SXSW Review: ‘My Suicide’ Showcases Wonderful Talent All Around

This film that is subtitled the “Self-Inflicted Comedy” showcases a large group of experienced and inexperienced talent. Archie (Gabriel Sunday) hates his life because he feels nothing. Archie is a movie fiend that records everything in his meaningless life. After he is asked what his class project would be for his film class he says that he wants to kill himself on camera. After he says this in class and gets arrested, he systematically becomes the popular weird kid. Students come up to Archie just to tell him he’s sick, he’s cool, he’s right.

The student he least expects to talk to him is perfect girl, Sierra (Brooke Nevin), who wants to film Archie’s response to the question, “Why does he want to kill himself on tape?” After discovering why, the story follows a suicide pact between Sierra and Archie. Archie is developed as a character from scene one because he is filming himself impersonating famous quotes from movies.

This is not a pro-suicide film. Rather, it’s an anti-suicide movie that follows an unraveling suicide pact and makes light of its effects. With added layers animation in most of the dialogue was taken to a heightened level that is reminiscent of A Scanner Darkly. At times the film feels chaotic and all over the place, but it actually follows a typical plot which director David Lee Miller breaks into three acts. Guest stars include David Carradine as death/a spirit, shaman or poet of sorts and Joe Mantenga as an Indian Psychologist treating Archie.

Sunday steals this movie with his acting and filming because this film contains the meta-film that Archie is making with Sierra. His filming is actually not bad. It’s an enjoyable drama that plays with your mind before you know what is ever going to happen. With every person from creation to production, this movie hardly has any wrong moves.