Movie Review: Tarnation

It's hard to describe the power of Jonathan Caouette's powerful documentary Tarnation. I was going to finish that sentence with "other than to say that..." but I couldn't come up with anything, so I'll let that first sentence stand all on its own. It's hard to describe the power of this movie.

Tarnation was the end result of a lifetime spent obsessively documenting, archiving, and manipulating the life of its director. Culled from over 20 years worth (hundreds of hours) of old video footage, and made for the sum total budget of $218.32 at home by the director on his computer, the movie works in spite of its obvious limitations (good portions of the movie literally consist of text scrolling across the screen in front of still photographs).

The film details the troubled childhood of Caouette, from coping with an absent father to dealing with his mentally-disturbed mother who goes through a series of bizarre and disturbing electro-shock treatments, rendering her a shell of her former self. Throughout, vintage video footage reveals Caouette to be a highly intelligent, artistic youth left to drift and come to terms with his life in the best way he knows how - in front of a camera.

At times funny, at times deeply disturbing, and at times downright horrifying, Tarnation is a film unique unto itself. A highly moving portrait of a tortured soul and his attempts to come to terms with his birthright and the world around him, the film rises above the sum of its limited parts to create a whole both affecting and powerfully memorable.

Tarnation is available in the Documentary DVD section of the library's collection.