I Love You, Now Die is a superbly perceptive study of the endless convolutions and complexities of the human mind – and the proliferation of both when two people in a desperately unhappy state meet. It succeeds in raising questions – gently, but relentlessly – about our prejudices and our readiness to judge, as individuals and through our institutions, from the media to the courts. Without losing sight of anyone’s misery or loss, it forces nuance – a characteristic increasingly absent from discourse – into the discussion.

Audiences might not walk away from “I Love You, Now Die” liking Michelle Carter (during a post-screening discussion about the film last week, even Carr admitted that her subject is as “unlikable” as people get, the kind of person others instinctively turn away from), but they’ll at least grapple with moments of understanding her.

I Love You, Now Die might be short on definitive answers for these problems, but it raises all the right questions. Whether Carter was treated unfairly, the loud and clear message is that these kind of conversations need to take place before the next death that, rightly or wrongly, gets attributed to texting.

The actual relationship between Roy and Carter, explored with nuance and sensitivity in a two-part HBO documentary by Erin Lee Carr (At the Heart of Gold) was more complicated than many summaries of the case allowed.

Director Erin Lee Carr (Mommy Dead and Dearest) deftly layers her story with arguments, reveals and twists that will continuously unearth and rebury your opinion on Carter’s culpability, even long after the doc’s final moments.

The documentary makes extensive use of exclusive footage from Carter’s trial, where Carr’s crew were the only camera operators permitted in the courtroom. It’s this journalistic edge that makes up for I Love You, Now Die’s limitations, both as a character study and as a piece of filmmaking. (The cliffhanger/reversal structure, while exceptionally well executed here, is after all quite common in true crime.)

[Michelle Carter] and her family declined requests for interviews, making it a challenge for the filmmakers to discern if Michelle, as prosecutors charged, was a narcissistic teen who stage-managed the suicide to help boost her popularity. [8-21 Jul 2019, p.15]