Is it fiction or non-fiction
I'm confused because the description says the film uses archival footage, interviews and fictional zed scenarios to tell the story...
shareI think it's an odd and not particularly successful combination of both. Have you seen this film? Its on Netflix.
I didn't see the point of the "fiction scenes." Did Dahmer have a moustache? These scenes were supposed to have taken place in the 80s and early 90s I think. However in one scene where he buys liquor there is a sign that states a buyer has to be born in 1990 to buy liquor, revealing to us that this was shot in 2011. There was seemingly little to zero effort to portray these "re-enactment" scenes in the correct time period. They also led nowhere.
The producers only interviewed 3 people and even then did not identify who these people were until the end of the film (as they spoke you got some idea of who they were and what role they played, however, but why not display their name at the bottom of the screen at the beginning?)
Most of the archival footage was of the exterior of his apartment building, which is long demolished. I would preferred to have seen interviews with many more people and more relevant archival footage, basically a more traditional and straight forward documentary.
Awhile back there was a fiction film called Dahmer starring Jeremy Renner, which I enjoyed a lot more. I'd recommend that film instead.
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Jeremy Renner's portrayal is excellent in "Dahmer," which seems to come as close to providing insight on someone who remains an elusive figure despite all that's been written, produced and said about the man.
I also found the re-enactment scenes pointless, and even if they were not so ineptly acted and directed they would have been out of place here. About the only thing I learned there was that Jeffrey Dahmer wrote a lot of checks – and merchants always accepted them.
The interviews are a mixed bag, though Detective Kennedy provided a few interesting tidbits. Had the filmmaker done a more journalistic job in talking to other people close to the source, this would have been a worthwhile film. I agree that a more conventional documentary would have been more successful. It still seems like we're in the dark on what motivated Dahmer and how he got away from it for so long, and this film doesn't provide many answers there.