All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Good news: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is about to premiere on HBOMax.

Bad news: It premieres on the 19th, one week after the Oscars. That doesn't sit well for anyone hoping to keep up with the contenders.

Good news: It's available to rent now.

Bad news: It's not free.

Good news: I went ahead and rented it. At long last, the review:

Laura Poitras's latest documentary chronicles photographer Nan Goldin. Goldin narrates her life story, starting with her close relationship with her sister, Barbara, and her suicide (the title coming from a line in Barbara's psychology report). She tells us how she fell in with "transgressive" subcultures and how she honed her craft photographing them. We see much of her work, including the components of her famed slideshow, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, throughout the film.

Her works were displayed at museums sponsored by the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue Pharma, perhaps the biggest contributor to the Opioid crisis. She realized this after her near fatal overdose on Oxycontin. The film chronicles her founding of P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) and their protests of Big Art's collaboration with Big Pharma. Their work helped bankrupt Purdue.

Anyone unfamiliar with Goldin's work will get a great introduction. Her photography will impress the unfamiliar with its sublime intimacy. Whether it's an AIDs patient in their last days, or herself after her then-boyfriend's abuse, Goldin's work lets us know the subjects as people. For a more specific example, there's one of her muses, Cookie Mueller, a favorite of John Waters, who we see at her wedding and funeral. Those photos help emphasize how painful her death, as well as many others, whether to AIDs or Opioids, were tragic losses.

Her own story is captivating. Her life in suburbia, her relationship with Barbara, Barbara's "mental issues" and her suicide are all powerful stories. Her early years with the LGBTQ community and the New York underground are as intimate as her work. Her friends dying was compounded by government apathy. Worse than apathy, further lies, as exemplified by a tacky Purdue commercial we see. All that, and her overdose, made her fight with the Sackler's personal. We hear a devastating 911 call made by the parents of an opioid victim during a deposition near the end. She knows that could've been her. While Sackler's losses seem minimal, we still join Nan's triumph as museums reject Sackler grants and their name. 

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed's compelling story of an artist and activist easily earned it a place in this year's Oscar lineup. There's less than a week left, but I think I'm done with this year's Oscar slate. I have one more film, one of the International Feature contenders, before I sit back and wait for the results. Any of the four documentaries I've seen this year could take the prize in the end. This film is particularly involving. See it soon only if you want to stay ahead of the Oscar crowd. 

Tick tock, tick tock.