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Tarnation

Play trailer Poster for Tarnation 2003 1h 27m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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93% Tomatometer 98 Reviews 82% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
Filmmaker Jonathan Caouette examines his family history in this inventive low-budget documentary. Collecting decades' worth of home movies and videotapes, answering machine messages and family snapshots, the film documents both the mental illness of his mother, Renee, and Caouette's own early recognition of his homosexuality. The pair's survival in an atmosphere of pervasive abuse, addiction and abandonment is balanced by Caouette's stable adult relationship with his caring boyfriend.
Tarnation

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Using music and home video footage to great effect, Jonathan Caouette has made a very personal and moving film.

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Critics Reviews

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Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness A twisted pastiche of pain, suffering, and narcissistic indulgence. Rated: B+ May 4, 2005 Full Review Tom Dawson BBC.com There's no doubting the deep love Caouette feels for his troubled mother, nor his achievement in forging such a rawly emotional film from his own traumatic experiences. Rated: 4/5 Apr 19, 2005 Full Review Bill Muller Arizona Republic A soul-baring scrapbook of a film, its audacity surpassed only by its tragedy. Rated: 4/5 Mar 24, 2005 Full Review Sean Nelson The Stranger (Seattle, WA) Tarnation is one of the most powerfully emotional movies I've ever seen. Aug 23, 2017 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com An original, personal, emotionally touching documentary, which represents a new type of indie, based on innovating filmmaking. Rated: B+ May 14, 2011 Full Review Nick Rogers Midwest Film Journal As performance art born of personal pain, "Tarnation" stares teary-eyed into how genetics, culture, environment and susceptibility conspire to trigger mental illness - a documentary more to be experienced than simply viewed. Rated: 4/4 Oct 21, 2010 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member 4.1/5 A joruney through a troubled life has never felt so appropriate for its exposure as a documentary film. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Watching this made me feel like a combination of trusted personal confidante and intrusive stalker, but it is probably one of the best accounts around of living with someone who is traumatised and mentally ill. The story is biographical, and told entirely through photographs and home movies, and is written and narrated by the subject's son. The story is told from his perspective. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Although at times it feels as if Jonathan Caouette is overdoing it all for the camera --- that actually shines an even more intense psychological light on everyone captured in this documentary. It feels exploitive, but that is one of the reasons it all the more devastating. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Because the film is so personal, so fully made with sentiment, Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation comes out as a complex, raw, angry and arresting film about its own director. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member Found myself liking this film the more it progressed. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Bits of unbearable information brought to us by Jonathan Caouette, a man who truly has had a horrific lot in life. It results in a deranged drug user who captures all of his grief through home movies and other forms of media to shock the viewer. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Tarnation

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Cast & Crew

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Jonathan Caouette

Director

Jonathan Caouette

Screenwriter

Jonathan Caouette

Producer

Marie Therese Guirgis

Executive Producer

Vanessa Arteaga

Executive Producer

John Cameron Mitchell

Executive Producer

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Tarnation

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Movie Info

Synopsis Filmmaker Jonathan Caouette examines his family history in this inventive low-budget documentary. Collecting decades' worth of home movies and videotapes, answering machine messages and family snapshots, the film documents both the mental illness of his mother, Renee, and Caouette's own early recognition of his homosexuality. The pair's survival in an atmosphere of pervasive abuse, addiction and abandonment is balanced by Caouette's stable adult relationship with his caring boyfriend.
Director
Jonathan Caouette
Producer
Jonathan Caouette
Screenwriter
Jonathan Caouette
Distributor
Wellspring Media
Production Co
Wellspring Media, Inc.
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 19, 2003, Original
Release Date (DVD)
May 17, 2005
Box Office (Gross USA)
$592.0K
Runtime
1h 27m