Following Sean

Hmm....this one was a bit complicated because Arlyck didn't just make this film about Sean, but also about his own family and Sean's extended family. It was hard to pinpoint what the focus was and at times seemed like he was just trying to squeeze 30 years' worth of footage into one film. Everything was interesting in its own right, just kind of fuzzy as a whole. I did enjoy it though and thought the narration was great.

My favorite kind of navel-gazing...competently done and with an understated theme. Basically, you have a film about people. People from a variety of classes and backgrounds. Sean is ostensibly the focal point, but the hearkening back to the original film is merely the hook to hang these themes--and to introduce these new people--on. Sean is just one of a dozen interesting characters we see taking stock of their beliefs, and using them to make life choices. A beautifully made video menagerie.

Juxtaposing the thoughts of a 4 year old with his adult self is an absurd concept. The narration is dull, verbose, overly flowery, annoying, and pretentious. The film itself is not as much about Sean as it is about the director and a bunch of other people who don't need to be there. It's distracting. It's almost laughable how arrogant, pointless, disorganized and poorly directed this film is. Watch this if you're a filmmaker or aspiring filmmaker and take notes on how not to make a documentary.

"Aryck lightly but complicatedly distills our existence into a series of dichotomies (rich/poor, idle/mobile), using his available subjects to tap into the source of what stunts us emotionally and separates us as philosophical beings." - Ed Gonzalez

Maybe a bit on the self-indulgent side--but basically likeable (and interesting viewing). Also contains on the DVD the original short about Sean (I found myself wishing that that had been feature length). The funny thing is that Sean's kid Alex (who we meet toward the end) is just like him at 4. At the end the life's-choices problems and generation gaps make everything seem like a maelstrom of mud; not sure if Ralph wanted to give me (or pass along) that headache, but...there it was.