Title: The Mad Writer
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Zachary Kashkett
Starring: Austin Hart
Runtime: 1 hr 9 mins

What It Is: Under the moniker “L’Orange,” Austin Hart creates independent electronic hip-hop that results in a growing notoriety and dedicated audiences. While adjusting to the positive turnout of his career, Hart is affronted with a serious health issue that results in serious hearing loss. Forced to attend multiple consultations and receive surgeries, Hart’s chronic depression rears its head. In spite of his struggle, Hart finds a connection that helps carry him to the finish line in hopes that his passion for making music won’t be stifled forever in the face of his condition.

What We Think: Whether we’re aware of it or not, we likely all know someone afflicted by chronic depression. We all experience the condition, but for some, it’s non-stop. Seeing someone who seemed to struggle with the same emotional and mental conflicts as a late friend of mine, who also had a passion for music, come out of hardships on the other side. Spoiler. But this documentary made me so fucking happy. Depression never ends, and that’s okay–it’s part of the human experience–but it’s amazing to see so closely, if not briefly, how someone’s life and opportunities can change in such a short amount of time. This movie is actually full of love, which… you can’t help but love. It’s contagious because although Hart has tendencies to be dry, pessimistic, and edgy, the circumstances of his life up until now show him with surrounded by and exuding an incredible, familiar humanity. The people he surrounds himself with and who care about him, his troubles, his art, and his perspective on his own life are revealing and profound, not in an extreme sense, but as a reminder of what makes up all of us no matter what mental or physical attributes we’re dealing with. Hart trying to articulate his mental and physical struggles and finding ways of overcoming them is a celebration of how far one person can go with support and passion. It just brings me back to my lost friend, someone who had just as much, just not as much confidence or strength in being able to move forward. If he was still alive, I would have love to shown him this documentary, in a way to at least say how much I care about him, and how much potential for life and creation I believe he has. In ways big and small, he lives on through people like Hart, I think, in that people like them survive their issues to continue being creative and enjoy the better things in life.

Our Grade: A-, Fascinating and personal delve into an artist’s life as it unfolds before him, The Mad Writer is the perfect casual and compact watch for those who have ever found themselves in places where they wonder what makes moving forward worth it.