Tuesday, February 15, 2011

THE WILD AND WONDERFUL WHITES OF WEST VIRGINIA (2009)

Where to even begin with this motherfucker?!  First off, it's currently 2020 and there still isn't a part 2 or a follow-up of any kind.  I find that to be extremely disappointing.  Honestly, I don't understand how there wasn't a TV show made about these crazy fuckers!

As the documentary begins, the audience is given a brief history of the White family and we're introduced to some of it's most notorious members.  During this time, it's explained, that while some of them do occasionally hold down jobs...most of them simply "hustle", deal drugs and steal to get by.  So...while they are entertaining to watch (from a safe distance), they're also a plague on the county they live in and society as a whole.

The White's initial claim to fame was decades ago when the father of the children in this film, D. Ray White, "invented" a clogging style of tap dancing that "nobody else could do".  By some bizarre twist of Fate, D. Ray was featured on a PBS special in the 1980's.  He was shot to death in 1985.  So now...20-plus years later, in 2008, filmmaker Julien Nitzberg and his crew visit the Whites off and on for a year and film literally hundreds of hours of footage, then somehow edit it down to 88 minutes, which, in my mind, is a mistake, because this film could have easily been three hours long.

As it is though, TWAWWOWV is the fastest 88 minutes in documentary history.  The time flies by and leaves you wanting more.  Each family member is more fucked and bizarre than the last.  It's an endless train wreck that I've watched many times and quote often.  "Dennis is this."

Make sure to watch the Extras on the DVD. There's one great scene where the husband of one of the White women is outside talking about the beauty of nature...while tossing beer bottles and trash off in the grass.  Then, for some drunken reason, he and his buddy moon the camera so deep you can see the one dudes complete ball sack, before driving off...still drunk, I assume.

Highly recommended.

NSFW screenshots