Charged: The Eduardo Garcia Story (Phillip Baribeau, 2017): USA, Mexico

Reviewed by Veronica Arvidsson. Viewed at Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2017.

The recipe for a documentary casserole made out of love and bound to move you to tears

Time to make: 8 years

          You will need:

• A tragic accident that puts the protagonist in front of a long recovery progress.
• Personal home footage of decent quality of hospitalized protagonist in the early stages of his recovery from the accident. This will make your company wanting more after just one bite.
• An ex girlfriend who happens to be a loving best friend sitting by the protagonists bedside throughout his recovery. Without this your casserole won’t uphold it’s strong character.
• Start of with showing the protagonist at his weakest point, in that way the finished dish will have a strong taste of an amazing arc.
• A past of abusing of drugs and questionable life choices to add personal recovery to the already witnessing physical recovery.
• Add some pain to the protagonist, because setback makes for an interesting casserole.
• A cat (the cat needs to symbolize the love and friendship between the main subjects of the story, only to make it even more heartbreaking than it already is)
• Don’t be too careful on the joy. When eating this you will want some laughter to make up for the bitter taste.
• Most importantly a protagonist that is not only charming but has a goal oriented mind, strong-will and a new discovered love for life. This ingredient can’t be replaced.
• Spread some side story on there that will make us like the protagonist even more, perhaps he’s a talented chef who also happens to have his own cooking show.
• If you require it to be a little bit more spicy put some beautiful cinematography in there with shots of extraordinary landscapes.
• Finish off with a strong recovered man who has found the silver-lining of his misery and today is sharing his story and bringing hope to the public.

 Now you have put yourself together a casserole of a well structured emotional and at the same time entertaining documentary with taste of overcoming impossible obstacles, friendships and love. Served with the question: What really matters in life.

Enjoy this meal with some great company and you won’t regret it.