By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Chris James Thompson
Country: united_states
Year: 2013
Running time: 76
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1779076/combined
Chris says: “As a teenaged Milwaukee native/resident, the Jeffrey Dahmer case obviously hit close to home for me, as it would for anyone to have something so high profile and extremely grotesque occur in your backyard. This documentary is both a history and a covert examination on what effect Dahmer had on the city via its residents nearly twenty years later; it really shouldn’t work as it only profiles three people and supplements them with scenes of Dahmer played by an actor. Fortunately, the interviewees are all excellent and each provide a distinct perspective: (former) Milwaukee County Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen, Dahmer’s neighbor Pamela Bass, and homicide detective Pat Kennedy. In particular, Kennedy (the man to whom Dahmer confessed) is an entertaining, insightful figure, one that possibly could’ve carried the entire film, Errol Morris style. As for the fictional Dahmer scenes, they’re not altogether unnecessary. Whether they show Jeff buying tropical fish at a pet store or a dozen bottles of hydrofluoric acid at a supermarket or taking a doomed trick to a hotel, they wisely stay on the right side of good taste while giving us a visual aid to ponder just who this seemingly unassuming psycho killer was. Andrew Swant also plays Dahmer with the right balance of humane and creepy. A curious film, for sure, but one that has stayed with me. 4 cats”