CAPTURING THE FREIDMANS Dir: Andrew Jarecki. Starring: Arnold Friedman, Elaine Friedman, Jesse Friedman, David Friedman, Seth Friedman. Holy. Shit. I have never used the phrase “must-see” in my capacity as a reviewer, but Capturing The Friedmans brings me dangerously close. This film is such a cluster-bomb of issues, stories and questions; there are few viewers who won’t be able to take something away with them. I don’t know what has sparked the documentary renaissance we’ve seen in the last two years, but man, if this keeps up, fiction is in for a serious challenge. Capturing The Friedmans has - unbelievably - raised the bar; this dense, emotive film is just bristling with great cinema, it’s invigorating even to talk about it. The Friedmans, in some respects, were an average family living in the town of Great Neck, Long Island in 1988. The father, Arnie, was a teacher. The boys, David, Seth and Jesse were typical eighties kids, though somewhat alienated from their mother, Elaine. Film was a big part of the Friedmans’ lives, indeed, within the family there was almost a compulsion to film. When Arnold and Jesse get charged with - literally - hundreds of counts of child sex abuse, eldest son David is there with the camera rolling. What follows - dovetailed with police interviews, journalists and the family today - is some of the most compelling stuff I’ve ever seen. Despite the many ideas and tangents, what really anchors Capturing The Friedmans is David’s footage. At once banal, frank, and intensely private, these
	videos place us squarely in the heart of a family under an extraordinary amount of pressure, and the dynamics that led up to it. David, never thinking this footage would see the light of day, has held nothing back, and as viewers, we are constantly searching for clues. What led to this depravity? What are these people really like? And over, and over; How could this have happened? The answers, even awash in context are impossible to track. Arnold admitted to being a paedophile but denied the charges. There was never any physical evidence, and some of the testimonies were brought out under (the now incredibly controversial) hypnotherapy. All of these people - family, cops, lawyers - are lying to one degree or another. The case is so crazy it reads like a hypothetical, yet there we are, watching it. Director Andrew Jarecki is at once telling a fascinating story, and deconstructing some very big ideas. Like Memento, Capturing The Friedmans toys with our conception of self-identity; how we build an image of the person we are, using wildly inaccurate memories. More than this, though, the film deconstructs our myths about families and suburban life with a determined finesse. The most surprising thing - for me - about this film, was the way it catapulted me back into my own childhood. It was genuinely shocking in parts, watching the Friedmans and identifying - so closely - to this family, to these family moments, knowing that this is not a normal family. And yet, you know, they love each other, they hate each other, there’s a sense of resentment and solidarity there that anyone - any family - can empathise with. The bewilderment and the resentment when a previously friendly world eviscerates their life is so understandable, and it’s concrete, up there on the screen. At once, we are confronted, and incorporated into this drama, because - sensationalism aside - this is at heart a family drama, and we are all part of a family. All this is overlaid with the ethics of making the film itself, a self-aware touch that’s by no means trivial. Jarecki, with so many emotions and issues, lobs questions at us like a demented game show host. Capturing the Friedmans will leave you breathless and buzzing, mind awhirl. It’s doesn’t get any better than this. A + Patrick Garson. Comments?
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