My Architect: A Son's Journey
Director: Nathaniel Kahn
Year Released: 2003
Rating: 1.5
Grand-scale self-therapy session with Nathaniel Kahn looking for the 'father he never knew,' well-regarded architect Louis I. Kahn - I wasn't convinced for a second that he ever found clarity or exorcised any demons in talking to people who knew his Dad, because I was never convinced any of the people he spoke to actually knew Louis Kahn. Zadie Smith once said that "writing is the exact opposite of therapy," and I think filmmaking is the same way (let's ignore Smith's ironic declaration that one should never join "fashionable schools of thought"). Kahn-the-architect was clearly a complicated man and commitment-phobic (he juggled three different families) and talented (or so most of his peers claim; Frank Gehry, meanwhile, acts like he'd rather be scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush than doing an interview), but aside from some lovely photography, let's face it: some people are mysterious and unknowable.
