Dick Johnson Is Dead

It's rare that a movie with so much good stuff in it is also quite frustrating.

At the risk of going on too long: the main problem for me was the tone. The darkly comedic fantasy sequences never quite meshed with the far more effective (and more frequent) parts of the film that nakedly deal with the inevitability of death, and the immense struggles of aging. There was one fantasy sequence which was surprising moving in a really surreal way, until it clunkily featured an intentionally jarring gag, and I was pulled right out of feeling something profound.

I just... wasn't on this movie's level- I could tell I really liked it, and almost felt like I could love it, but it never sat 100% right with me. The whole premise of killing him in make believe ways never seemed to gel with the genuine emotions of the more down to earth stuff, and it left me a bit confused. There was surely an intent and a purpose, but it's one I can't grasp.

I know there's something here I'm missing, and the stuff I got I know I really liked, so I can still say it's a good movie for sure. But it's almost like I'm missing a part of my brain that would enable me to fully "get" this movie, y'know? Almost as confusing for me as I'm Thinking of Ending Things was 😅