Carlsen’s intent is to make the audience question the larger social implications the story sets forth: Are unwilling parents taking advantage of these reform centers to ship off children they simply don’t want, or are these places designed to rehabilitate those incarcerated? Are well to do families hiding their flaws behind locked doors in the interest of preserving a perfect veneer? Carlsen plays off the films title with titillation: he gives you just enough information, and just enough drama to leave you questioning the morals of modern society rather than focusing in on the true or fictitious reform school in Utah.

Going into Just The Right Amount of Violence I had no idea what to expect, especially since I prefer to go into films without reading the synopsis. Call it a special way of reviewing films or sheer laziness, either way it left me a little in the lurch with the documentary’s non-traditional approach to storytelling. At first I was skeptical of the film: viewer warning without knowing the context of the dramatized Cinéma vérité elements this film can be a bewildering at first when trying to figure out what exactly the film’s subject matter surrounds. However, that being said, halfway into the film I had fallen in love with the stunning cinematography and the raw emotion put forth by the actors portraying both broken teenagers and their parents- it no longer mattered if I totally “got” what the director wanted to portray. By that point I had clued into the fictional element and once I settled into it I was really astounded by how “real” these faked situations felt. Still—I couldn’t help but be amazed at the potency of the Carlsen’s message. In film as in reality, most stories worth hearing are stranger than fiction—so if need be, use fiction to tell them.

Lauren Schell