The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Tribeca Film Festival 2016

Obit

Tribeca Film Festival 2016: Obit | Review
25 April 2016
William Garre
Avatar
William Garre
25 April 2016

Movie and show review

William Garre

Obit

★★★★★

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

Special event

With a harrowing journey into the lowermost rings of the New York Times’s obituaries department, Obit uncovers the unique day-to-day of the brave writers who are tasked with summing up, respectfully and accurately, the lives of the recently deceased. Death, the great haunter, hovers at the foot of this film, but is examined in a way that is surprisingly inspirational, uplifting and often hilarious.   

Director Vanessa Gould has crafted the perfect documentary with morbid wit and fearless curiosity. What is it like to be a journalist who not only questions grieving interviewees, but must offer condolences to them when the discussion is over? How does it feel to share a cubicle with a coworker who proudly displays a bumper sticker that says, “Please Die”? Gould answers these questions and unearths a fascinating, brilliant collection of biographers who are tragically misunderstood.   

Through the use of archival footage and photographs, Obit highlights some of the more impactful, stand-out lives that have made the death pages, but Gould’s biggest victory is in capturing what the obituary writer must overcome in order to condense those lives into an 800-word story. The documentary morphs into a chilling suspense thriller as obituary writer Bruce Weber battles with a blank page under a tight deadline, with an ill-fated four o’clock meeting looming overhead. This type of conflict is unique to the writer, and rarely caught on film in such gory detail.  

Gould cuts the tension masterfully with intermittent glances of the New York Times “morgue,” an underground haystack for historians and journalists seeking the needle of serendipity – an overwhelming, messy block fort of rusty metal file cabinets and faded manila. At least it seems that way to the uninitiated. Jeff Roth, who has managed the morgue’s millions of undigitised photographs and clippings for decades, sees it differently: “When you come in here, it looks pretty chaotic, but, no.” The film is worth watching for Roth’s comic timing, alone.

Obit takes a profession that is “a little off-putting in a party situation”, studies its anatomy and reveals a very animated, very talented team of professionals, artfully dispelling the myth that the obituaries department is where writers go to die.

★★★★★

Will Garré

Obit does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more of our reviews and interviews from the festival here.

For further information about Tribeca Film Festival 2016 visit here.

Watch the trailer for Obit here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

 

Related Itemsreview

More in Film festivals

Valentina

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Kiss Me Before It Blows Up

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Tove

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Well Rounded

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Dramarama

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Rūrangi

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Rebel Dykes

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Firebird

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces: An interview with filmmaker Shengze Zhu

Selina Sondermann
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

William Garre

Obit

★★★★★

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

Special event

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Snabba Cash
    ★★★★★
    netflix
  • Shake Shack launches limited edition Vegan Crispy Shallot Burger in partnership with chef Neil Rankin
    Food & Drinks
  • This Is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist
    ★★★★★
    netflix
  • Celebrate the EE BAFTAs this Sunday with Claude Bosi’s free virtual dining experience
    Food & Drinks
  • Barker-Turner Overdrive: An Evening of Duets at the Tunbridge Wells Forum Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Disenchanted Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Sensation
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Thick’n’Fast: General Secretary Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Beast Beast
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Oak Room
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Playfight at Finborough Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Power
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Godzilla vs Kong: A colossal brawl that magnificently delivers what we tuned in to see
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Wellington Paranormal
    ★★★★★
    vod
  • Worn Stories
    ★★★★★
    netflix
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Tribeca Film Festival 2016: Poor Boy | Review
Tribeca Film Festival 2016: Youth in Oregon | Review