Jonathan Caouette Movies
Texas native Jonathan Caouette first left his mark on the world of cinema as the director of the impressionistic documentary Tarnation -- a kaleidoscopic meditation on what it was like to be raised by a schizophrenic mother. Caouette was prompted to sort through old Super-8 home movies, photographs, audio recordings, and other various pop-culture snippets after his mother overdosed on lithium, and the resulting film was an absorbing, polarizing account of abuse, neglect, and mental illness. In addition to receiving nominations at the Gotham and Independent Spirit Awards, Caouette's maverick documentary also found him bestowed with an Emerging Documentary Filmmaker award by the International Documentary Association. While subsequent appearances in Hedwig and the Angry Inch creator John Cameron Mitchell's 2006 drama Shortbus and emerging producer/director Matthew Mishory's Portland may have given some the impression that Caouette had drifted away from documentary filmmaking, the announcement that the Tarnation director would once again be taking the helm -- this time for the music-themed documentary All Tomorrow's Parties -- found fans of his colorful nonfiction debut waiting with bated breath to see how he would approach his sophomore effort behind the camera. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 2012
- NR
Tarnation director Jonathan Caouette takes his mentally-ill mother Renee on a cross-country journey to her new home, and reflects on their unusual mother/son relationship while contending with a series of unexpected obstacles. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 2009
Compiled from footage shot by over 200 filmmakers, fans, and musicians who attended the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in recent years, this documentary offers a patchwork glimpse at the cult music festival. Footage from Super8 cameras, handheld video cameras, and cell phones combine to create a bricolage, DIY look at the history of the festival that has hosted such acts as Shellac, Portishead, and Glass Candy. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Two misfits struggle to make their way through the living hell that is high school in this independent comedy drama. Rodney (Ash Christian) lives in a small Texas town where most folks don't have much use for musical theater or much understanding of the gay lifestyle. Since the barely closeted Rodney wants little else besides a boyfriend and the leading role in a Broadway show, this doesn't make life easy for him, and he has only one close friend -- Sabrina (Ashley Fink), a smart and funny girl who happens to weigh nearly three hundred pounds. Sabrina encourages Rodney to embrace his inner "fat girl," and he finds someone who understands his dreams when he strikes up a friendship with Mr. Cox (Jonathan Caouette), the school's drama coach, who also does a mean Liza Minnelli impersonation in his spare time. Written and directed by leading man Ash Christian when he was only 20 years old, Fat Girls was screened in competition at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ash Christian, Ashley Fink, (more)
- 2006
John Cameron Mitchell, who created a cult sensation as writer and director of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, blazes a brave new trail with this comedy-drama which combines the stories of a handful of emotionally unsatisfied New Yorkers with some of the most explicit sexual material to ever appear in a mainstream motion picture. Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) is a couples' therapist who has a major relationship problem of her own -- she's never had an orgasm, and her husband Rob (Raphael Barker) doesn't seem capable of giving her one. Sophia's clients include James and Jamie (Paul Dawson and PJ DeBoy), a gay couple who have been together for five years and are beginning to grow tired of one another. As James and Jamie discuss the possibility of bringing another man into the bedroom, Sophia accidentally mentions her problem, and they tell her of an upcoming "Shortbus Party," a sexual free-for-all in which straight, gay, and lesbian couples are all welcome to either talk about sex or take a more active role in the main ballroom. As James and Jamie hook up with Ceth (Jay Brannan) for some mutually satisfying action at the bash, Sophia experiments with Sapphic diversions, and begins to truly find herself when she encounters Severin (Lindsay Beamish), a professional dominatrix. However, while Sophia begins to find what she needs with Severin, she discovers that while Severin is able to casually enter into a sexual relationship, she's never been able to emotionally commit herself to someone else. Shortbus was screened in competition at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sook-Yin Lee, Paul Dawson, (more)
In the making since the director was 11-years-old and completed on a reported budget of about 200 dollars, Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation is an experimental and self-reflective mix of documentary and fiction. Bringing together a collection of home movies, family photos, answering machine messages, reenactments and Caouette's video diary, the film attempts to delve into the filmmaker's experiences growing up queer with a schizophrenic mother and dealing with her 2003 lithium overdose, which rendered her even more mentally unstable than before. After premiering at the 2003 New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Tarnation screened as part of the Frontier program at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jonathan Caouette, Renee LeBlanc, (more)
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