This is an intelligent movie about loss in the family and fragile or broken relations, featuring a likeable but misguided conspiracy nut (played by Brad Leland). While the film touches on the phenomenon of JFK-conspiracy theory, it’s not itself a contribution to that dubious genre. It does not purport to solve any questions about who shot the president. The only thing it suggests is a solution to one unsolved mystery: Who was the babushka lady taking pictures from an ideal spot on Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963, and why has her identity remained unknown all these years?
Another major theme: People tend to see what they expect to see, not what is really there in front of them – this starts right at the beginning with the husband (Ben) who misinterprets the hug his wife gives another man, leading to his jealousy and rage, the beating of the other man and him finally pulling a gun on his wife.
On the whole, a thoughtful movie that will reward more than one viewing. On the downside, it is sometimes a little too clever for its own good, since it expects the audience to comprehend everything that the characters themselves have a hard time puzzling out. Plus it comes with no extras, not even subtitles, so for my ears it was unclear if the main character’s ex-husband is called “Van” or “Ben” (which, confusingly, is also her grandpa’s name) or “Brian.”
And as “Native Texan” noted in his Amazon review, “The director made a couple of logic mistakes with the film projector but only my generation would catch it.” Still, being a generous spirit, Native Texan gave the movie five stars. He’s right about one thing – the director (Tony Zavaleta) evidently doesn’t know much about 8mm or the home movies of that era. For instance we hear the sound of the film moving through the projector when we see the film has in fact stopped. Also, at one point Ben takes a selfie, which was not something people ordinarily did with their cameras back in the 50s and early 60s – the resulting pictures were too likely to be out of focus and way off center. So this is anachronistic. While the director and his crew did succeed in making the film stock look old (that technical detail was okay), it was the human behavior that was off.
© Hamilton Beck
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