I Love You Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter screened at this year’s Hot Docs Film Festival, and is scheduled for a summer release on HBO.
[Ed. Note: Being that TV and City is on a bit of a hiatus, this article has not been edited.]
By David Cuevas
In the digital age, where teens roam the web communicating with strangers and anonymities, the thought of a romantic relationship with a person via an electronic platform, has slowly become the norm. More often or not, I come across a couple, who met through social media, when scrolling through twitter every so often. However, for the case of Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy, the two emotionally unstable pairings makes what can be best described as a recipe for disaster.
Separated into two parts, the prosecution and defense, I Love You Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter is a vigorous HBO mini-series that highlights and examines the tragic downfall of Conrad Roy’s suicide, and the precursors which led up to the death. With a runtime of two hours and twenty minutes, I Love You Now die is an extensive and non-biased approach at identifying and relating with damaged teenaged relations.
From social media to entertainment, director Erin Lee Carr perfectly examines each element which influenced into the “crime”, where the blurred line between criminal activity or plain verbal abuse, is scattered and morally ambiguous. While the film’s elongated nature does become a bit too “made for TV”, relying too heavily on interviews and alternative new sources for documentation, the film’s strongest efforts are its claims made towards mental health awareness. I Love You Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter is a thorough and detailed examination on teenage romantic relationships in our very day in age of the technological revolution, that successfully manages to persuade it’s viewers through a rollercoaster of wild, unimaginable, emotions. You will never look at The Fault In Our Stars and Glee the same way ever again!
I give I Love You Now Die a B+.
TV and City 