Ellie Friar and the Triumph of Death
This essay contains detailed discussion of murder and CSA.
Nuclear Warhead, Ready to Strike…
The best movie I have seen this year was not really a movie, nor was it exactly good. It was a three and a half hour YouTube video with the almost-embarrassingly clickbaity title of The Craziest Interrogation You’ll Ever See. It’s a documentary about high-school sophomore Ellie Friar, her too-old boyfriend Gavin Macfarlane, and their doofus mutual friend Russell Jones, and how they all worked together to kill her dad. They got caught almost immediately, and their individual interrogations comprise a triptych of hubris, naivete and regret that inspires a disorienting combination of dark hilarity and intense grief in the viewer. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
I sent this video to multiple people, which is something I almost never do no matter how much I enjoy something. I held forth about it in therapy. I tried to explain it to my disinterested/vaguely concerned girlfriend. I was embarrassed for myself even as I was doing these things; I knew I wouldn’t be able to communicate what this story made me feel, but I had to try. And now I’m trying again.
Legacy of Brutality
True crime has a reputation for being sleazy and exploitative in its tendency to…
