Ok, so I haven’t been updating. Sue me. I’ve been resting and catching up on movies from the past year that I missed so forgive me if I haven’t just been sitting breathlessly at the internet waiting to type. Quality versus quantity is my motto, and with that in mind I want to tantalize you about a new film that sounds totally amazing. TV Junkie is a gripping and painfully honest documentary about Rick Kirkham, the former “Inside Edition” reporter who meticulously collected thousands of hours of video footage from his own life starting at the tender age of 14. The camera never flinches as Kirkham allows his camera to delve openly into his addiction to cocaine and crack, the insuffulation of and smoking of he also captured on video tape. Grib over at Aint It Cool News reported this tidbit today:
In addition to its raw emotional power, this film is a marvel of editing. Kirkham’s tapes were largely unlabeled and not chronological; the filmmakers never knew what they would see when they started watching a tape. Some of the most chilling footage comes when Kirkham addresses the camera alone, telling himself that he knows that crack is controlling him but knows he can’t stop using it. In one scene, he leaves his son’s first birthday party to go score some drugs; in another he admits to his wife that he is rolling loose change to pay off drug debts. One of the film’s biggest surprises comes at the beginning, when the filmmakers tell us via onscreen titles that Kirkham never looked at a second of his own footage. When one tape was done, he just popped in a new one and plowed ahead.
This documentary ultimately sounds both fascinating and disturbing. Here’s to seeing it some time in 2006.
