DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD

Directing: B+
Acting: B
Writing: A-
Cinematography: A-
Editing: B+

Film has evolved to such a massive degree over the course of the past century, it’s not so much that it’s difficult to come up with a truly new idea, as it is easy to drown out the new ideas with a continuing avalanche of tired cliches. Dick Johnson Is Dead is that needle in a haystack, not just among the infinite number of options competing for your eyes, but within the 13,000+ titles on Netflix itself.

Speaking of which, I had made the rule for the rest of 2020 that I would review films that had once been slated for theatrical release, and/or were eligible for an Academy Award. I’m having the damnedest time figuring out whether this film technically qualifies, which leads me to believe it was perhaps always destined for a streaming service. Well, whatever. It did play at the Sundance Film Festival in January, as well as the “True/False Film Festival” in Columbia, Missouri in March. So the film did play to audiences in movie theaters at least a few times this year. Works for me! 2020 is all about technicalities.

Then again, who needs technicalities when a film is this worthy of attention? You can flip right over to Netflix right now and watch this film, and I recommend you do. Even though I personally have ambivalent feelings about it, and perhaps you will too.

Certain things might be triggering for you here. If you recently lost a parent. If you have any experience with a loved one dealing with any form of dementia.

Dick Johnson is one special such person. He is still alive now, even though his daughter, director and co-writer Kirsten Johnson, stages his death multiple times in the film, as a sort of means of coming to terms with his inevitable passing. Something that goes unstated but is easily considered when contemplating the film in retrospect: in all likelihood, Dick Johnson’s dementia is noticeably further progressed now, than it was as shown in the film. And it is indeed a fascinating aspect of the production that, not only does Dick Johnson happily participate in these death-scene recreations himself, but he is both in the early stages of dementia, and fully aware that he has it.

So what are the moral implications there, then? It’s a thorny thing to think about, even as it’s so evident onscreen how much Kirsten loves her father, and even more plainly, how much Dick loves his daughter. He is doing this for her, without complaint, because he loves her. Because he wants her to be happy, and to be successful and artistically fulfilled.

Once scene featured a line I had to write down. Dick is asking Kirsten why she went into documentary filmmaking, when narrative filmmaking is so much more lucrative. Kirsten Johnson replies, “Real life is often much more fascinating than what you can make up.” How ironic, then, that so much of Dick Johnson Is Dead presents fantasy scenarios—and they range from comical to deeply moving.

She goes through several stagings of simple accidents. Eventually a full funeral is staged, with the participation of his best friend, several other friends and family members, while Dick watches hidden away in the back, even though everyone there is fully aware he is actually still alive. It’s still an authentically emotional experience for everyone present, and deeply moving for the viewer.

There’s a somewhat surprising local connection for viewers local to Seattle. Even though Dick eventually moves into Kirsten’s New York City apartment (which is next door to the home of her kids’ two dads), the story actually begins in Seattle, where Dick has spent about thirty years as a practicing psychologist. His office’s suite number was 3415, which places it on the 34th floor of a downtown building. I did a little bit of Google research and finally figured out his practice had been on the top floor of the Westin Building. A brief shot depicts a view out his office window, looking down on a 17th-floor rooftop dog park attached to the Amazon Doppler Building across the street. Imagine how wildly different this neighborhood was when Dick opened the practice in 1987. Does he even remember?

In an early scene, Dick is seen in that office, talking to a hired stunt man who will take part in one of the many staged death scenes, in this case a sequence in which Dick actually hits the guy with his car. In my mind, the jury is still out as to the utility of all these death recreations, but then it’s always good to remind ourselves: everyone processes grief differently, and all ways are correct. Kirsten’s mom, and Dick’s late wife, passed of Alzheimer’s several years prior, and they all know basically what they now face again. Grief in these instances begins long before death actually happens.

Dick Johnson Is Dead also features several fantasy sequences, depicting Dick in heaven, with dancers who have oversize face cutouts of both Dick and his late wife. It’s all quite beautiful, with wonderful music and deeply affecting editing and intermittently slow-motion cinematography. It sounds odd, and it very much is. Also, it works. Somehow. Somehow the whole movie comes together, in a way difficult to put a finger on, but which stays with you in all the right ways.

Dick Johnson isn’t yet in heaven but we can pretend.

Overall: B+