A Necessary Death

A Necessary Death had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. It's hard to know what to think of a feature film that appears to be intentionally passing itself off to audiences as a documentary about the making of a student film on about a person planning to commit suicide. Much of the audience - myself included - was confused and thought that the film was an actual documentary. As a documentary, the project would be incredibly startling and disturbing.

As a feature film, the project is creative, but also a bit of gimmicky and somewhat emotional manipulative, because the audience feels like they are being shown something real which is really a complete work of fiction. If the film opens a wider debate about the ethics of suicide and, in this case, the ethics of the euthanasia, that may be positive, but its more likely to lead to a debate about the ethics of film making. Realistically, the film's approach so off-putting and confusing that it is unlikely to get much theatrical distribution. Also, the last third of the film and especially the ending seems a bit overly melodramatic. It feels like the writer/director made the film in an effort to get himself noticed in film circles by doing something creative and out-of-the-box.

Well, he has done that, but I'm not sure if the effort to confuse the line between fact and fiction is a healthy one or not. The film is entertaining, but also a bit disturbing in a way that doesn't necessarily seem particularly constructive. It is asking questions about the ethics of documentary film making, but it is unclear to this observer if they are questions that are particular important ones to ask or to answer.

Gilbert Toma (G.J. Echternkamp) is a film student looking to make a documentary on a suicidal person. It's an indie with indie budget. So we have to account for that. Even with that in mind, this is still a slow moving film. The only hope is to pretend that this is real. At least that would allow for some tension to seep thru.

But it's obvious that it's not. I've seen enough of these faux-docs. It rambles on in that kind of videotape footages. The people slowly and methodically do their documentary and talk about their documentary. It's not that compelling. The last 30 minutes has some interesting developments. I don't recommend this movie, but if you watch it, you might as well stay until the end.

A short premise is a film crew are making a documentary about suicide, and they are following someone around, documenting the persons final days being alive, showing how this person lives, getting to know the person, the persons family, reasons why, etc. All up until their final act, suicide. The film is made as a 'found footage' film, or made to look as real as possible.

I think there were some 'twists' added into the flow of the story that weren't needed. Ones that made it seem as more of a 'theatrical' story. Some of them were a bit mediocre, and just in my opinion, could have been left out to make the film flow a bit better.

The one thing that really threw my train of thought off, was the ending. I won't spoil the ending they used, and please don't look up detailed info on the film if you are planning on seeing it/buying it. But the ending they used in the final cut of the film, was unnecessary and was again, a bit 'theatrical', which put me off, and my reaction would have been a lot better if they hadn't used it. It took away from the 'real' feeling the film is supposed to give. I say this because, on the DVD, there is an alternate ending. The alternate ending should have been the final ending of the film, not the one they used. The alternate ending made a much better end to the story and film, and made much more sense.

Overall, I do recommend seeing this, just don't read too much on it, some things may get a bit ruined if you do.

From the moment I seen it on Netflix, it's been stuck replaying in my head. It has so much emotion. I will always remember the last scene. It's truly the most amazing film I have ever seen. I've told everyone that has Netflix to take the time to watch it. Even now I have watched it over a year ago and I am up at 4AM thinking about it. It compelled me to write this review. Seriously, watch it. You will not forget it. It will take you through so many twists and turns. You think you will know what'll happen, then it'll shock you to your very core. It's like listening to a song that gives you chills. Trust me, it is time well spent.

Saw this movie in Calagary and it just made me mad that you can have all the talent in the world but if you have no money it's almost impossible to get your work seen. Take "A Necessary Death" for example. These guys have worked on this movie for three years (probably for very little or no money) and have created something that they can confidently show to anyone, while other movies are made for millions and are an embarrassment! I believe they are showing it at AFI next month so I am hoping something happens for them as I will definitely be taking my friends to see it if it ever gets released. These are the type of movies that inspire young film makers to try harder because it proves that if you have what it takes you can create wonderful work with very little resources. And to think I wasn't even meant to see this movie during the festival. I just liked the name!!!