MY LEFTOVER LADIES

In China the word 'Sheng nu' means 'leftover women' and is a derogatory term made popular by the All-China Women's Federation that classifies women who remain unmarried after they are 28 years old.  It's part of the pressure that their society place on women to conform and accept that marriage is the only goal they should have in their lives, and it's causing a great deal of concern that the numbers of them are rising quite rapidly.  In this documentary made for Taiwanese TV, newbie filmmaker Tung-yen Chou literally stalked three such women with her camera for four years to try and work out if they had happily chosen to be single, or if life had simply not panned out as they had wanted. Chou also very oddly chose to include a very rotund male 4th Grade schoolteacher by day and drag queen by night for reasons she never shared with us.

The three women had very successful careers which seemed to fulfill them, but one by one, they all agreed that their un-wed existences were sad and somewhat miserable. All had dated when they were much younger but now all them threw themselves into their work and never seemed to actually make themselves available for the possibility of a romance or even put themselves in a position to even look for a man.The surprising common element was that all though their cellphones were rarely out of the hands (one of women had several phones) none of them had even tried to find a suitor via any of the many online dating sites.

The one thing they all shared on camera was the fact that they wanted to be loved. Although one of the women was careful to add that she didn't think it right that she should have to wait to be chosen, and that she wanted instead to do the choosing. That however seemed all very theoretical as none of them have dated for several years.

The drag queen was however not going to wait any longer. Not to be asked out that is, but just to get the chance to be a bride for a day, and so he organized an elaborate photo-shoot so he could at least fulfill that one ambition. He even cried at the end, just like a real wedding.

The documentary was hardly ground-breaking but it did allow us to be voyeurs for just under an hour and look at part of a different and traditional culture where solitude is only seen as a failure and where 'leftover women' still feel so distraught that they have missed out on what evidently should be the sole purpose of their lives. Weird to think that in western culture 'leftover' is usual a culinary term used for food that is reheated and served up again the next day. Maybe this is something the Chinese should possible consider before casting such aspersions about single women.

P.S. The male equivalent are evidently called guang gun (光棍) meaning bare branches, and is used to refer to men who do not marry and thus do not add 'branches' to the family tree!  

★★★★★★

PARTY GIRL

A weary and desolate Angélique Litzenburger a 60 year old dance-club hostess and former stripper sits nursing yet another drink at the bar and declares to her younger co-workers ‘I was a superstar!’ The trouble is that although she is way past her prime, she is still partying as hard as she did in her youth it’s simply that she no longer has any clients willing to pick up the tab anymore. The only one who is still enamored with her is Michel and even he has stopped coming into the club regularly, so she desperately tracks him down at his house in the small suburban town on the French & German border, and begs him to come back so that she can survive.  He refuses too, but instead he professes his love, and proposes marriage to her.

It’s not the solution to her problems that she wanted but with her options running out fast, she puts on a brave face and accepts.  He is not even put off when he meets her adult children and she has to confess that she actually doesn’t even know who the father is of her youngest one who had been living with foster parents.

Angélique moves out of the Club and into Michel’s home and as the preparations for the wedding get underway all of Michel’s friend happily embrace his new-found love.  She on the other hand on a trip back to the Bar, confesses to her ex-workmates that despite her racy past, she simply cannot bear the thought of any physical contact with her fiancé and so far had kept him at bay saying that she wants to save herself for their wedding night.

This rather extraordinary hybrid movie not only has ex hostess Angélique Litzenburger playing a fictionalized version of herself, but her children are also played by her real-life children too.  In fact one of them, Samual Theis, is one of the three co-directors of the movie too.  It is even more remarkable for the fact that Litzenburger does not shy away from portraying herself as a self-absorbed reckless good-time girl who never allowed her children to either get close to her or in fact interfere with her persistent partying. Even though Litzenburger knows that she has run out of options we are still not completely shocked when she still inevitably takes the only path that suits her. 

Despite her relentless selfishness there is this element of vulnerability that still makes us a tad sympathetic to her predicament. If the story had been an entire piece of fiction it would have still have made compelling, but knowing the reality of the situation, makes it so completely unmissable. 

Winner of several awards including Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival this rather wonderful sad tale will linger with you far longer than any of the drinks that Angélique probably still nurses at the Bar.

★★★★★★★★

MEET ME IN MONTENEGRO

Writer/director Alex Holdridge knows that one of the reasons he is an independent filmmaker is that he has no need for a therapist. When life throws a wobbly or two, he can simply work through it by making a movie about it all, and that is exactly what he has done here as he recalls the time he loved and lost a beautiful Norwegian dancer. He wondered what he did wrong to make her leave without even a proper goodbye, and then one day years later, he got his answer.

Holdridge plays an American filmmaker called Anderson (who is really playing Holdridge) in Berlin at a loose end and in between movies when he meets Lina a vivacious dancer with whom he ends up having a rather passionate affair. When they de-camp for a vacation to Montenegro Anderson is in such heaven that he declares that this is the first time he really has felt alive. However it ends as quickly as it starts when Lina just ups and goes off without any warning just  leaving a note that simply says 'lets end on a high note'.

Fast forward three years and Anderson is back in Berlin, this time trying to talk a major movie star into committing to being in his new film in order for the Studios to finally Green-light it.  This  should be his next big break but instead he accidentally runs into Lina again and they start where they left off. This time however they both have big work commitments ahead on different continents so they know that their time together will be limited. That is if they keep to their plans, but by this point, we already know that's the very last thing they will do.

There is a secondary subplot involving Anderson's best friend, a failed cafe owner, and his girlfriend who think they want to put a spark back into their relationship by visiting a sex club with the idea of having a threesome. Holdridge cast the very talented British actor Rupert Friend ('Homeland') for the part which not only makes it work so well, but will give this wee indie movie more visibility.

Meet Me in Montenegro is 'inspired' by Holdridge's real life on-off-on relationship with Linnea Saasen, and the fact they are both co-writers, co-directors and co-stars of the piece seems to imply that it is much more than a simple case of art imitating life, and in fact its repeating it, albeit with a minor change of two.  It took them almost four years to make flitting from country and country recreating this endearing love story of theirs.

Holdridge has a fine sense of humor and there are some great comic touches (asides from the visit to the Sex Club) such as the night he is running through the streets of Berlin unable to find any store still opened that sold condoms.  It is however the sheer charm of this very affectionate and quite adorable couple that makes this quirky romantic-comedy such a delightful treat and make you content enough to ignore its shortcomings. 

It will also so make you want to start Googling flights to Montenegro too.......

★★★★★★★★

TRAINWRECK

Funny woman Amy Schumer effortlessly makes the transition from her successful TV career to being the brightest new star to hit the big screen this year in what is destined to be one of the summer’s blockbuster romantic comedies. If that is not enough, she wrote the very hilarious script herself.

Amy plays Amy a magazine writer for one of those obnoxious self-congratulatory ‘Lads’ magazines who has never forgotten the mantra that her rather sleazy father drummed into her when she was a young girl ‘monogamy is not realistic.’  So daughter like father with her insatiable sex-drive Amy adopts a strict love–em-and-leave-em policy manipulating a never ceasing line of hot dates into pleasuring her before she ups and disappears never ever sleeping over with any of them. The one time she breaks her rule and wakes up in strange bedroom with its walls plastered with football insignia she begs ‘please don’t let this be a Dorm room’.

One day she is assigned to write a profile on a surgeon who specializes in putting famous athletes together again after they have got injured. It’s a tad more serious than the fluffy stuff that she is used to writing about but she dare not argue with her fearsomely aggressive editor and her foul-mouth expletives.  (A shockingly wonderful Tilda Swinton who could give any ‘Real Housewife’ a run for their money.)

Amy is determined not to like Aaron but cannot stop herself and when dinner and drinks follow the interview she invites herself home to his house afterwards.  Not only that she allows him to persuade her to stay the night, and next morning at her Office she is deeply regretting it. It had been the first time that she had ever had sex whilst still sober, and worst still, she had enjoyed it. 

Now there is even more role reversal as Amy cannot understand why she actually wants to see him again as this is an unprecedented feeling for her, whilst Aaron is being congratulated by his fiends that he has finally met someone after a two year dry spell.  His best friend is LeBron James who is playing himself and surprisingly enough he does a very good job of it.  Well, it may not totally be the real James as it is hard to imagine him as a penny-pinching guy who insists on splitting the restaurant check to the dime before dashing home to watch 'Downton Abbey' with his teammates.

Amy has been happy playing the field and enjoying her own bad behavior, but there are secondary plot lines with her sister, who took an opposite route and married ‘safely’ to a very sensible man and even took on his precocious son, plus their father’s health is failing and the siblings have to put in an assisted living home.  If this is meant to try to persuade Amy to change her ways and conform before it is too late, it fails.  Panic not, after she panics about being swept away by her too-nice-for-words Doctor and losing sight of her slutty single days, their break up is followed by a ‘make up’ but one very much in Amy’s own style.

Amy simply shines on the screen and although she is best in the more frenetic mad banter scenes, she proves she can hold her own when it comes to getting all romantic and emotional.  She gives a powerhouse performance, which is complemented by a funny, but understated, turn by Bill Hader as Aaron the man who may eventually tame her.  I am still in something of shock discovering Tilda Swinton’s yet untapped gift for comedy in all her scene-stealing moments.

Directed by Judd Apatow, considered the master of this genre, but for once it would have better if he hadn’t been quite so formulaic in his direction too and let Amy’s own voice come through more.  That said, it is still a gloriously wonderful movie that shows what a total charmer this breath of fresh air really is.

★★★★★★★★

SOUTHPAW

Billy ‘The Great’ Hope seems to have everything. He has retained his title of World Light Heavyweight Boxing Champion, albeit after a particularly bloody match.  He lives a life of sheer luxury in an enormous New York Mansion with his wife Maureen who adores him, and their cute precious daughter Leila who he totally dotes on. Not bad for someone that grew in a series of rough foster homes in the care of Children’s Services, followed by a spell or two behind bars.  It is Maureen his childhood sweetheart who is the street smart one in their relationship and who calls the shots and had, ensured that they make the most of their success.  Now she tells Billy that as he is 41 years old its time for him to take a break from boxing and maybe quit it all together before he ends up as just another old punch drunk boxer. 

She is however facing an uphill struggle convincing Billy as his manager, who sees his champion simply as a cash cow, fights back with even more lucrative offers which she insists that they reject. Then one night after a nasty public scuffle Maureen is accidentally fatally shot and soon after, a distraught grieving Billy without his wife to advise and protect him, is pressured into signing up for another match that will lead to his downfall and him losing everything. Including the custody of Leila.

Rock bottom, homeless and broke he ends up in a rundown gym in the projects belonging to a once very successful trainer Tick Willis. Billy needs a job and money to be able to get Leila back but as Tick has sworn off training professional boxers anymore, he has a tough job persuading him to take him on so that he can fight one last major match and win his 

daughter and his dignity back.

This riches to rags (and back again) melodrama had been written very specifically for Eminem almost as a follow on from his semi-autobiographical ‘8 Mile’ however when he passed on the project, the producers made the inspired choice of beefing up Jake Gyllenhaal to tie on the gloves.  He rises to the occasion so perfectly with a set of washboard abs and muscles that totally transform him for this very overly dramatic physical role that the Academy love handing out Awards for.  His performance is every bit as good as the one he gave in ‘Nightcrawler’ last year that many considered was Oscar worthy.  He is directed here by Antoine Fugua (slightly heavy-handily at the beginning) and the fact that Fugua himself was once a boxer accounts for some of the stunning staging and photography of the matches that have such a glorious intense realism to them. He does however never ever spare us from all the blood and gore at any time.

The extremely predictable story is at its best when it starts to focus on Billy out of the ring as he starts his rehabilitation with Tick (played quite brilliantly by Forrest Whittaker in his usual low-key un-showy style).  Whilst we may not be surprised by any of the plots strands, Gyllenhaal imbues Billy and his bruised and tattooed body with such ferocity and earnestness, that we cannot fail to become so completely invested in the outcome.

Credit too for Rachel McAdams as Maureen who ensured that the short time she was on screen was powerful enough that we would also share Billy’s loss when she was killed.  Also to Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, (who I had failed to recognize), in the crucial role of Billy’s manipulative manager. 

There is however only one real reason to see this enjoyable and entertaining movie and that is Jake Gyllenhaal.  We all knew that ‘Donnie Darko’ would just keep getting better and better. 

★★★★★★★★

ZIPPER

Actor Patrick Wilson could pass for disgraced ex New York Governor Eliot Spitzer if the lighting was just right, but this rather clumsy drama that is either based or inspired by Spitzer's downfall, just couldn't ever be mistaken for the real thing.  Wilson plays Sam Ellis who is a Federal prosecutor who is on the fast rack in national politics.  He has all the right attributes : successful high-profile career, charm, handsome as hell with a clean-cut family man image. Most important though he has Jeanne his well-connected wife who is fiercely ambitious for them both and she is a ruthless operator who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. In this instance its to get her husband chosen for the Senate seat that is about to become vacant and as she constantly reminds him, she gave up her own career/life to further his, so he owes her big time.

Their marriage however is not just loveless but its also devoid of any sexual activity which Ellis doesn't seem to mind as long as he got some porn to get off too. However when in the course of an investigation into a high-class escort agency he starts to realise what he is missing and so the moment Jeanne announces she is going away for the weekend, he makes the call for a 'date'.

When he arrives for his session, Ellis goes through this whole routine of trying not to go through with it, but the girl talks him into staying and he does saying telling himself that its just a one off time.  Trouble is that he is hooked and although he has to go through a whole elaborate routine to avoid being caught or traced, he discovers he is very soon addicted to the sex. 

On one occasion about to have his latest assignation (he makes a point of never seeing the same girl) he spots undercover FBI Agents in the Hotel lobby and he abrupt leaves in a panic suspecting that a 'sting' is about to go down.  However when the Agents call at his Office the next day to confirm that they are indeed in the middle of an investigation as they have traced huge amounts of money leaving there to pay the Escorts, it is in fact Ellis's boss they suspect.

It's obvious though that the trap is tightening and he will get found out as even the journalist that Jeanne has persuaded to write a big profile piece on Ellis will soon uncover the truth about the his secret life too.

One of the problems is that even if we accept the old cliche that many men let their brains and hearts be led by their penises, it still does not explain all the irrational and ill-conceived decisions that the normally circumspect and restrained Ellis took. However a more alarming aspect of this somewhat cliche-ridden plot were the chunks of stilted and utterly ridiculous dialogue that actually had the audience at Sundance inappropriate laughing out loud. 

Not quite the reaction of Jeanne when she eventually finds out what had really been going on and she lays into her husband and his car with a baseball bat before then fixing things with everybody so that even if they will never live happily after, she will at least still get to be a Senator's wife.

By far the best thing about this very predictable drama that may touch on the veins of 'House of Cards' but is instead a mish-mash of a sex & politics thriller, is Patrick Wilson. He shines even with this poor material and is the only reason that one would want to sit through this movie. Oh yes and Lena Headey as Jeanne who shows she can bitch like the best of them. 

★★★★

A FIVE STAR LIFE

Irene spends her life nit-picking over every casual slight from any hotel front-desk clerk, or noting exactly how long room service takes to deliver her order before she sticks her thermometer in first the wine and then the soup. That's all before she strips the bed down completely to see how soft and clean the linen is.  She is one tough cookie but it's all in a day's work for her as she jet sets around the globe to see if the world's best hotels should retain their 5 Star rating.

Her obsession with minute detail when she is tasting all this luxury really fulfills her which is just as well as when she lands back home in Italy, her rather empty single life is juxtaposed with all the unruly chaos of the people that surround her.  There is her old flame Andrea who is now her best friend and who jolts Irene out of her complacency of the coziness of their relationship when he announces that he is about to become the father of a child with one of his recent one night stands.  Then there is her rather scatter-brained self-absorbed sister Sylvia whose marriage to her musician husband has grown stagnant which seems to be an excuse for her constantly riling Irene about being an unmarried forty-something-year-old woman. 

This inoffensive and quite charming gentle movie from Italian director  Maria Sole Tognazzi is essentially not a great deal more than a travelogue for all the rather splendid hotels that Irene spends her days dissecting. It also serves as a detailed job description for anyone wishing to take this up as a career.  Asides from that it starts with Irene content with traveling alone through work and life, and after a couple of minor diversions, its ends on exactly the same note.

Asides from the Hotels, it also stars Margherita Buy and Stefano Accorsi who had previously worked together in 'His Secret Life' & 'Saturn In Opposition'. Plus a refreshing cameo performance from Brit actor Lesley Manville that looked like it may liven up the pace of the piece somewhat but then when her character gets killed off suddenly, so does all hope of any real fun for poor Irene and us.

★★★★★

ALOFT

There is an intriguing opening to this very disjointed tale of mystic healing that never ceases to leave you feel anything other than baffled right up to the final credits even though that was clearly never really the intention of Peruvian writer/director Claudia Llosa. At the beginning we follow Nana begging for a lift in the back of a truck for herself and her two young sons. Gully is obviously quite sick and his older brother Ivan is just bored but nevertheless totally absorbed in his pet falcon that he is never apart from.

They are going to try and meet a famous shaman in this desolate prairie, but so too is this large crowd desperate to see the mysterious faith healer known as 'The Architect' in the hope that they can be cured from illnesses beyond the scope of conventional medicine.  However he will only agree to see one of them and there is a rather cruel lottery system to determine who the lucky one will be.

Gully draws the right pebble and he is just in the middle of his session when the falcon goes amok causing total mayhem but all is not lost in the chaos as they realise when  the boy actually gets better its because its Nana who actually possesses the gift for healing after all. (We never ever discover if The Architect was a fraud or not.)

She is reluctant to accept her new powers but as it is obvious that Gully is getting better she does start her own healing sessions out in middle of the woods.  On one such occasion she leaves the two boys in a car whilst she heads off for some privacy to see some sick people. Alone they start the car up and drive off and end up overturning it into a frozen lake and Gully drowns.

Fast forward 20 years and Ivan is married and has  a child of his own but is very much an unhappy loner and now with a whole flock of falcons. He is approached by a journalist who asks to interview him for an article she is writing about falcons, but she eventually confesses that this is just a ruse and the real reason she wants to meet him is to track his mother down. Nana became an infamous healer/miracle worker before totally disappearing out of sight with her band of loyal followers. 

The journalist actually has a personal reason for the search as she has a terminal disease and has run out of all other options.  She is eventually successfully in persuading Ivan to help in her quest as he wants to know how his mother could have just completely abandon him after his brother died. He seems incapable of any emotional attachment but he would at least like some closure on it all.

They eventually track her down to the extreme snowy wastes of the Arctic where Nana spends her life in the middle of nowhere healing the strangers who have made the near impossible trek.  It is far from clear though whether she has embraced her healing gifts even she is dispensing them freely on a full time basis.  She and Ivan have a great deal of anger towards each other and to life in general, so he fails to get any of the answers that he wanted. Neither does the journalist, nor do we.

It's a disappointing third feature from Ms Llosa especially as is follows her stunning award-winning 'The Milk of Sorrows' and stars Cillian Murphy, Jennifer Connolly and Melanie Laurent. Murphy at least seems to love playing miserable, but not enough to save this somewhat annoying drama that seems as cold as the snowy wastes that it is set in.

★★★★

PERVERT PARK

Scandinavian filmmaking couple Frida & Lasse Barkfors made a somewhat bizarre choice for this, their debut documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Award.  They opted to paint a very humanized picture of a halfway house for convicted sex offenders in Florida.  Surprisingly they achieved it quite perfectly with a very balanced portrait that will actually make people re-think long held prejudices. By letting the 125 inmates and residents in the trailer homes in Florida Justice Transitions (that the local neighbors have cruelly dubbed Pervert Park) just talk without adding explanations or narration made this very sensitive subject easier to digest and understand.

The 'Park' was founded by in St Petersberg, Florida by Nancy Morais after her son was convicted of sex offences and she realised that under the many restrictions laid down in law that it was nigh on impossible for him to find housing in an urban area. Not allowed to reside within 1000 feet of any place where children gathered such as schools, playgrounds, churches and even bus stops etc made life extremely difficult for him and others.  

All of the residents are there because they are either are on parole and probation.  Some are even under 'house arrest' and must wear an electronic bracelet so their movements can be tracked at all times.  The stories that they related ranged from disturbing to downright horrifying but the one constant factor was that they were all brutally honest even when they didn't come out to well from their own stories. Nearly all of them seemed to have suffered some personal abuse when they were younger, although not one of them ever raised that as an excuse for whatever caused them to end up offending. 

They included men and women, straight and gay, of all different ages and backgrounds. One of the saddest was that of an articulate and highly educated young gay man in his 20's with a Masters Degree who was entrapped online.  This falls within the very wide scope of what constitutes a 'sex crime' and he bravely accepts his guilt even though it was clearly a one-off experience. He is now studying for his PhD to become a Professor, but he knows having the conviction on his record may still make him unemployable.

One of the most moving and tough-to-watch stories was that of Tracy who had been regularly raped by her father starting when she was just 6 years old. She then became sexually active and unknowingly had an abortion when she was just 11 years old. Later after two bad marriages she then abused her own 6 year old son.  He in turn abused a girl when he was just 13 years old, and is now incarcerated for armed robbery. She seems to be starting to deal with her anger/problems being able to talk through them in group therapy and she made some quite profound statements on the nature of forgiveness and the need for closure, which she has at least been able to achieve with her son at last. 

Interesting enough the group sessions are run by Don Sweeney a very laid back therapist who originally counselled victims of sexual abuse before he came realise that not only did the offenders need some help too, but that it was a service that no-one at all was providing. It's a tough choice as society is much harder of this group of 'criminals' then probably most others, and rehabilitation and redemption, the goals of this particular community, is always going to be very tough to achieve.

The 'Park' is run by the residents themselves in a very disciplined manner.  They try to help each other overcome many difficult obstacles on the road to recovery and eventual integration in society such as finding work which is no easy task when your name is on the national sex offender register.  They must be doing something right as the statistics that run during the movie's final credits state that the percentage of residents that re-offend is just 1%, which is the lowest rate in the entire country.

Sadly there is a new app easily available that lists the entire Register of Sex Offenders and that shows their photographs and gives out their full addresses. It may have been intended to ease any concerns of worried parents but the movie showed that is the perfect tool to feed the gangs of crusading vigilantes who know that often local police will almost encourage them to wreak havoc, and deny the fact that people like the residents of 'The Park' will ever deserve a second chance.

The movie is definitely not that easy to watch but because neither the residents or the Barkfors even attempt to ask for our sympathy, then somehow at the very least, they deserve some consideration.

★★★★★★★★

EDEN

French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love’s new movie is a love story of the music of a generation where the plot and people involved really do take a back seat. Right from the opening scene set in 1992 in Parisian suburbs where another illicit rave scene party is taking place in an old deserted fort where they are playing the newly imported trend of ‘garage’ music we meet Paul a very impressionable teenage student.

He is very quickly smitten and persuades his best friend Stan to form a DJ duo called ‘Cheers’ with him so they can start promoting their own parties.  The two of them soon have an odd coterie of followers and collaborators including Julia an American ex-pat who is one of the first of Paul’s many girlfriends, none of whom can ever compete with his passion/obsession for making music.  Determined to make this his role in life he abandons his university studies much to the concerns of his very agitated mother who is convinced that now he is running these raves, he will soon be hooked on drugs too. 

Hansen-Love wrote this movie with her DJ brother Sven and faithfully portrays what life was like in the 90’s as the rave parties struggled to find venues, and blend the styles and techniques and as the music industry explored with all these new genres of techno music that often emanated from chance encounters with different gifted amateurs.  These are heady days when all Paul wants to do is just spin his turntables playing the pulsating beats that has the packed dance floor writhing with pleasure,  and he has little concern for anything else.

Whilst two of Paul’s wider circle of acquaintances are drifting to another strand of techno music and they later become ‘Daft Punk’, he sticks rigidly to his music that was first heard at the Paradise Garage in NY.  He burns through his twenties and then stumbles into his thirties and as success quickly fades when his music becomes unfashionable he plunges deeper into debt and much more reliant on the drugs he just used to dabble in.  Women come and go, even as his friends build more stable relationships and have families.  When Julia catches sight of him many years later she means to compliment him when she says ‘it’s crazy that you haven’t changed’ but the reality is that it has a whole other meaning in his case.

It is always about the music though and even though there is a talented young cats led by Félix de Givry, Pauline Etienne, Hugo Conzelmann and an uncomfortable looking Greta Gerwig, they simply cannot complete with the very luscious soundtrack that overwhelms the narrative. 

This is a rise and fall drama that about a whole music genre and how it affected one man’s life, and albeit far too long (131 minutes) it is a rather wonderful poignant reminder of a whole generation of music and how it affected many of our lives too.

★★★★★★★

FINDERS KEEPERS

John Wood has a bad habit of losing things. Soon after he lost his job, he then lost his house too and when it was foreclosed, he put all his worldly possessions into a storage unit. When he failed to pay the rent for that, he lost the entire contents which were auctioned off in his home town in North Carolina. They included a barbecue grill in which he had stashed his leg which he had lost, or rather had amputated, after a plane crash in which his father had died.

The new 'owner' of his limb was Shannon Whisnant an unkempt overweight redneck who was initially horrified when he first discovered it, but then wanted to parlay the novelty of his find into a ticket for his long dreamed-off 15 minutes of fame.  What followed however was a lengthy drawn out battle over several years to decide who legally and morally owned the leg.  

Whisnant's comically tragic attempts at becoming a TV star based on his new infamy rancorously backfired on him when he realized that the Reality TV crew were not taking him seriously at all and were in fact treating him like the jerk he really is.  On the other hand this is counterbalanced somewhat by Wood's own rather sad story as he struggles with his battles over his drug and drink addiction. However despite the fact he is often very strung out, Wood has a very natural wit and is probably the only genuinely nice person in this whole sordid scenario. He is certainly a vast improvement on his embittered mother who is a real piece of work and says of her son 'I like him, but I don't think I love him.'

Then as if the whole thing is not bizarre enough, when Wood was eventually awarded custody of his own leg again after the matter is settled on a TV Court Show he takes it to an lesbian amateur taxidermist who offers to stuff it for him for nothing. 

Directed by Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel, this unintentionally hilariously funny documentary must have been tough for them to edit as they revisited the feuding men and their families over several years, during which time they all went through an entire spectrum of the worse mullet hairstyles ever. 

This weirdly eccentric movie surfaced first at Sundance who excel at showcasing such oddities. This one mixes sensationalism and downright bad taste with total insensitivity for any of its participants : which all makes for such compulsory viewing.

★★★★★★★