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Dick Johnson Is Dead

  • 20202020
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 1h 29m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
6.4K
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Dick Johnson in Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
A lifetime of making documentaries has convinced award-winning filmmaker Kirsten Johnson of the power of the real. But now she’s ready to use every escapist movie-making trick in the book - staging inventive and fantastical ways for her 86-year-old psychiatrist father to die while hoping that cinema might help her bend time, laugh at pain and keep her father alive forever. The darkly funny and wildly imaginative DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD is a love letter from a daughter to a father, creatively blending fact and fiction to create a celebratory exploration of how movies give us the tools to grapple with life’s profundity. DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD was filmed, produced and directed by Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson), produced by Katy Chevigny and Marilyn Ness, co-produced by Maureen A. Ryan and executive produced by Megan Ellison.
Play trailer1:48
2 Videos
18 Photos
  • Documentary
  • Biography
  • Drama

A daughter helps her father prepare for the end of his life.A daughter helps her father prepare for the end of his life.A daughter helps her father prepare for the end of his life.

IMDb RATING
7.4/10
6.4K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Kirsten Johnson
  • Writers
    • Nels Bangerter
    • Kirsten Johnson
  • Stars
    • Michael Hilow
    • Ana Hoffman
    • Dick Johnson
Top credits
  • Director
    • Kirsten Johnson
  • Writers
    • Nels Bangerter
    • Kirsten Johnson
  • Stars
    • Michael Hilow
    • Ana Hoffman
    • Dick Johnson
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 29User reviews
    • 62Critic reviews
    • 89Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 Primetime Emmy
      • 19 wins & 43 nominations total

    Videos2

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 1:48
    Official Trailer
    Dick Johnson Is Dead
    Trailer 1:50
    Dick Johnson Is Dead

    Photos18

    Kirsten Johnson at an event for Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
    Kirsten Johnson at an event for Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
    Dick Johnson in Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
    Dick Johnson in Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
    Dick Johnson in Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
    Dick Johnson in Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
    Dick Johnson in Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
    Kirsten Johnson and Dick Johnson in Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
    Dick Johnson in Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
    Dick Johnson in Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
    Dick Johnson in Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
    Dick Johnson in Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Michael Hilow
    Michael Hilow
    • Consultantas Consultant
    Ana Hoffman
    Ana Hoffman
    • Backup Singeras Backup Singer
    Dick Johnson
    Dick Johnson
    • Selfas Self
    Kirsten Johnson
    Kirsten Johnson
    • Selfas Self
    Chad Knorr
    Chad Knorr
    • Construction workeras Construction worker
    Kevin Loreque
    Kevin Loreque
    • Buster Keatonas Buster Keaton
    Vasthy Mompoint
    Vasthy Mompoint
    • Backup Singeras Backup Singer
    Mary Page Nance
    Mary Page Nance
    • Katie Joas Katie Jo
    Ira Sachs
    Ira Sachs
    • Selfas Self
    Nicole Tio
    Nicole Tio
    • Backup Singeras Backup Singer
    • Director
      • Kirsten Johnson
    • Writers
      • Nels Bangerter
      • Kirsten Johnson
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit
    A daughter helps her father prepare for the end of his life.
    • father
    • death
    • documentary filmmaker
    • making a documentary
    • documentarian
    • 23 more
    • Plot summary
    • Add synopsis
    • Genres
      • Documentary
      • Biography
      • Drama
    • Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
      • Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and macabre images.
    • Parents guide
      • Add content advisory

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      When Kirsten Johnson pitched the idea to her father, she asked him, "Dad, what if we make a movie where we kill you over and over again until you really die? And he laughed".
    • Connections
      Features Nova: Day the Dinosaurs Died (2017)
    • Soundtracks
      Gloria in Excelsis Deo
      Written by Antonio Vivaldi (as Antonio Lucio Vivaldi)

      Arranged by Andrea Montepaone

      Courtesy of Spirit Production Music

    User reviews29

    Review
    Top review
    8/10
    Bittersweet brilliance
    In what I think of as one of the greatest TV series of all time, The Leftovers, the show asks how we cope in the face of death, how the living keep going when there are no answers. In the docu-drama-hagiography-family-portrait Dick Johnson Is Dead, Kirsten Johnson is asking herself those same questions in the knowledge that her 86 year old father, Dick, has Alzheimer's. Having watched her mother's slow decline and disappearance due to the same disease, she knows the terrible fate that is coming, and she decides to record these final years with her dad as he is, as she wants to remember him.

    The answers Dick Johnson is Dead comes up with are a far cry from the grieving tone struck by The Leftovers. If you read the above and thought "Well that's going to be depressing"; you could not be more wrong. It is, of course, tinged with the anticipation of grief, but what shines through clearer than anything is the love Kirsten and Dick have for each other, and his unflappable, can-do spirit. This film is a celebration of the time that they have together, even though it may be ending.

    Laced throughout footage of Dick selling up his house, packing up his office, and moving in with his daughter are strange fantasy sequences in which Kirsten stages her fathers death in a variety of ways. Some are outrageous, some are sad, but we are never asked to believe in them - throughout it is clear they are manufactured, and their purpose is to help Kirsten, and the audience, to imagine what it will be like when Dick finally does succumb to the inevitable. There are also fantasy sequences in which Dick imagines what it might be like when he arrives in heaven, with his wife, Freud, and Bruce Lee all waiting for him.

    It's a bizarre choice that pays off handsomely. Death is always with us but we rarely look straight at it. Kirsten and Dick make a courageous decision acknowledge it, talk about it, visualise it. It suggests, despite our fears, that we can handle the worst life will throw at us. Principally though, this is a picture of a father and a daughter, of their quirky ways, and of the bonds that bind them.

    The Leftovers ultimately suggested we are terribly alone in the universe, and we must fight hard to grab what life and love we can when we have the chance. Dick Johnson is Dead suggests that love is here with us right now, and we have only to open our eyes to see (and maybe make a home movie of) every precious second.
    helpful•8
    1
    • theshanecarr
    • Jan 28, 2021

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 2, 2020 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Dick Johnson Đã Chết
    • Filming locations
      • Seattle, Washington, USA
    • Production company
      • Big Mouth Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 29 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.78 : 1

    Related news

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    Emmy, Sundance Winner Kirsten Johnson on Cinema as a Collective Endeavor
    Apr 16Variety Film + TV
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    Mar 17ScreenDaily

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