Life is stranger than fiction. Just ask the Friedmans. One minute, this affluent Long Island family is preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, and the next minute the cops are busting in and arresting dad for receiving child pornography. Could this have happened for years without anybody catching on? Maybe, maybe not. And that's what makes Andrew Jarecki's stunning, Sundance-wowing documentary so spectacular.
Unlike certain documentarians who deliver heavy-handed, one-sided messages (Michael Moore, we're looking at you), Jarecki lets the audience decipher the story through the Friedmans themselves, specifically via incredible and personal home movies (seen here for the first time). Through media footage of the Reagan-era witch-hunt, we also see the family and their neighborhood slowly self-destruct. And whether you believe it all or not, the Friedmans will definitely get your undivided attention.