Powerful

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is a chilling and interesting insight into the case of Jeffrey Dahmer - a man who committed unbelievably appalling murders. It chooses to focus on the people who surrounded his life leading up to, and after the horrific discovery of the murders. The documentary is able to convey the absolute horror of the situation through interviews with neighbours and detectives. Most of the footage contains interviews with Detective Pat Kennedy - who was initially with Dahmer after his arrest - and you can still feel Pat's utter bewilderment as he recalls the events. You can still sense his adrenaline as he recalls the aftermath and there is a clear sense of excitement within him as opposed to the utter horror one would expect. It's also interesting to see how it affected his life after, in both positive and negative ways. Where I think it falls a little short as a documentary is the lack of clear narration as to what was happening. Due to a lack of actual footage hypothetical re-enactments were used that did well to convey Dahmers apparent alcoholism - but didn't offer much more of an insight into his character and his motivations. I know that this was not the aim of the documentary - but I think it would have added more to help the viewer to try and begin to make sense of witnessing the re-construction of a situation that was inhumanely senseless.

This sad excuse of a documentary is a confusing combination of pointless and boring reenactments and interviews with people who seemingly have not one bit of useful information to offer and yet they talk on and on for an hour and a half of your life. One sourest is a fame driven cop who considers this case his glory days and proceeds to talk about this issues he had when the case ended because he lost his "fame and recognition" WHAT?! Half of what this guy says has nothing to do with the case and the other half sounds embellished or simply made up. The other extremely CREDIBLE source is a crack head neighbor he had.... Enough said. I learned way more about this guy and his case by reading the Wikipedia page. Do NOT waste your time.

An experimental documentary film that uses archival footage, interviews, and fictionalized scenarios to tell the story of the people around Jeffrey Dahmer during the summer of his arrest in 1991.I like how they emphasized that Dahmer was a white guy in the black neighborhood, an wish this could have been explored more. Those not familiar with Milwaukee may not realize how incredibly segregated it is.I further appreciated the story of the shirt, and plenty of other behind the scenes details from Detective Pat. Some may find it boring, but I think the idea of Pat just talking for two hours would be fascinating. He probably has other non-Dahmer stories to tell.Using an actor to portray Dahmer was interesting. At first it seemed silly and unnecessary, but I understand why they went with it -- if you do not have the footage, you have to fill the screen with something.

Chris James Thompson's Jeff, a docudrama involving the interworkings of the Jeffrey Dahmer case, opens by establishing two different, vital points for a film like this to make. It has the medical examiner, Jeffrey Jentzen, assigned to the case of Jeffrey Dahmer state how many people have formulated different meanings behind what exactly a "disaster" is, and then has leading detective on the case, Patrick Kennedy, go into how as human beings we'd love to believe we'd react courageously in the face of tragedy or despair, but we can never be certain until it happens. He then goes on to state how as a devout Catholic, he was always thought that courage is fear that said its prayers.All I can say is that fear can pray all it wants, but it could never have prepared itself for the horror Dahmer inflicted not only on a community but on a country as a whole. Jeff dives into three people, all of them deeply effected by Dahmer's actions in some way, and spliced in are scenes recreated to show Dahmer's day-to-day life, as mundane as it is, with the man in question played wonderfully by Andrew Swant. The three people, however, are not actors, and are here to share their depressingly grim accounts of their relationship with Dahmer. The medical examiner is Jeffrey Jentzen and the leading detective is Patrick Kennedy, as established, and but the third person was the most personally affiliated with the man and that is Pamela Bass, who was the next door neighbor to Dahmer in his apartment for many years.The film explores how deeply this one unexplainable murder case completely changed the lives of three normal, innocent, law-abiding people and how they've gone on to better or further their lives based on this case alone. Pat Kennedy, easily the one with the biggest story to tell due to his explicit connection with Dahmer during the time of his arrest, conviction, and jail-life, goes into how when he first met the man, they talked in lengthy detail about religion and alcoholism. This was during the time that a skeleton was found in his refrigerator, so says Kennedy, who recalls his thoughts and mindset as he discovers there was not just one but six skulls found in Dahmer's refrigerator, among other severed body parts in containers, drums, and jars that lied throughout the home of Dahmer.This is one of the most unique documentary films I've ever seen, with a style very similar to that of Richard Linklater's Bernie, which featured polarizing performances by Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, and Shirley McClaine. It takes the same kind of mockumentary approach that film did, featuring reenactments and authentic interviews from various townspeople who knew the suspect in question. However, this film has less of a mock-narrative consistency than Bernie, with the scenes featuring Dahmer involving little dialog and emphasizing on the mundane activities of the man behind washed-out cinematography and often low-key music. This is the stylistic side of the picture, which is very innocent and unobtrusive to its central focus. Next to Quentin Dipeux's Wrong, this is easily some of the best cinematography and stylistic merits a film has had this year, only this time, the traits are embodied in a film that is much more watchable and clear in its tone.Jentzen goes into the grim details of investigating and gutting the apartment, and being put to the painstaking task of identifying all the bodies removed from the apartment. It was a tireless project, seeing as how not only were the bodies dismembered and mutilated, but they had begun decomposing, leaving much of the reliance on small facial details and anatomy structure to identify them. Finally, Bass goes into how she was effected simply for being her neighbor. The apartments and their always reeked of death for weeks on end, and she and her building were the target of public scrutiny and attention, with numerous people asking if they could come in to sit on couch Dahmer gave her or touch a glass Dahmer once drank out. We begin to question that, besides Dahmer, who else was sick in this whole equation.There is no better way to describe Jeff than a complete film than a subtle and low-key crime drama. Everything about it is an exercise is subtle, minimalist filmmaking that accentuates drama, uncertainty, and impending doom with true craft, from a filmmaker who clearly has a long road to travel on before he can even give us, what I believe, is half of what he wants to say. If there's any film that should be shown to film students as a look at what a first-time auteur looks like, this is it.One of the best and most thought-provoking scenes is the scene where Jentzen reveals that he doesn't go to horror movies and can't see why people would want to. The last horror film he saw was The Exorcist, likely in its original theatrical run in 1973. He doesn't feel the need to watch anymore. Why would he? He lived a horror film and there's no "stop" button on his.Starring: Andrew Swant, Pamela Bass, Jeffrey Jentzen, and Pat Kennedy. Directed by: Chris James Thompson.