Andrew Jarecki has recently come onto everyone’s radar because of his fascinating 6 part documentary series on HBO, The Jinx, which followed the eccentric Robert Durst in Serial type examination of Durst and his alleged crimes that ultimately ended in…well, if you don’t know just go watch it or read the front page of almost any news site.  I’d known about his Oscar nominated documentary, Capturing The Friendmans, for awhile but just had never been able to see it.  It really is a compelling piece of filmmaking and one that I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to shake.

Jarecki initially shows home videos of an almost heavenly family living in New York.  A mother and a father who love their three sons and love to ham it up for the camera.  All of this is shattered as the father is accused of horrendous crimes and later we find that the family may be involved more deeply than before.  The thing that is so intoxicating about this story is the way that it’s told so much through actual footage shot by the family before, during and after the events are played out.  Interviews are held and facts are laid out but it’s when the family is actually behind the camera that it’s almost impossible to look away.  As tension rises and counts against the family mount we see them literally turn on each other in what is described by one family member as a “nightmare“.  You can’t help but start to think how you or your family would react in the same situations.  If someone you loved and knew all of your life was accused of something unthinkable.

As the film wraps I couldn’t help but feel somewhat unsatisfied with the absence of a concrete resolution but in the end this is real life and we hardly ever get such a tidy resolution.  One thing sticks with me though and that is Andrew Jarecki.  The guy knows how to put a story together and in an utterly fascinating fashion.

Recommend? Completely but be prepared to affected by the subject matter.