please watch “Dick Johnson Is Dead”
The last thing I did in early March before the pandemic shut everything down was to fly (I know) to my college town in Missouri for a film festival (I know) where old j-school buddies and I crammed inside local churches and auditoriums (I KNOW) to binge-watch as many documentaries as we could. The weekend trip is something of a time-honored tradition for us; we considered ourselves pros at navigating the packed itineraries and knowing about open secrets like the fact that whatever the Missouri Theatre screens at 7 p.m. on the last night is always going to be the best film of the entire festival (and maybe our lives up to that point, too). Even so, I wasn’t prepared for the shockingly magnificent experience of watching Dick Johnson Is Dead.
Seven mortality-confronting months later, I still can’t describe the absurd emotional freefall I felt witnessing this film with 1,200 other people who I could hear alternately hysterically laughing and sobbing along (god, don’t you miss that). This Rolling Stone review will fill you in beautifully on the basics and director Kirsten Johnson’s genius, but I kind of think the best way to experience this documentary, which is at a very basic level about contemplating the death of an aging parent, is to pull it up on Netflix ASAP; surrender to your darkest neuroses about family, obligation, and loss; and hold on for dear life.
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