Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Kingdom of Us isn’t a flashy documentary. It doesn’t devote many scenes to contemplating the overarching horrors of mental illness or how many families are tragically affected by the suicide of a loved one. However, Netflix’s latest original documentary does do something far more impressive. It offers a quiet, intimate look into one family’s pain that can never quite be captured by statistics or brief human interest stories.
Filmmaker Lucy Cohen’s documentary follows the aftermath of Paul Shanks’ death. In 2007, Shanks committed suicide, leaving behind his wife Vikie as well as his seven children. It’s a sad story dotted with inconsistencies and retrospective inevitabilities haunting every minute. When Paul is first introduced in the film, he’s presented as any other fun-loving dad. The children all tell stories of special trips their father took them on when he wasn’t busy with his music career. These moments are sweet, filled with cute original songs written just for his children and surprise rendezvous to go see the stars. However, as the film progresses, another side of Paul emerges, one that is ominously and progressively more reserved and borderline obsessed with control. The signs were always there, the documentary quietly argues, but no one saw them. Through its use of home footage and modern day interviews, the documentary posits that both men existed within Paul. One was just better hidden.
That grappling between the person Paul’s family believed him to be and the other, darker elements of his personality is what makes the film such an interesting reflection on grief. It’s one thing to say that you never truly know your loved ones, but Kingdom of Us shows it. The secrets they find aren’t big, reputation-shattering revelations. Rather, they’re small, intricate discrepancies. However, they’re still deeply jarring to this family.
Watching Kingdom of Us is an unmistakably intimate experience. Not only is Shanks family still mourning and coping with the death of their beloved father, but the movie also explores how this tragedy has affected these children’s development. While the Shank family’s only son is in the midst of a full-blown existential crisis complete with dwellings on meaninglessness, a handful of the family’s daughters are desperate to start a successful band dedicated to their late father. The intensity with which they approach their practices and song selection is staggering but understandable. This means something to these kids.
All of these complicated reflections on identity and grief are only complicated by the fact that several of the Shank family’s children are on the autistic spectrum. There’s a lot happening in Kingdom of Us and very few answers. However, the resulting documentary is reflective and authentic in a way that very few documentaries about mental illness and loss are.
More than anything else, Kingdom of Us has heart. It’s a deeply sympathetic watch that continues Netflix’s trend of producing truly great original documentaries. You will not walk away from Kingdom of Us with a greater understanding of how many people are affected by suicidal thoughts or how to cope with depression. However, you will leave with a heart-wrenching and intimate understanding about what it means for this one family to lose its father.
