Old-Growth Murder (2022)

Old-Growth Murder (2022). Old-Growth Murder: Directed by Tom Olsen Jr.. With Skip Bailey, Darelle 'Dino' Butler, Gary Butler, Céline Clease. A feature-length documentary exploring the unsolved murder of French bicyclist Alain Malessard who was found dead in an Oregon Coast campground on Thanksgiving 1987.

“Unlike most true crime documentaries, this is not flashy – which is good – nor does it attempt to create any compelling atmosphere or paint a portrait of the area and time period – which is less good – and itu0026#39;s mostly just a bunch of old men talking. I swear to god itu0026#39;s like listening to a college lecture or AM radio or a podcast on the minutae of police work.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere are bright spots, mostly with the mother figure who hosted young Alain at her home in Canada, who actually describes him as a person, showed regard for his well-being while he was still living by sending him to relatives throughout his journey, and conducts herself with a level of respect and dignity which in my opinion makes her the star of the show. That might sound like a horrible thing to say in a documentary about a brutal murder, but it was refreshing to see someone so substantially focused on the living victim and his parents following his death.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI can tell you very much that I have pretty strong ideas about who I think did it, but youu0026#39;ll have to watch for yourself and decide, but before you do that just know that they have convicted zero people in 2023. I had to stop around the 1 1/2 hour mark because I was so tired of hearing some old guyu0026#39;s opinion about an unrelated crime related to some of the suspects.”