SXSW Review: ‘My Suicide’

Jeremy:

David Lee Miller’s ‘My Suicide’ is an edgy, eye-opening look at the modern, American teen. Â  It bombards you with images and contemporary references that combine and come together like playing cards to create a house of cards of a truly emotionally challenging dramedy. Â  Only all the cards in this house are suicide kings who believe the whole of the world looks better through a lens.

Gabriel Sunday plays the mentally mature and media-obsessed Archie Williams who finds himself the center of his school’s attention when he announces he will commit suicide on camera. Â  Some take the announcement as a way of coming down on Archie to act as his savior. Â  Others wish to follow in his footsteps. Â  Wanting to document the harsh realities of his final days, Archie films everything including the relationship he forms with the Sierra, the most beautiful girl in the school.

Hilarious at times, tragic at others, Miller’s film never shies away from the edges of realism. Â  His film casts real teens. Â  His screenplay was put together with the help of Sunday and his own teenage son, Jordan. Â  The only times Miller’s film breaks from any sense of realism is when the real actors (David Carradine, Nora Dunn, Joe Mantegna, and Mariel Hemingway all show up in very small roles) come in. Â  These moments are fleeting, but they do take your emotions out of the moment if even the slightest bit.

That’s not to say they give bad performances nor do they seem like they are noticeably acting. Â  Carradine, in particular, gives a great monologue near the end of the film. Â  Just the mere presence of a known actor moves the film a little more towards the realm of fiction.

Sunday gives an incredible performance, making believers out of all of us that this boy really does either hate his place in the world or he truly doesn’t understand it.

The acting, the production, the editing, even the music all serve to create a film that hits all boundaries, funny and heartbreaking.   There is hardly a more chilling moment in recent memory than the sight of a teenager hanging from a gymnasium basketball rim with a sign that says “You Gotta Believe!” on the wall behind him.   This is brilliant independent filmmaking that should not have to limit itself to the festival circuit.   It’s the only film at SXSW I saw twice at the festival.

Overall Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5