Monday, February 1, 2010
Film Fred Wiseman Goes to Juvenile Court
Posted by Benjamin Mercer on Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 10:44 AM
When Wiseman does provide the words, he doesn’t mince them, so of course Juvenile Court takes place precisely where the title says: a Memphis-area juvenile court where social workers, lawyers, and one Southern gentleman of a judge profess to have in mind the “best interests” of a procession of allegedly wayward youths while nonetheless holding fast to the letter of the law. Though Juvenile Court concludes with a verdict in one case involving the armed robbery of a KFC (“This is America, it can be erased” is one consolation offered to the distraught training school-bound minor), the majority of the film focuses on preliminary process: parental interviews, the administering of inkblot tests, deliberations in the judge’s chambers over whether to retain jurisdiction. The idea that an accumulation of tests and testimonies can culminate in a single verdict, much less one that functions both punitively and pedagogically, comes to seem more than a little ridiculous, but the decidedly resigned optimism of the judge and his interlocutors suggests they might agree.
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