{"id":15027,"date":"2020-10-01T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=15027"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:17:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:17:46","slug":"review-dick-johnson-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/review-dick-johnson-is-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Dick Johnson Is Dead<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As an adult, loving your parents holds a certain amount of tension, one that only grows with age \u2013 yours and theirs. You start to think about time a little differently, taking less of it for granted. You start to imagine what life might look like after they\u2019re gone, how that loss might feel. It\u2019s a feeling we tend to avoid engaging with, for obvious reasons, until suddenly that impending loss is so real you can\u2019t avoid it any longer, and it becomes the only thing you can think about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirsten Johnson\u2019s Dick Johnson is Dead<\/em> <\/strong>is a documentary memoir about going through this process with her father Dick, as he experiences decline from Alzheimer\u2019s Disease. It\u2019s a creative, funny and deeply moving portrait of loss-in-process, one that celebrates Dick\u2019s life and impact on his friends and family, and lives with the feeling of loss that decline has already begun, all while the subject himself is still alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Johnson, whose previous work was the masterpiece Cameraperson<\/em>, collaborates with the lively, mischievous Dick on an art project to take the anticipated sting out of his memory loss and eventual passing. Johnson films a series of short scenes depicting Dick\u2019s accidental death: her dad is crushed by a falling air conditioner, dies in a car wreck, falls down a set of stairs, breaks his neck, and gets whacked by a board full of nails. Johnson contrasts these hilariously brutal scenes with her joyful approximation of the afterlife, where Dick is reunited with Johnson\u2019s mother, who also died of Alzheimer\u2019s, eats lots of chocolate cake, and has his club feet miraculously healed by Jesus as cardboard cutouts of dead celebrities look on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between these moments, we follow Johnson and her dad in reality as they deal with the end of his life. We see Dick retire from his psychiatry practice, moving from Seattle to Johnson\u2019s apartment in New York. Johnson incorporates these transitions with as much creativity as the fake death scenes. Dick\u2019s arrival in New York is heralded by an airplane banner. A recollection of a difficult incident around Halloween is filmed on a creepy set meant to mimic Dick\u2019s mental state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are a couple of emotional elements at play here. One is mourning for Dick\u2019s decline. The other, constantly at war with the first, is a bittersweet sense of how much good we desire for those we love. It\u2019s easy to see why Johnson loves her dad so much; he\u2019s warm and funny, and the two of them share a natural curiosity about the world. As the film continues, we see Dick\u2019s bright-eyed interest start to dull into fatigue and confusion, which is heartbreaking. Johnson\u2019s determination to make the most out of her time with her father is clearly appreciated, but also limited. They both know they can\u2019t escape what\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Dick Johnson is Dead<\/em> argues that the form our devotion takes doesn\u2019t matter as much as our presence. It\u2019s telling that as impressive as the movie\u2019s grand moments are, they don\u2019t feel any more or less important than smaller ones like spending time with grandkids or visiting friends. The common factor is intentionality. The film is an accurate emotional record of preparing for profound loss, but it\u2019s also a reminder to cherish the close relationships we have, and to tell the people we love how much they mean to us, while we still can. \"\"\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kirsten Johnson\u2019s documentary memoir is a creative, funny and deeply moving portrait of loss-in-process. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":15030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[1098,162,1436],"class_list":["post-15027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-movie-review","tag-movies","tag-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/577"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22708,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15027\/revisions\/22708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}