A Gray State

All I got from this and not ever knowing or hearing anything about this guy is that he was a narcissistic control freak. He didn't sit well with me from the beginning and as I said, I knew nothing of him. Maybe this is a great documentary if you understand or know who he is but it's not what I was expecting. Watching a self absorbed douche bag doesn't inspire interest for a newcomer. I feel bad for his wife and daughter and can only imagine how he was at home without a camera on him. Hmmm.... weird!

The very unfortunate story of the murder-suicide of the Crowley family. The documentary includes relevant interviews and archival footage. A thoughtful timeline of events is presented and the interviews have good flow. Most of the content is about the making of Davids movie and gave the documentary a home movie vibe rather than a true crime vibe. Overall a decent documentary.

I really thought I was going to watch something that made me think 'WOW! That's deep! The government did kill them!' I really thought I was going to be WOW'D by this documentary like 9/11 conspiracy, or the Marilyn Monroe murder conspiracy, but after watching this documentary it was clear to me (no questions asked) David killed his wife and kid and then took his own life. He liked to control and seemed very narcissistic which lead me to think wanted to the publicity and make us all think the murders (after his death) was a conspiracy (which it wasn't.)

While I do think this was a great documentary with an interesting enough story to tell, it was slightly repetitive in spots. About a new director with budding potential named David Crowley who is mysteriously murdered while creating an admittedly provocative film about a police state with an oppressive government. The story, while repetitive at times, does a great job telling the story to the viewer, providing an easily understood story of David's personal life, his life as a promising new director, and his families unfortunate end. But as I said before, the only slight drawback is that it often repeats itself when telling the story. And we will discuss it.

The film jumps around between David's personal life, his work on the film, and his murder. The issue is SOMETIMES, the story repeats itself when starting a new section. I found myself thinking that the film already explained that he was a potentially great film maker, feeling that the film repeats its to remind you of things that didn't happen too long ago for me to forget and need to be reminded. I would have also liked to hear more about his murder, which I found to be an interesting plot line that wasn't fleshed out as much as I would of hoped. But I must emphasize that these are only minor issues.

Over all I would recommend the film to anyone, though some may find it to be too conspiracy theory laden, but as an avid documentary viewer, I enjoyed it.

There's no conspiracy, it's more of a mental health issue with this guy and his wife.