Following Sean

This movie should be called following Ralph. The director/narrator does include quite a bit of Sean, but it really becomes a means to discuss himself. I don't think this is a narcissistic move as much as an attempt to make a full length documentary out of some very intriguing and very short footage of a young Sean. The documentary is based around the director's old footage which is somewhat interesting, but it stretches thin when the director tries to pull it out into a full length.

The premise is also intriguing. After seeing the footage of a young Sean I was very interested to find out who he had become as a man. And who he has become defeats expectations, not in such an uplifting way as surprising.

I love a good documentary, especially one that is a character study. But in the modern vein of Michael Moore documentaries, the filmmaker too often becomes the film, or at least the voice that tells you what to think or how to feel about the subject matter. And this documentary makes those mistakes to the point that the subject isn't exactly followed as much as it meanders. If you haven't seen all of the Maysles brothers documentaries, watch those, see how a real documentary is made... and then maybe, consider seeing this.

That old line about "If you remember the 60's you weren't there" doesn't apply to people with cameras.

This is much more than a documentary about a boy born to hippies in the Haight in the 1960's. It's about the four generations that telescope around him, before and after. It's about family.

It's also about the choices that people make, the prices they pay, and the successes that have or don't have. It's also a slice of American life of which we could use a whole lot more. The scene of Ralph's parents' friends (all of them well into old age) sitting around, reminiscing and giggling about being Communists in upstate New York is totally priceless.

And the enduring hope of young people who gleefully plunge into marriage and families is what makes the world go around.

Most of the newspaper reviews for this film were ho-hum, and one was downright negative. Don't believe them, this film's a keeper.

At first I found it a bit predictable,style wise, sixties home movies ,hippies,the Haight, Sean as a little boy talking to the camera ,all cool,your basic documentary type film,I wasn't really that interested in meeting Sean,as an adult, there are so many other things going on. Really , before I knew it, I was well caught up into Sean,his family ,the film makers family and their intense ,admirable lives all around. There are some very poignant scenes that brought tears to my eyes,Sean and his Fathers relationship particularly. Sean is a great guy,kind of hard to read, maybe mixed up maybe not,Mr Arlyck has done an amazing ,deft job of pulling the viewer into this tale.My favorite type of film experience,right here.

This was a good film with some major flaws. I was drawn to the film because of its purported primary subject, depicted on the cover - Sean. I read the back-story, which serves as the premise for the new film, and assumed we'd be delving into the life of this compelling character.

While there were many satisfying tidbits throughout, we aren't introduced to 'modern-day' Sean until we're more than 20 minutes into the movie. This should serve as an indication of the film's primary flaw. Bottom line: For a film entitled, "Following Sean," we're not really given much time with the title character. We're left guessing about his true thoughts about his hippie upbringing, his parents' decision to allow him to experience said hippie culture unabated at such a young age, and many of the details of his adolescent years and early adulthood. We're given only fleeting glimpses of his parents, both in 1969 and 2005.

What the film fails to acknowledge is the basis for its own appeal - we're drawn in by that little child who is obviously in need of adequate parenting. What were his parents thinking? Why would they allow him to be filmed making references to using drugs at four years old? What sort of backlash did the film's release cause for them? Did it contribute to the breakup of their marriage? Do they wish they had done things differently? I never got the sense that the filmmaker got close enough to his subjects to truly answer any of these questions. Instead, we're given updates on Arlyck's life since the original film's release - almost in slideshow form at some points. It felt, at times, like getting a family update letter that had arrived at the wrong address. You take it all in on a curious level, while all the while realizing it wasn't really meant for your eyes.

We're also not given enough of the 15 minute original short. If we had known our subject, his parents, and even the filmmaker a little better, we could have invested in the updates on a deeper level.

That said, the film is nicely shot, and contains a great soundtrack. Its strongest suit is its title character. I only wish we'd gotten to know him a little better.

Back in 1969, Ralph Arlyck made a small film about a neighbor boy named Sean. At the time, the film gained some notoriety and audiences were curious what would one day happen to this boy since he grew up in a Haight-Ashbury home with practically no structure or guidance. At four, he was walking the streets, taking pot and being his own boss.

FOLLOWING SEAN is ostensibly a follow-up film in which Arlyck re-establishes contact with Sean and follows him in his adult years. However, Arlyck never really maintains this clear focus--often diverging into interviews and visits with Sean's extended family as well as Arlyck's. Because of this, the film seems, at times, less of a documentary or attempt to show cause and effect and more a long string of home movies strung together. This isn't all bad, as you do really get to know and care about the characters. However, if your goal is to really make a definitive statement on how these 60s "do as you please" morals affected them in later years, this isn't quite so clear--though there is a pattern, to a degree, of failed relationships--though this, unfortunately, would also mirror recent trends on marriage overall. So you are left wondering just how good or bad this odd childhood was long term--and the film kept me wondering. I did enjoy it--I'm just not sure what it all meant in regard to Sean, but it did have a lot to say about the tenuousness of relationships in general.