Jacob Switzer Archives - Sean Kelly On Movies

DIY queen Ingrid Veninger creates a docu-dogme film about her own family in Crocodile Eyes. Ruby (Ingrid Veninger) sets out to capture 100 real moments. These include bonding with her granddaughter, four-year-old Freya (Laska Sauder), and her daughter Sara (Hallie Switzer), grappling with the challenges of motherhood. After the death of her father, Dedo (Frank Veninger), Ruby goes on a trip with her mother, Baba (Helen Veninger) and son, Jake (Jacob Switzer), to scatter his ashes. Crocodile Eyes Synopsis Crocodile Eyes is the eighth feature film from writer/director Ingrid Veninger (He Hated Pidgeons, Porcupine Lake, The World or Nothing). The film is a docu-dogme narrative, which sees Veninger and her family reprise the semi-fictional versions of themselves from 2011's I Am a Good Person/I Am a Bad Person. Veninger's character of Ruby, not named within the film, sets out to capture 100 real moments while also questioning what makes a moment real. My Thoughts on Crocodile Eyes While not the first time she has incorporated elements from her life and her family in her films, Crocodile Eyes is arguably the most personal and intimate of Ingrid Veninger's films. This includes capturing life and death as she, non-graphically, films the birth of her second grandchild, contrasted with an earlier grainy 1995 video of her son Jake's birth, and Veninger is also there to capture her father's final breath. However, the true joy of Crocodile Eyes comes from Veninger's interactions with her granddaughter, who is responsible for the cute moment that forms the film's title. Altogether, Crocodile Eyes is an affecting family portrait. Just beware of the "Placenta in the Kitchen" moment.