Very few people will die from a gunshot, while everyone lucky enough to live into old age experiences the slow, painful deterioration of their body. Movies are full of images of the former but have almost never shown us the latter. When narrative films have tackled the toll of dementia, they tend to exude a misanthropic pessimism (Michael Haneke’s “Amour,” Gaspar Noe’s “Vortex”) or use it as a gotcha plot device (Florian Zeller’s “The Father”). Last year, several documentaries set in hospitals launched a more intimate examination of the physical and mental costs of aging. “Much Ado About Dying” takes a different tack to much the same subject: Gay director Simon Chambers constructed it from footage shot during the five-year period when he was his uncle David’s caretaker.[…]
Click here to read to the full piece. This story was originally published by Gay City News on March 12, 2024.
