This is one of the best documentaries I've seen in the past year. It was filmed by a 37 year old woman, Oren Siedler, the only child of the union between her father, a very, very bright but detached guy who is, among other things, a scam artist, and her mother, an artist with no scams whatsoever, who was living in Australia and teaching art to Aborigines at the time this film was made. Ms. Siedler alternates narrating the film with spontaneous interviews with her father, her 97-year-old paternal grandmother, and her mother, among others, to try to discover what has made Bruce the man that he is, and also in an attempt to understand him. Her mother says that he's anti-social, and the implication of antisocial personality disorder hangs heavily in the air, but it's not quite so simple as that. Bruce, who is approximately 62 years old, IS very detached from most people around him, and yet he's a study in contrasts. His mother and daughter recall a time when he stole a number of VW Beetles from used car lots, only to give them away to people who needed a car. Also, at 62, he spends a fair amount of time caring for his 97 year old mother, and there's a touching scene that shows him tenderly and carefully clipping her toenails. Bruce might today be diagnosed with Asperger's, as well as some anti-social tendencies, but part of what makes this a great documentary is that there are no simple answers, and you can feel Ms. Siedler's love for her father (and his for her), throughout this film.
I highly recommend it.
I highly recommend it.
