David Midell’s THE KILLING OF KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN at OXFORD FILM FESTIVAL; Review: a profound telling of a veteran’s unnecessary death at the hands of the police
Movies where you know the ending have to succeed on one major beat and that is the “what if” beat. “What if that police officer had been successful in talking Kenneth down?” It’s that last grasp at hope, the last chance to make everything right, boiled down to the slimmest possible chance. One wrong word, one wrong move and it all comes crashing down. We know it’s going to fail, but we hope anyway. This movie perfectly nails that narrative beat. I sat there and prayed it would all go right and I wouldn’t have to confront the real ending. When it’s yanked away from us the loss is felt even more profoundly.