Movie Review

Must Read After My Death (2009)

Reviewed by Lisa Schwarzbaum | Feb 27, 2009

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Lisa Schwarzbaum is a film critic for EW

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EW's GRADE

B+

Details Limited Release: Feb 20, 2009; Rated: Unrated; Length: 76 Minutes; Genre: Documentary

$All in the Family: Morgan Dews follows his grandmother\'s instructions in Must Read After My Death | Must Read After My Death$

All in the Family: Morgan Dews follows his grandmother's instructions in Must Read After My Death

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Filmmaker Morgan Dews followed the title instructions from his maternal grandmother — and the entirely absorbing, undeniably  troubling documentary Must Read After My Death is the result. Using films, tape recordings, and other diary material that his grandmother carefully saved, Dews stitches together the elements of an American family undone by drink, infidelity, and the mid-20th-century blues. Did granny intend this stuff for strangers? We'll never know. File this ''therapeutic'' movie, well made and creepy, on the dysfunction-as-art shelf  next to Capturing the Friedmans. (The film can be downloaded at giganticdigital.com). B+

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Originally posted Feb 25, 2009 Published in issue #1037 Mar 06, 2009 Order article reprints

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