Our take
Dick Johnson Is Dead is a heartfelt and unconventional portrait of how one can live life to the fullest even in their darkest days. Kristen Johnson’s follow-up to the highly acclaimed documentary Cameraperson, Johnson shows that her skills are no fluke as she crafts a witty film where she masterfully balances surreal tonal shifts to create a compelling experience. While it does have a repetitive nature, the final thirty minutes are heartbreakingly comedic, and make this one worth a watch!
Streaming arrival
What it won
Spirit Awards
1 nom
Sundance
1 win
Nat. Board of Review
1 win · 1 nom
The story
With this inventive portrait, director Kirsten Johnson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.
Elsewhere
"A deeply moving vision of life in the face of bodily death and the threatened loss of selfhood, as well as a loving unpacking of the lifetimes of memories from which families are made."
— Richard Brody
The details
Who picked it
Diego Andaluz is a freelance film critic, journalist, and podcaster based in New York, serving as Awards Editor at DiscussingFilm and Editor-in-Chief of The Global Film Show. His commentary has been featured in AwardsWatch, The Film Stage, Deadline, IndieWire, People, and Mashable.
"It's in the film's non-dioramic elements, the observational and candid moments, that life is most urgently asserted. Yes, time is short."
— Eric Hynes