This is a harrowing and haunting documentary chronicling, in a deeply personal and humble way, a summer in the director's life that changed him irrevocably. Confronting head-on difficult questions around his brother's murder, his own, pre-consent, pre-adolescent sexual awakening, and his dedication to his Mormon faith despite his burgeoning homosexuality, Meadowlark is a delicate exploration into the difficult tracts in director's life and how they shaped his identity and his family's for years to come. This, all placed on a backdrop of the Oklahoma and Montana countryside. Establishing shots are reminiscent of "Paris, TX." It moves at the pace of quiet contemplation, which is refreshing and kind, considering the dark subject matter. Very much recommended as a independent documentary.
2 Reviews
Interesting parts, but also boring
rgcustomer26 June 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This is an interesting documentary that I saw during Snagfilms free LGBT-month online film festival, but it should have been more.
It combines Mormonism, coming out as gay, the director fondly recalling sex he had with a man as a youth, and the unexplained murder of the director's teenage brother by a different man who may (or may not) have attempted to get sex from him by promising drugs.
How could any part of this be boring? But it is. I won't re-bore myself with examples but just one is that we're given a tour of a correctional facility. What could have been accomplished in a few still shots in less than a minute instead takes several minutes.
On the screen there is often a photo of family members, but because the family is complex compared to mine, I had no idea who many, or indeed any, of these people were. They should have been labelled.
The key question that I'm left with is what is the contrast between these two men, one who seems insistently guilty and fearful about his sex with a youth who now regards it positively, and this prisoner (perhaps a sex killer) who seems to have almost no guilt at all. He does pretend, but his explanations are not credible. Despite having a year to prepare the interview, the question didn't ever seem put to this man "Did you have sex with him?" and "Did you kill him to cover it up?" It's the differences between these men, the impacts they had, and how they now view them, that didn't seem to get thoroughly looked at.
At the end, I'm not sure what we learned.
It combines Mormonism, coming out as gay, the director fondly recalling sex he had with a man as a youth, and the unexplained murder of the director's teenage brother by a different man who may (or may not) have attempted to get sex from him by promising drugs.
How could any part of this be boring? But it is. I won't re-bore myself with examples but just one is that we're given a tour of a correctional facility. What could have been accomplished in a few still shots in less than a minute instead takes several minutes.
On the screen there is often a photo of family members, but because the family is complex compared to mine, I had no idea who many, or indeed any, of these people were. They should have been labelled.
The key question that I'm left with is what is the contrast between these two men, one who seems insistently guilty and fearful about his sex with a youth who now regards it positively, and this prisoner (perhaps a sex killer) who seems to have almost no guilt at all. He does pretend, but his explanations are not credible. Despite having a year to prepare the interview, the question didn't ever seem put to this man "Did you have sex with him?" and "Did you kill him to cover it up?" It's the differences between these men, the impacts they had, and how they now view them, that didn't seem to get thoroughly looked at.
At the end, I'm not sure what we learned.
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