You See Me (2015) Reviews

• Bold filmmaking by an even bolder filmmaker.

  addisonsandoval2015-07-09

  With You See Me, filmmaker Linda Brown has created a remarkable film that transcends the traditional cinematic experience. You See Me explores the complex relationship between Brown and her father as well as with the people she grew up with through the tender, articulate, and in many ways, spiritual lens of her camera. Sitting at Grauman's Chinese watching the film for the first time, I quickly became engrossed by the images flashing before the screen of a little tomboy playing with her sisters or fishing with her father as if time and space had come to a halt. It was a fitting piece to a tapestry that would comprise worlds collided, but never a bond divided. With uncompromising uprightness and impacting immediacy, You See Me removes all boundaries into the human condition. In so doing, the film becomes a force for showing that by the nature of our being, man is so powerful, but at the same time, he never ceases to be as frail as he was on the day of his birth. Perhaps most importantly, You See Me offers a bold thought for our consideration: if it is too far-fetched in this day and age to believe that love, once rooted, can, will, and should, endure.

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• Family bonds, roles, secrets, love and forgiveness

  pamkuri2015-07-13

  An authentic, powerful and brave film from a dedicated filmmaker committed to storytelling. The film is fresh in the use of multiple film mediums woven like a rag rug to share the history of the filmmaker's family. It takes a genuine integrity to collect, restore and record decades of visual history and then share your family's most intimate feelings with an audience. The film immediately absorbed me into the heart of and pulse of this family. Each family member trying to live in their expected roles in the eyes of society. Each member just wanting to love and be loved and not understanding the darkness that debilitates and controls the father's emotions.

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• Raw and beautiful!

  slin192017-08-05

  This was such a raw display of emotions and I'm in awe of how Linda had the courage to convey the hardships her family went through in this beautiful film. It was full of nostalgia and love and acceptance of family, no matter what happens, through thick and thin, they're family. I cried while watching it! Please watch this beautiful film :)

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• An instant classic about family, secrets, and things left unsaid

  marientina2017-03-22

  **spoiler alert** You See Me is the quintessential portrait of an American family facing an acute health crisis and its long-term repercussions. Linda Brown's father experiences a debilitating stroke and his family rallies around him. The stroke becomes a magnifying lens for all the strong and weak points of their family unit. The documentary is not shy of pinpointing those weak points, including family secrets and unanswered questions, but the Brown's family love and tenderness are also hiding in plain sight. Blink and you may miss it if you get lost in the tragedy of disability or family secrets. Listen and you will hear it in Linda Brown's existential crisis while she seeks to make sense of her father's life. Linda Brown hounds her father for an answer she unknowingly holds inside her: does her father love her? In the end, she finds the answer to the only question that matters: did her father find happiness in his life? That is the only answer that separates a hero from a tragic figure. Without spoiling the end, by watching this film one can launch many discussions about family, illness, end-of-life, a well-lived life, and the nature of grief and loss. More importantly, one can revisit what the influential pediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott wrote about in the 1950s: what is a "good enough mother" and by extension, what is a "good enough" father, and a "good enough" family? The answer may surprise you.

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• Insightful, moving and raw

  anmakary2016-11-27

  Throughout the course of history, people from all walks of life have pondered the complexities of familial love. You See Me is perhaps the best examination of that. I watched it months ago and the story resonates with me still. It is a carefully crafted demonstration of how deep relationships can can carry a lot of baggage and what it means to accept that baggage and. make do with what you have. So much personal insight into this one family had me forget I was a voyeur. It made me feel involved and I left the theater able to defend everyone's position. Documentaries nowadays struggle to attain an honest portrayal of all sides being presented, but You See Me managed this effortlessly with interviews and home video footage that really gave me a seat at their table. I invite anyone in search of being understood by their loved ones to watch this film. It presents you with a wisdom about family that is all too often so hard to find.

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