The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia - film review

It has been years since I saw the 1991 cult documentary Dancing Outlaw, a film that sparked a great deal of interest in the American South, paving the way for films like Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus and Seven Signs down the line. The trials and tribulations of Jesco White are fascinating, although ultimately the film paints a picture of an oft-forgotten America that is stuck in a holding pattern of poverty, violence, and substance abuse.

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia picks up with the entire White clan approximately 17-18 years following the release of Dancing Outlaw. While Jesco White remains a cult hero of sorts to fans of the original movie, what hasn't changed is the culture in which he lives. In fact, this movie is a sobering and stark depiction of the effects of deep seated poverty in rural America.

In short, the movie breaks down the White family tree, detailing the lives of Jesco's siblings, nieces & nephews, cousins, and even his mother. What you find is a family history addled by the effects of addiction. Pharmaceutical abuse is a major undercurrent throughout the film, and its effects upon the family have been devastating. Prison time, deaths, and violence are commonplace in the family, to the point that many of the family members seem to known nothing other than such events. Of the entire clan, Poney White, who moved his family out of West Virginia entirely, is the only one who is shown to have achieved any level of stability.

Jesco White, sadly, is but a shell of a drug abused body, noting himself that years of gasoline huffing have left his cognitive abilities very limited. The gregarious mountain dancer who has been the hero of hipsters and frat boys alike over the past two decades has seen few, if any, benefits of his famed status. He is a tragic figure who in his 54 years of life has become a poster child for the exploitation of the impoverished. Those who have profited off of his personality have the distinct benefit of being able to leave when they are finished filming, yet Jesco and his family remain trapped in a neverending cycle of problems. White continues to live in rural West Virginia, where he is likely to live out the remainder of his life. Even if he or his family could see profits from their fame, the poverty cycle is too deeply ingrained for money to have beneficial effects, as it almost certainly goes right back out the door in the purchase of various drugs.

It's certainly your prerogative to take what you wish out of this film, but the sad truth is that this intriguing sideshow is in fact a portrait of real people. The Whites are representative of a sizeable segment of American society, and serve as a reminder to us all that no matter how great the opportunities many of us have, a substantial portion of the country is never exposed to education or the benefits provided by modern society. Sadly, it's not as though these people are so isolated that they can live "off the grid," as their rural lifestyle has been greatly affected by the availability of black market pharmaceuticals while programs to help them deal with the resulting large scale addiction are virtually non-existent, or at-best, ineffective and underfunded. The White family is concurrently hard to watch and hard not to watch, and while I think the film is a realistic depiction of them and a valuable reminder of the effects of poverty, it also remains an unsettling portrait of those who have fallen through the cracks in our country.

Crazy Heart

I finally got the opportunity to see Crazy Heart over the weekend. I can't say that I have a ton to add on top of all of the reviews it has already received. Here are my quick thoughts though:

• The movie is really good. I wasn't disappointed at all. I think it deserves the fanfare it has received, and seems to have gotten some decent attention in the Oscar nominations.

• It's reminiscent of The Wrestler, as far as the redemption theme, etc. You'll see what I mean.

• The music is well done. Colin Farrell is an interesting pick for the country superstar, but he pulls it off. He portrays more of the 80s or 90s country star than a modern one, since modern country stars don't actually sing country anymore.
  

• Jeff Bridges nails everything about the part of the troubled songwriter. I heard the part was styled after a number of songwriters such as Waylon, Merle, Kris, and Billy Joe Shaver, although it's much more along the lines of Billy Joe and maybe Townes Van Zandt if you ask me. Huge huge difference between a songwriter who has written some famous songs and a songwriter who is actually famous. Jeff Bridges doesn't have a Waylon Jennings voice, but then again, that's probably the best voice ever to sing country music, so no true critique there.

• Ryan Bingham plays a small part early in the film and does it well I would say. Also, I think he hasn't received the credit he should for the film being successful. I read an interview a while back that said they've had this script for a number of years, but needed "the song." He wrote that song, and I think it really is pretty integral to this story.

• And if you're down on Ryan Bingham for any reason, whether he had anything to do with it or not, I was really impressed that his actual band was in the movie also and not just some Hollywood stand-ins.

• Great overall soundtrack. For music written for a movie, the songs on the soundtrack are really strong.
  

Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel - documentary review

At times I go to great lengths to try and report on bands or albums or other items that are either “news” or at least relatively obscure, of course trying to be a tiny little cog in the 24-hour news machine. Other times I review albums or books from a year ago or five years ago, or talk about artists from 35 years ago. In all honesty, sometimes both endeavors seem quite useless, but all the same, I guess you don’t have to read any of it if you don’t want.

What does all of that have to do with what I am discussing now? Virtually nothing, other than the fact that this one can be filed away in the “5 years old” category. Upon a recommendation from an internet faux-friend (or IFFs, as I like to call them), I was compelled to find a copy of the Gram Parsons documentary Fallen Angel, having taken a recent increased interest in Parsons’ various musical endeavors as a parallel to some of my searching for people who were involved with A&M Records and John Braden at that time.

Sometimes I find it preferable not to subject friends and family to the documentaries and such that I enjoy, so I chose to watch the DVD early one Saturday morning. By about halfway through, it was so good that I had largely decided it would be worth starting over so that H. could watch it with me.

What Gandulf Hennig and Sid Griffin put together with this DVD is a work that captured a short, but quite notable, piece of music history at just the right point in time. That is, over 30 years after Parsons’ death, each year that passes inevitably leaves us with a few less people who personally knew him. Likely at great effort and expense, they tracked down numerous people from various periods of Gram Parsons’ life, and from those individual accounts they construct a detailed and cohesive story that is compelling and quite well-rounded.

The film follows a progression of countless personal narratives from Gram’s friends, family, and fellow musicians in a quite tasteful manner, and the mixture of many personal anecdotes keeps the story intriguing throughout. At the very end, the film falls victim to a bit of sensationalism regarding the events surrounding Parsons’ death, and why this event breaks rank from the format of the earlier parts, I don’t know.

However, the value of the accounts throughout the film is priceless from a music historian’s perspective, as no amount of archival footage or periodicals can substitute for the personal memories of those involved. I note the timeliness of this documentary most particularly because some of those interviewed for the film, who are quite vital to its completeness, have passed on in the 5 years since it was filmed. Thus, no matter whether or not you buy into Gram Parsons’ recent resurgence in popularity, this film provides a well organized and detailed account of not only his life, but also gives us a portrait of the lives of those in the music business some 40 years ago. The style of this documentary is similar to Be Here to Love Me, which covered the life of Townes Van Zandt a number of years ago. Although still not a widely known documentary, Fallen Angel is an essential for anyone with an interest in Gram Parsons or the Flying Burrito Brothers. So if you’ve got your recruits and your green mohair suits, show your ID at the local video store and check out this documentary. Ironically, my previous sentence is about as cliché and unnecessary as the ending to the documentary, so consider yourself warned in that regard.

(Image source Speakeasy PR)

Bonecrusher - film review

I came to know about the documentary Bonecrusher quite randomly, through a Medical Sociology listserve, in which people were discussing health and Appalachia. It is quite random indeed when my work interests intersect with the interests I write about here. Nonetheless, Bonecrusher is a picture of an America the world may forget still exists, one in which overarching poverty frames the lives of communities over the course of many generations.

The film has made its way around the country in various film festivals, gaining attention in the "people who go to film festivals" circle, and apparently the "people who study health in Appalachia" circle, but otherwise it has largely flown under the radar. The film is available on DVD, which is great for those interested, since catching a film you want to see at a local film festival typically requires a good bit of random luck. Director Michael Fountain has worked extensively in television for many years, and his experience shows in the care and detail in which the story is told.

The film centers around Luther Chaffin, a lifelong resident of Russell County, VA, who gained the nickname "Bonecrusher" during his years as a coal miner. As the film finds him, he is now quite literally a frame of his former self as a result of the long term chronic health complications associated with his profession. However, this is not a story solely about the high risk occupation of coal mining, but rather one about the culture, communities, and families that have defined coal mining for generations. Most important to this story is Luther's bond with his son Lucas, a young man who has only recently taken up coal mining as his profession, thus carrying on the family tradition.

In the past, I have discussed films about the American South such as Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus and Seven Signs, which cover the obscure and "off the beaten path" South that is very interesting, but which are often more a presentation of novelties than typical everyday life. Bonecrusher does well not to overly romanticize or sensationalize the coal mining lifestyle, presenting on a number of levels the hardships and adversities built into the lives of the impoverished families and communities, and further depicting the strained relationships and continual cycle of health complications that go along with their high risk occupation.

Coal mining typically comes into our perception every few years when a major disaster occurs in a mine, and our 24-hour news coverage spends a few days in these small communities, depicting the anguish of tight knit communities losing loved ones. At those times, they flood us with information about mine safety and what has changed and what hasn't changed in the long history of coal mining, and then, as quickly as they took up the coverage, they are gone, leaving families and communities to continue on with their way of life as they always have, and making us all forget about mining until the next media blitz. Bonecrusher tells us about the everyday life that occurs in between those events, where chronic disease kills far more people than major mining disasters likely ever will.



Similarly, the film tells stories about masculinity and the effects of globalization. With the former, we hear middle aged men discussing how much they love working in the mine, how they always wanted to work in the mine more than anything else, and how a man gains a certain respect in being a miner that he can not obtain anywhere else. With the latter, we also learn that the mining companies have found it difficult to find new young men to work, because younger generations have taken alternate paths and moved out of the mining communities to take jobs in urban areas, possibly as a means of avoiding the paths they saw generations before them take. Thus, the mining communities resemble many other rural areas in the U.S., where the prospect of jobs and opportunities has pulled entire generations away to urban areas, thus leaving a small aging population to maintain the disappearing culture.

In the end, one may come away from the film wondering what to take from it. As you might expect, no happy ending or comforting resolution concludes the film. Rather, the end is more a depiction about how life goes on and the work goes on, no matter what happened the day before. It is a film about all the love and bonds and stubborness that often comprise a father-son relationship, and I think it does quite well to depict the positives that have sustained the coal mining life for as long as it has been the lifeblood of small mining towns in Appalachia, most notably the strong sense of family and community that defines the lives of these individuals. While the documentary is unlikely to be a mainstream success, it will remain a staple in certain circles because it tells an important story that urban America increasingly doesn't remember or understand, in spite of the fact that it is the work of people like this that makes the lights in your house turn on when you flip the switch. It is a small picture of the occupation that has long defined the Appalachian region, and one that we should not forget exists.

The Hangover (not mine...the movie)

I really hadn't planned on writing a full blog about going to see the Hangover, since of all the things I am, a movie reviewer is not one of them. Nonetheless, a week ago when Westword offered a chance to get free passes to an advance screening of the Hangover, I jumped at the chance. Normally I don't make a big effort to see new release movies, especially when they are mass marketed big studio type films. Nonetheless, Zach Galifianakis' scenes in the trailer were enough to catch my interest.

The general deal was that we weren't guaranteed seats, but if we got there early (they said 30-60 minutes), we should have a good chance of getting seats. Turns out that the prospect of getting something for free was more than people could stand, and they probably took the day off of work just to get in line. We actually heard that people began showing up at noon to line up for the 7 p.m. showing. As much as I wanted to see the movie, it wasn't bad enough to wait 7 hours in a 14 plex in Arvada, so I'm glad we made it to the theater at about 6:15. The line was already ridiculous by that point, and we were probably 250-300 people back in line. The good news we found out was that the theater held over 400, so we stuck it out and found seats that were up front, but not quite the front row.

The biggest surprise about the line was that we were really expecting a lot of hipsters, largely due to the Galifianakis cult following and because I was expecting not a lot of people go through the Westword movie section where the free showing was announced. Turns out a radio station had announced the show today though, because we soon found out that the line looked much more like the Flatirons mall crowd than the painfully hip Sputnik crowd. Further proof of the low hipster turnout was the lack of silly hats, which were almost non-existent. Rather, I think most were anxious to see "that guy from The Office" as much as anyone in the movie.

Oh yeah, I should mention that we saw the movie too. I was afraid the previews had given away all the funny parts, but by no means was that the case. I actually have a hangover from the movie because there were so many funny parts that I really can't remember any of them. Plus, you don't want me to spoil it anyway. Just to reassure you, there are plenty of scenes in the movie that aren't in the trailer, and while some of the humor is a bit crude, it avoids being completely low brow and stays true to Galifianakis' comedic style.

My favorite part of the night was as we were leaving hearing all of the mall crowd talking about all the ridiculous cliched things that people say about Vegas. Yes, a woman behind me even said "yeah, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." Wow, I thought, this is not Zach's typical crowd. This is the guy who makes jokes about the most offensive subjects imaginable but somehow gets away with it because they are so intelligent.

Alas, I fear that the non-mainstream days of Zach G. have finally come to an end. If this movie is not his breakout, then I don't know what will be. Land of the Lost may dominate the top of the box office standings for the weekend, but I think The Hangover will sustain as well. I can't be more glad that I got to see his stand-up show at the Boulder Theater 18 months or so ago, because even those days may be numbered as well. The good news I think is that Visioneers should finally be released. It's apparently been picked up for distribution, but I'm sure they are waiting for The Hangover to make Zach a superstar first so they can maximize profits. Given the laugh-out-loud comedy of The Hangover, I'm wondering how the dark comedy of Visioneers is going to be received for Galifianakis by his new mainstream followers. Hmm, this situation sounds familiar...anyone remember The Cable Guy?

Seven Signs that it's hard to find an entirely new perspective on the South

I hesitate to do much in the way of reviews on this site, just because I'm so indecisive in forming opinions on such things. However, I'd like to give a brief report on what I thought of the above Seven Signs movie.

The documentary is the brainchild/project of The Legendary Shack Shakers front man JD Wilkes. Format-wise, I didn't find it substantially different than Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus. I like both movies, and seeing one before the other probably influences how you perceive each.

By far, Seven Signs has it's strength in the stories told by the people that are interviewed. Similar to SFTWEJ, there are countless interesting "characters" and legends in the South and Wilkes does a good job of seeking out some interesting folks. Additionally, there is a strong focus on music, and the film includes performances from a number of musicians that claim some sort of Southern influence in their art.

One thing I was looking forward to was the inclusion of Slim Cessna's Auto Club in the film, as I'd known they were involved since I first saw the trailer. Oddly though, this turned out to be a portion of the film I didn't quite understand. The end of the film includes a live stripped down performance of "Children of the Lord," by Slim and Munly. The part that I didn't quite understand was the story that Munly tells in addition to the performance. While it was fairly characteristic of the Munly stories I've read, it just seemed an odd conclusion to the film, given that most of the earlier narratives were from folks from the South who were telling either personal stories or local folklore, and here is a Denver musician telling a story about "Döder made me do it."

It's almost an Andy Kaufman type of moment, where you don't know if the joke's on you or if you're just not getting it. I welcome interpretations from others.

The film is short, running at about 50 minutes, but covers a number of interesting subjects, has an intriguing theme running throughout, and is overall worth the watch. I think it is a good and honest portrayal of the South, although not a totally novel one. But then again, not many people can completely redefine the representation of a region or culture through art (unless you're Cormac McCarthy).