review for Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer on AllMovie

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, directed by Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill, is a worthy follow-up to Broomfield's fascinating chronicle of Aileen Wuornos' exploitation at the hands of friends, family, the media, and her own lawyer in Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer. As with Michael Moore, every frame of Broomfield's films is infused with his own gnomic personality. His work is more "film essay" than traditional documentary; there's no pretense of objectivity. Broomfield makes it quite clear, for example, that he opposes capital punishment (he points out again and again that it does not deter crime), and then he tells the story that reinforces his point. But this isn't just knee-jerk advocacy journalism. It's clear that Wuornos' story is one that matters to Broomfield on a very personal level. When, toward the end of the film, the clearly delusional Wuornos angrily flips off Broomfield's camera, yelling that "a raped woman got executed, and was used for books and movies and sh*t," there's an uncomfortable truth to her claim, especially as it could fairly be directed, not just at those who clearly used and exploited Wuornos to make a buck, but at Broomfield himself. He's clearly aware that, as deeply vested in her as he is, he's still using her. His only response is a sincere, "I'm sorry, Aileen." In the end, as with Steve James' powerful Stevie, Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer provides food for thought by questioning the filmmaker's own culpability and the relative morality of his work, despite his obvious empathy for his subject. And even as Broomfield is certainly less introspective about his work than James, he's also more personally invested than he has been in other documentaries. He clearly derives a sense of purpose from the particular circumstances of Wuornos' case.