I was never that keen on Nick Broomfield. His quest to find conspiracies and evil takes him on a trip around Americas underbelly - poor man's Oliver Stone, one might add. Sometimes looking for subject where there aren't any, often making the oeuvre seemed forced, he is difficult to take seriously. In Biggie & Tupac, for example, the film-maker is clearly terrified of a massive, imprisoned Suge Knight, which is quite amusing, but not particularly useful. The entire film actually reminded me of the Louis Theroux Weird Weekend episode Gangsta Rap, only the latter did it for laughs (I hope!).

However, watching Aileen - Life & Death of a Serial Killer, what really did it for me was the line: 'At nine she was exchanging blow-jobs for cigarettes.' Banal into the extreme, I still got completely drawn into this story and the sympathetic treatment; not questioning if she did it or not (she did), but questioning whether or not she should die (she shouldn't), if, at the end, she was mad (she was) and which kind of society allows a girl to grow up the way she did (not questions answered). Broomfield is completely engaged with his subject, in an honest way, and I think this is why this film works much better than others.

Go find out about Aileen - it is a sorry story, but a fascinating one - and hope that it doesn't repeat itself (but I'm sure it does).
posted by charlotte at 19:21 - comment