Films with a “twist” are among my favorites, especially when those films are documentaries. Many have been released in the past couple of years; they introduce you to what you think will be the only thread and then…things shift, the main storyline becomes about something other than just what you started with.
The latest within this sub-genre, ‘docs with a twist,” let’s call it, is Dear Mr. Brody. Fascinating, funny, and kind of sad. In other words, it’s about the human condition, but in a superbly entertaining manner.
They called Michael Brody Jr. the “hippie millionaire” because it was surely the most apt description of a 21-year-old in1970 who had long hair…and millions of dollars. Eccentric in the extreme, Brody, the heir to a margarine fortune, decides to give away his $25-million inheritance to anyone who asks and has a good reason.
All they need do is send him a letter. Remember, it’s 1970 – handwritten or typed letters sent through the post office are the only way to plead one’s case. At least until people started standing in interminable lines outside his Manhattan office to try to speak to him personally.
A total “peace and love” guy who was vehemently against the raging Vietnam War, Brody and his wife were one of the most visible couples in the entire country. They were on every newscast and even performed as a folk duo on the Ed Sullivan Show. The newspapers carried banner headlines of the hippie couple and the wave of excitement, panic, and naked greed that they had wrought.
Of course, there were also countless stories, very moving of people who wanted money from Brody so that they could help a child or a parent. So moving and interesting were these letters that just finding the story behind the people who sent them with high hopes or realistic resignation would be a great film in itself.
Or part of one.
In a frenzied few weeks, Brody and his young wife, Renee, ignited a psychedelic spiral of events. And after that- well, that’s one twist I won’t give away. But why this biggest news story of the year fizzled after several weeks is a reveal that the filmmakers spring on us at the perfect moment.
But back to those letters: Thousands of them remained in boxes- never opened, never even seen until fifty years later, when many stockpiled boxes of them were discovered.
Unlikely as it was after half a century, the filmmakers found still living letter writers or their now middle aged children around the country. So, one of the storylines becomes about the writers, some of whom have no recollection of writing them and others who cry a river of tears while reading them out loud on camera. It really chokes you up.
So, I count at least four threads: the sort of biographical details as told by friends and Brody’s former wife; the great archival footage of someone clearly teetering on the verge of madness getting in front of every news camera he can; the letter writers, and then the “whatever happened to?” details that come in the final act.
These threads are all seamlessly blended and expertly edited to form a riveting story that I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of before. Award- winning director Keith Maitland and his indefatigable crew were just the right people to tell this story- they have taken out the cynicism that seems natural, and replaced it with heart and warmth. Twists and twists and the truth. You can’t get a better doc than that.
Available On Discovery+ starting April 28th
Thanks for this review! It sounds right up my alley.