Ross McElwee's 'Remake' Honors Late Son Adrian
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- Ross McElwee directs 'Remake,' reviewed during the 2025 Venice Film Festival and releasing in U.S. theaters via Music Box Films starting Friday, July 10
- Adrian McElwee, the filmmaker's son, died in 2016 of an accidental drug overdose following long struggles with mental health issues; he had been a recurring subject in his father's work since his birth was documented in 1993's 'Time Indefinite'
- The film incorporates footage Adrian filmed separately and together with his father, including Adrian's own projects — some designed for a feature on opioid addiction in youth culture — that occasionally depict dark scenes of drug use
- McElwee uses non-linear editing to mirror fragmented memory and directly addresses Adrian in voiceover, mixing 16mm film and contemporary digital imagery while shifting between adoration and self-critical regret about how his filmmaking may have contributed to his son's shaky self-image
- Steve Carr (director of 'Daddy Day Care' and 'Paul Blart: Mall Cop') is the subject of a prominent digression, attempting and failing to remake McElwee's 1986 film 'Sherman's March' as a Hollywood feature — an endeavor that morphs from feature to hour-long series to half-hour comedy
- McElwee's other personal threads include a painful separation from wife Marilyn, the end of his 24-year marriage, the sale of his house, brain surgery after doctors discovered a massive tumor causing no physical symptoms, and watching longtime friend Charleen Swansea's memory deteriorate
- 'Remake' functions as a mournful companion piece to McElwee's 1993 'Time Indefinite,' which had charted Adrian's birth alongside unexpected deaths — making the new film an explicitly sorrowful bookend to his family documentary saga
Why it matters: For McElwee's longtime followers, 'Remake' recontextualizes three decades of memoir cinema by filling in the devastating personal loss that haunted his later work, while newcomer-friendly exposition ensures it works as a standalone portrait of a father struggling to preserve his son's memory. The film also doubles as a wry record of a failed Hollywood adaptation, with Carr's doomed 'Sherman's March' remake providing tonal relief from the grief at the center.
