Missing Allen - Wo ist Allen Ross?

Somewhere around the mid-way point, this fascinating film moves off the beaten path into a dark area of America, one criss-crossed with secret roads and sinister people. Allen has been missing for 4.5 years, and a fellow documentary film-maker goes to find him. By the time the search leads to the basement of an Oklahoma monastery, and the discovery of an abandoned once-beloved car, the viewer realizes there will be no happy ending to this story. We find that Allen has been drawn into a sinister and sad world of cult theorists, and more and more creepy elements are brought forth to be revealed. An abandoned cabin in the mountain of Colorado provides further links; the approach and search of the house are terrifying in a way that it shouldn't be...after all, it's only a house, right? But the connections made to the apparent crime force the viewer to see everything through the lens of worst-case scenarios. The only sticking point? Why didn't we get to see any of Allen's unfinished films that he had been working on in Oklahoma?

What starts as a well-done if mundane remembrance of a good friend soon turns captivating as the film dives deep into the disappearance of said friend. The filmmakers soon blur the line as the everything becomes deeply personal. Interviewees choke up and the director walks on camera to comfort them. Finally the director becomes a detective and the main character of this documentary as he won't just let his friend vanish. It works because the emotion behind this film is very real. The quest for the truth drives this film to the very end and holds the viewer.

Along the way we are given a window into American Paranoia and the unspoken specter of mental illness. If you have had someone close to you "suddenly" lose it and change personalities, you'll find this film important. Very effective and very moving.

Moving and disturbing documentary about the mysterious disappearance of Chicago film- maker Allen Ross – a frequent collaborator of Christian Bauer who directed this documentary about his search to find out what happened to his friend.

Sometimes feeling more like a good fictional detective story, the frustrating twists and turns, half-formed clues and occasional roadblocks encountered by those who loved Allen and just wanted some kind of closure are sometimes harrowing, and often sad.

There are times when the film can be hard to follow. Early on, time-lines are laid out oddly to help make the story build more dramatically. Some events are kept hidden from the audience for a time to help make later revelations more potent. It's not a fatal flaw by any means, but it does add a slight sense of manipulation (and occasional confusion) to the telling.

But this is certainly a powerfully personal document, sort of the dark counterpart to 2012's "Looking for Sugar Man", a compulsively fascinating story, well told. It's very sad that the DVD has gone out of print, and the film is basically impossible to get a hold of. It deserved a better fate.