Death & Taxes

The estate tax-or the "death tax," depending your politics-may seem like a dry subject for a compelling film, but Death and Taxes is a riveting story about a father and son and that ever-present force: money. I have never seen a film that examines economic privilege with such intimacy and nuance. Wealth creates opportunities, but it is never without, yes, cost-financial, emotional, and existential. Death and Taxes explores that cost with remarkable depth, following one family as they navigate what it means to exist in a world shaped by wealth, inheritance, and obligation. Beautifully crafted. Moving. Even funny. Worth watching.

Justin Schein succeeds in moving the abstraction of the greed of the wealthy class into an opportunity to explore family and humanity combined with a sliver of hope that its perpetuation in subsequent generations is not inevitable. It may take a little extra effort, but when viewers look at more of Justin Schein's body of work one is afforded the opportunity to appreciate how the younger Schein has been able to help raise a healthy family with his wife Eden Wurmfeld and deliver cinematic messages that are compassionate, insightful and well researched. Without drawing excessive focus away from the primary subject, Justin Schein's perspective provides personal humanity to the theme.