Dear Zachary

Saw Dear Zachary. It was very heart-wrenching. Like, really heart-wrenching. The movie relies a lot on collages of footage which is sometimes perfect (when Andrew's friends are remembering him and all repeating the same kind words) and sometimes kind of tasteless (when the autopsy reports are being reviewed.) This is an annoying thing a lot of sad documentaries do. They decide something's not sad enough and try to goose the sorrow by tarting it up with fast cuts and music. This shows a lack of faith in the viewer and makes me wonder just how commercial the film-maker wants his friend's death to be. I assume he meant well, he just isn't a pro and this is a personal project. My god it's hard to watch though, and sometimes really does capture that feeling of floor-falling-away-from-beneath-you, shocking misfortune.