Python Night: 30 Years of Monty Python (1999)

Director:

Terry Jones and Elaine Shepherd

IMDB

Review:

A BBC 30th anniversary commemoration of the debut of Monty Python's “Flying Circus” with a treasure trove of new sketches performed by the Pythons (minus spoilsport Eric Idle, and, of course, ex-Python Graham Chapman); new interviews with all the surviving members; classic clips; and recently discovered and rarely seen Python material unearthed from the BBC archives. “It's... the Monty Python Story”, is a sketchy history, recalling the highs (the first two seasons of the groundbreaking TV series and The Life of Brian) and the lows (the death of Chapman, who in a poignant clip from his memorial service is eulogized by John Cleese as a "freeloading bastard"). The disk includes a long-lost 10-minute film Monty Python created for the 1971 Pan-European May Day Festival. Michael Palin spoofs his travel shows by giving viewers a tour of "Pythonland." He revisits the actual locations where such classic Python sketches as the Ministry of Silly Walks and the Fish Slapping Dance were filmed. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone offer an animated tribute (the Dead Kenny sketch), while Meatloaf goes behind the music to reveal the inspiration behind the Python's most memorable songs.

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2009)

Director:
Julien Nitzberg

IMDB

Review:
Riffing off of the original documentary "Dancing Outlaw," about tap dancer Jesco White and his dancing dad, director Julien Nitzberg headed down to the coal-mining heart of West Virginia to further exploit this drug-addled family for some film footage that's fairly unbelievable. Launching right into some current family drama between Sue Bob's son, Brandon, having landed in prison after shooting his uncle, among others, this documentary then goes back to trace hooligan behavior to the originators of the family, dancer and coal miner D. Ray and his tough-cookie wife Bertie Mae. Daughters and cousins Sue Bob, Mousie, and Kirk dominate the film, snorting pills in trashy bar bathroom stalls and getting tanked in cars while driving around with less-than-savory boyfriends and ex-husbands. Occasionally, interviews with the town's district attorney provide some background information on this infamous regional family.

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

Director:
Brit Banksy

IMDB

Review:
Los Angeles based Frenchman Thierry Guetta gets the idea that he would like to film street artists in the process of creating their work. He tells them that he is making a documentary, when in reality he has no intention of editing the footage into one cohesive movie. Unaware of this latter fact, many street artists from around the world agree to participate. Thierry even gets into the act by assisting them in creating the art. One of the artists that participates is the camera-shy Brit Banksy, who refuses to be shown on screen unless he is blacked out. Banksy does convince Thierry to use the footage to make a movie. In Thierry doing so, Banksy comes to the realization that Thierry is a lousy filmmaker, but he is an interesting character in an odd yet appealing way. So Banksy decides to use the footage and add additional material to make his own movie about Thierry's journey in this project.

Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie (2008)

Director:
Jay Delaney

IMDB

Review:
Dallas Gilbert and Wayne Burton, best friends from a dying former steel town in Ohio, are out to convince the world that Bigfoot exists. They have amassed a vast library of video footage and still photographs of proof (their website is highly trafficked) after years of venturing into the forest, day and night, to the capture shots of the legendary creature in its native habitat.
Dallas is the gregarious of the dyad is a Reiki master who uses Sasquatch calls into the wild and claims to have a sheep's bone in his skull; some claim Dallas to be one of the world’s leading big foot researchers. Wayne is the repressed, emotional of the gang- a former high-school bully who currently works at a car wash and is living paycheck to paycheck.
Seeking fame, fortune, and notoriety, Wayne and Dallas's friendship is tested when a nationally recognized high-profile California BF researcher makes a stop in their town. Director Jay Delaney's honest and often funny look at their lives, proves that Bigfoot certainly is alive and well in Wayne and Dallas' world.

Air Guitar Nation (2006)

Director:
Alexandra Lipsitz

IMDB

Review:
With equal measures of showmanship, patriotism and irony, hundreds vie at NYC's Pussycat Lounge for the East Coast Division of the first-ever nationwide air guitar championship for the right to eventually represent the U.S. at the world championship. Meanwhile, back in Finland, the current world champ frets that the influx of Americans could corrupt the form's purity. Faces contorted, bodies vibrating, fingers gripped convulsively around non-existent strings, contestants get one minute apiece to practice their art. Actor David "C-Diddy" Jung uses a kung fu style to advance to the finals at the Roxy in Los Angeles. There, he manages to defeat the West Coast faves as well as the New York runner-up, Dan "Bjorn Turoque" Crane. In Finland, C-Diddy faces some fierce competitors, not least Bjorn Turoque, who never lets a little thing like losing hold him back.

Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy (2001)

Director:
Scott J. Gill

IMDB

Review:
 The Legend of Ron Jeremy offers audiences a penetrating look inside the world of Ron Jeremy, America's most unlikely sex star and hero to millions. With nearly 25 years in the adult film industry and over 1,600 films to his credit, Ron Jeremy is huge. In his world, Ron reigns supreme-he's made millions of dollars and slept with thousands of beautiful women, and is indisputably the industry's biggest star. And everyone who's anyone knows Ron-a pop icon to millions, he is a beacon of hope for many American male, since he stands as living proof that pretty much anyone can get some. So how did such a classically unhandsome, big and hairy guy ever get to be suchia super stud? In one of the most fascinating and entertaining comedies of the last year, audiences finally get a chance to get inside the life and times of Ron Jeremy, and find out what's really behind the hardest working man in show business.

Gizmo! (1977)

Director:
Howard Smith

IMDB

Review:
An excellent documentary containing tons of archival films of early inventions. People trying to fly with wings strapped to their arms, flying cars, failed parachute experiments, cooking utensils, and much much more. This runs at about 76 minutes long, and it is non-stop entertainment. It also contains many physical experiments as well, such as a woman swinging through New York by gripping a rope with her teeth. Very dangerous acts, human cannonballs and men getting hit in the stomach with sledge-hammers. There is nothing like this film anywhere else, it is truly inspiring, bringing out the creative spirit in all of us you.

Off The Charts: The Song-Poem Story (2003)

Director:
Jamie Meltzer

IMDB

Review:
Like a warped fun-house mirror, the song-poem industry has run parallel to the mainstream music business for close to a century; it's estimated that over 200,000 song-poems have been recorded since 1900. The genre's durability can be traced to three of our deepest American desires - to be in show business, to get rich quick, and to share and express our deepest feelings. We meet several of the "songwriters" - from an elderly woman to a young African-American man to a small-town Iowan with big-time dreams - each of whom has been in the "business" for awhile, churning out odd compositions that cover the waterfront of American obsessions, from Jesus to genitalia, from politics to Elvis. We also meet the producers (often known as song-sharks) who hold out the tantalizing promise of fame to their eager customers, and the has-been musicians who sit in studios, day after day and year after year, interpreting some of the weirdest lyrics ever written. Through fellow musicians and his son, Ellery Eskelin, one of the most eloquent fans of song-poem records, we learn about the life and tragic death of the man aficionados consider the greatest song-poem interpreter of all time, Rodney Keith Eskelin. Using a variety of stage names, this would-be classical composer brought an eerie beauty to many of the song-poems he recorded before ending his career and life by jumping onto a Hollywood freeway. As filmmaker Meltzer says, "The beauty of song-poems is that they are a result of the intersection, or collision, of ordinary people's expressions and the desires of musicians/businesses to make a quick buck, making the music as fast as they can, usually in one take. When those two forces combine, they create strangely compelling songs that are unlike anything you've ever heard." Shocking, funny and heart-wrenching all at once, OFF THE CHARTS is a fascinating look at one of the strangest subcultures in our American landscape.

Farts Of Darkness: The Making Of Terror Firmer (2001)

Director:
Gabriel Friedman and Sean McGrath

IMDB

Review:
This one is a really entertaining doc. The documentary is set behind the scenes of making one of Lloyd Kaufman movies called Terror Firmer. Though it is supposed to be a horror movie this documentary is more hilarious than terrifying. The real precious part of it is when the actors and staff are preparing themselves for shooting a scene and then the whole thing goes to hell.

Blood, Boobs & Beast (2007)

Director:

John Paul Kinhart

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010379/

Review:
Blood, Boobs and Beast tells the compelling story of Don Dohler, whose movies have been called everything from oddly brilliant to some of the worst films of all time. Despite his critics, Dohler has gotten all 9 of his sci-fi and horror films distributed internationally, as well as TV syndication for his first film, The Alien Factor . Dohler has also inspired artists and filmmakers such as Robert Crumb (Fritz the Cat), J.J. Abrams (Creator of TV show Lost ) and Art Speigelman ( Maus ) with his underground comix character ProJunior, and his DIY filmmaking magazine, Cinemagic. Mild-mannered and unassuming, Dohler started making wholesome sci-fi films in the Baltimore area in 1976, but recently began including nudity and gore in his movies to please distributors. At age 59 he's just finished his most gratuitous movie to date and it's selling well, yet Dohler feels "sick of the exploitative stuff" and is considering giving up the Blood, Boobs and Beast formula. However, Dohler's recent partner Joe Ripple disagrees and views these components as essential to gaining distribution. Since the pair's filmmaking philosophies have begun to differ, it's possible that their current film could be their last. Shot and edited over two and a half years, Blood, Boobs and Beast provides a fresh and humorous look at low-budget filmmaking through the unassuming eyes of Don Dohler. With revealing interviews and beautiful cinematography, Blood, Boobs and Beast is a touching portrait of Dohler's career, his family, and his struggle to just make a good movie.

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (2008)

Director:

Chris Waitt

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037033/

Review:
Chris Waitt the hapless 30 something director, with his ever present stubble, saggy ripped jeans and dishwater moptop, is a dead ringer for Kurt Cobain circa 1994 (I would have pegged this as “retro” affectation, if every other character on screen hadn’t made a derisive comment about the director/star’s lack of grooming acumen and style). Speaking directly to the camera from a home office resembling a teenager’s bedroom, Waitt explains that, as his girlfriend of three weeks has just dumped him, he’s decided to track down as many former flames as possible and interview each, in order to figure out what he’s been doing wrong and hopefully figure out how to find true love/avoid future dumpings. This Docu/Drama has gathered quite a following and quite frankly it's hilarious.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008)

Director:
Sacha Gervasi

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1157605/

Review:
The bare outline of this doc is going to sound awfully familiar: Long-haired, middle-aged heavy-metal rockers with a penchant for talking in the most shopworn clichés face a tour booked by an incompetent manager. They play in grungy basement bars in Eastern Europe, with audiences only slightly larger than the band. Every new development on their big tour is just another humiliation. Um, This Is Spinal Tap, anyone?  Nope, this is Anvil, a real Canadian heavy-metal band that was on the brink of superstardom in the early 1980s. Though it was admired by everyone who’s anyone in metal (Lemmy, Slash and Lars Ulrich all testify in the doc), things fizzled. After some badly produced albums and shows in smaller and smaller venues, they should have given up and moved on with their lives. Nope. Guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner (talk about serendipitous names) have persevered. They soldier on, chasing the rock & roll dream long after most sane people would have awoken.  The amazing thing about this doc is that it doesn’t stoop to mockery. Yes, there are moments when you can’t help but laugh at their bad luck and bad decisions (and their awful taste in haircuts). But Gervasi gently takes us from laughing to (we’ll admit it) crying a bit as these two guys, friends and kindred spirits since the age of 14, jam and laugh and fight and party and generally embody the spirit of rock, for better or worse.

Project Grizzly (1996)

Director:
Peter Lynch

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117395/

Review:
The film documents Hurtubise's diligent work to improve his homemade "grizzly-proof" suit of armour, his efforts to test its resilience, and his forays into the Rockies to track down the grizzlies he dreams of meeting. The film manages to capture the humor of the project as well as its sincerity.