Joyce Liu

This film was inspiring, and shed light and brought positivity to a community that is underrepresented and stigmatized. There were some incredibly sad moments, but also there was a huge sense of community, teamwork, and resiliency throughout. The reason for the 4/5 is because the storyline felt incomplete. The kids all had compelling stories, and I wanted to learn more.

A lot to process, but overall, I can say with 100% certainty that I came out of viewing this with the thought that the director is STILL bullying his poor classmate after half a century. First off, as he explained in the film, this isn't even the first film he's created exploring his horrific "relationship" with his classmate Dick. He spent the entire film attempting to gain sympathy and manipulate the viewers that while he orchestrated a brutal beating of this classmate, it was because he was coping with the death of his brother. People go through trauma every day, that does not mean you can justify these violent acts. The best part, he doesn't even apologize once to his classmate and spent the majority of the film justifying the bullying by interviewing old classmates on how "weird" and "alone" Dick was. Kids are mean, but to continue to bully this man and profit off of his trauma without his consent is beyond. I wish I could even get to the bizarre stylistic choices, but I'm so disturbed by the narcissism of the filmmaker. Hats off to his teacher saying no one wants to watch this. I wish I didn't contribute to the views. I don't even know how this came up for Oscar consideration with so many amazing documentaries that uplift. The only "Dick" in this film is the filmmaker.