Walk Away Renee

2012 Family & Personal Relationships [Nf]

Tarnation director Jonathan Caouette takes his mentally-ill mother Renee on a cross-country journey to her new home, and reflects on their unusual mother/son relationship while contending with a series of unexpected obstacles.

Director: Jonathan Caouette

Starring: Kathy Biehl,Jonathan Caouette, Joshua Caouette, Adolph Davis, Gasner Demosthenes

Reviews

  • The way forward, both in Caouette's real-life situation and his development as an artist, remains unclear, yet that frustration makes it to the screen, in spiky waves that signal a vital personal quest.

    Joshua Rothkopf - Time Out New York

    20 January 2013

  • Picking up where his 2003 "Tarnation" left off, Jonathan Caouette's new documentary is no less hermetic, autobiographical, messy, and ultimately touching.

    - Village Voice

    20 January 2013

  • Walk Away Renee lets us observe a mother-son bond, but Mr. Caouette hasn't found a way to galvanize this incarnation of material for strangers.

    - The New York Times

    20 January 2013

  • It's problematic, however, that we learn very little here that wasn't more stirringly conveyed in the earlier film. In its mesmerizing, propulsive drive, "Tarnation" was a heartfelt scramble to make sense of messy lives. Walk Away Renee is an occasionally illuminating patchwork.

    - The Hollywood Reporter

    20 January 2013

  • The extra money has bought a professional crew for scripted sequences, in which Jonathan and his mother too often mug for the camera.

    Lou Lumenick - New York Post

    20 January 2013

Awards

No awards