HotDocs 2011: WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP Review

If I am being a bit facetious (dare-say pretentious) in the above paragraph it is for two reasons.  One it is due to the fact that it is hard to put into words just how mesmerizing the film is, and I'm not sure I am inclined to even try to verbalize just how good this film is.  Second is that the film, as dark as it is at re-creating suicides, murders, petty acts of vandalism, sexual deviance and the like for our viewing pleasure, there is in no small way, a lot of gallows humour and pitch black comedy at play in the execution (so to speak.)  Couple that with the dulcet tones of Sir Ian Holm on voice-over narration (step aside Werner Herzog and Morgan Freeman, make room for Holm) who lulls you to sleep with the nastiest bedtime story ever told.  It is available on DVD and will soon be going in my collection somewhere between Titicut Follies, My Winnipeg and The Bridge.    

Marsh has a new documentary here at HotDocs about a chimpanzee "Nim Chimpsky" (good name there!) who was put through the well intentioned / road to hell ringer in being raised as human to communicate and behave as a human.  Can you say, high expectations for this one.  The word 'unsettling' has been tossed around, and considering this directors filmography up until this point, is not surprising.