That Way Madness Lies…

Filmmaker Sandra Luckow is able to offer a unique look into mental illness and how schizophrenia shakes apart one seemingly idyllic family, by focusing on her own. Her brother Duanne Luckow, a self-employed machinist—albeit talented in numerous fields—living near their parents in Portland, OR, developed an atypical delusional disorder while entering middle age. Duanne subscribed to conspiracy theories and illegally crossed into Canada to try to claim a YouTube celebrity as his soulmate-bride (of course, she had never met him). Determining himself to be exempt from utility bills—but sending money to Nigerian and Russian con artists met online—Duanne starts paranoid feuds against Farmers Insurance Company and, ultimately, his parents and Sandra. Along the way, he loses his house and business, but by presenting a neat appearance and answering rationally at hearings, he is able to stubbornly deny his mental illness, and a dysfunctional, "reformed" health system concerned with patient rights can do little unless he turns dangerous. Duanne winds up in the real-life institution made famous by Ken Kesey in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but is able to get out through healthcare bureaucracy (Trump-era policies would even allow him to buy a gun). Making this narrative especially intimate is the fact that Duanne has dabbled in film as well, chronicling his POV via iPhone footage and video diaries (he shares production credits in the film), as Sandra struggles to balance a bi-coastal existence of a career in NYC with the decline of her aging mother and father and Duanne’s disturbing antics out West. There are no easy resolutions in this poignant look at the toll that schizophrenia takes on a wide circle of victims and supporting players. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)