The Thousands

Have you ever felt like your life was one big movie? Archie Williams (Gabriel Sunday) has, and by age 17 he wants out. For his media class project, he decides to kill himself on camera, and reflexively films everyone’s reactions – horrified adults flexing their toothless authority; some kids trying to dissuade him; others egging him on. Then there’s beautiful, popular Sierra (Brooke Nevin)… who’s more like Archie than he thought.

Director David Lee Miller has created a hyperactive mash-up of animation, observational footage, advertising clichés, educational films, musical interludes and parodies of movies and TV. It’s a nice way to underscore Archie’s conviction that “there’s so much of everything that nothing has any meaning.” However, the film becomes less frenetic as its plot becomes more heartfelt, and at times Miller seems to be chafing at the limitations of his assemblage conceit. Sometimes, you just want a nice two-shot.

My Suicide doesn’t shy from its darkest suggestions, yet leavens them with meditations on love, belonging and narcissism. When Archie tracks down his hero Vargas (David Carradine), the shamanic underground poet and filmmaker has some sage advice: “You can kill yourself, but you don’t have to stop living.”