AllMovie

Like Errol Morris's brilliant Gates of Heaven, The Young and the Dead is an investigation into the culture of interring and remembering the dead. Morris's film dealt with loving pet owners who wanted to have a place to remember their companions, and he deftly avoided turning his film into a freak show. With Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini have a bigger canvas on which to paint: the ongoing American obsession with celebrity. For the first half-hour or so, as we're introduced to the history of the park and its new owner, Tyler Cassity, who comes off like a character out of The Loved One with his slick if earnest talk of marketing and multimedia presentations, the film flirts dangerously with condescension. But it gets stronger and less judgmental as it goes along; Cassity's sincerity, buttressed by his young and enthusiastic staff, begins to charm and the various strands of history surrounding the park get more fascinating. In addition to the re-internment of Hattie McDaniels, the film's other highlight is footage from a promotional film made in the early 1970s by Robert Evans and Mike Nichols to stave off the sale of neighbor Paramount Pictures' backlot property to the cemetery. Now, that's entertainment.