation" wants to leave, cinematically.

Emotionally, it wants to show the truly difficult experiences of a genius who, somehow, had a whole movie in his head and wanted the world to know he's not afraid of showing these experiences with and in it…Life is like that, you can't escape it; write that down.

I guess I fall into the "art school gimmicks" camp regarding this film. I went into it intrigued with the idea of watching a 13 year tale of a mother and son. Such was hardly the case. I have to admit somewhat brutally, that this movie seemed somewhat exploitative. Given how much of the film was about Caouette growing up as a gay male, I fail to see how his mother's condition actually had a hand in it. Honestly she seemed to merely be a device (an unwilling one at that) to extend Caouette's angst well into adulthood where he otherwise seemed pretty settled and happy.

The structure of the movie was: shock the viewer with my mother's condition, now talk about my horrible angst ridden teen years, now bring mother back to keep the emotion going.

I was not at all impressed with the experimental/disjointed editing style. I've been to a fair amount of film festivals and, if anything, that sort of manipulation disappeared with the advent of affordable editing software. In short, they don't even do that in film school anymore.

One more disappointment: quite late in the film, we have an opportunity to hear about Caouette's mom from two people in Caouette's family. In one instance, the opportunity is totally wasted; nothing comes of his on-camera time. In the other (with his grandfather), Caouette's manner of questioning badgering and accusatory; he doesn't let the old man get a decent thought out.

I know that there is someone appropriate to recommend see this film to, I just wouldn't include friends among that list.

I shouldn't actually dismiss it outright, there were some good qualities to the film. It had a striking juxtaposition of visual images and sound; sometimes complimentary and sometimes contrasting. The use of split screen and other special effects did add interest, but the movie was ultimately personal in a bad way. Instead of drawing me more into the story it dwelt on personal issues and images way too long. Indulgent is the word I could use. He has every right to include every second he did, but he lost me along the way and I had the right to go to a film made for an audience. I was not offended by the homosexuality, but maybe if I were Gay I would have been a little more interested, or if I had come from as traumatic a childhood, or if the whole exposition had not relied on writing on the screen, or if...

Well, there are several things I could imagine that MIGHT have made me more interested in what should have been a compelling experimental documentary (the closest thing I can call it. But as it was, I sat there becoming more convinced I should have gone to see The Motorcycle Diaries, for which a trailer had played before this feature disappointing feature.

I am sure it will become a staple of gay film festivals and abnormal psychology classes, so you'll have a chance to see it again.

Tarnation is a neologism made from the words tarnished and damnation; that is also the name of a band. The trailer was disturbing and especially the tagline "this movie has saved my life". There is a lot of teenagers who are writing a diary and that is a bit surprising that this kind of movie has never be done before. I'm sure many people have made some kind of patchwork (photos, drawings, movies etc) but the work of Caouette is different. J Caouette had a plan : he wanted to be a director and this plot makes all the difference. This film is not kinky, is not defending Gay and Lesbian cause, is not a documentary about schizophrenia even if all that stuff are a part of the essence of the movie. I believe (but maybe I an wrong) that J Caouette wants to tell his own story of a boy who are fascinated by cinema. I loved this movie because many things had bounced in my heart during the screening. I am not gay, I don't want to work in the cinema business, my parents are not mentally insane but I understand the feelings of Caouette because all teenager has got pain in his heart : shame, fear, anxiety, neither an adult and a child etc. So I remembered memories of pain, tears and laughs. I remembered my own life. Tarnation is also a movie which leads hope and happiness to come. The cinematography is awesome, the music is good. Supported by Gus Van Sant and David Lynch, this movie is like a new born for the youg actor, director J Caouette. This man has got the rest of his life ahead. I think he will become a great actor/director. Go see this unique movie even if the first part of the movie is a bit violent and disturbing.

Gaël - Paris - France

my IMDb vote : 8/10