Thursday, December 30, 2004

CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS

Really interesting documentary about a deeply screwed up family that looks normal in its home videos. The big question is: did Arnold Friedman, well-loved teacher, brutally sodomize students of his after-school computer classes. And the answer to my mind is: of course not. It looks like an obvious case of cops eliciting testimony from impressionable kids. But Friedman got sent up the river because of what he was: a pedophile, with yards of the most outrageous child pornography, who clearly dearly wanted to have sex with eight year old boys. And his son got swept up in the prosecution because the family was divided against itself, and had shockingly bad lawyers. (When I can think of five or six things the lawyers should have done, whose omission was cripplingly stupid, that's bad lawyering, 'cause my knowledge of the law is from TV and the newspaper, same as yours.)

It's a great documentary because there's a mystery, and a bunch of facts, and the truth is something you'd never be able to make a narrative fiction movie about, and it puts you into a world that's familiar and yet deeply weird. Definitely worth the rental.

And now I have to stop the baby from smashing up the remotes... boy she loves those remotes.

9:27 AM

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