Jim White: Full of $H^#

Austin and I actually walked out of Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus the other night at the Belcourt. Alt-country musician Jim White leads some documentarians around the arm pits of the south, spitting out completely contrived and stupid things about how southerners "are," and how studying these ignorant, isolated people one can discover one's own spirituality. In fact White proclaims this as his religion! Interspersed with very staged performances by alt-country artists like the Danielson Famile, which to me, took away from the film even though I don't mind these artists. Jim Ridley's review in the Nashville Scene was right-on:

"Between White's cultivated folksiness and the usual Southern Gothic gawkfest, though, it struck me as close to insufferable--starting with White's suggestion that the filmmakers select a suitably low-class rental car to tour the region so they can gain the trust of poor people. ... the movie seems faintly dishonest when it isn't outright condescending."


I too have often felt fascinated by rural decay, and there is some beautiful photography in the film. They would have been better off just filming that and sticking cat power and jim white's songs over it. The plastic jesus sculpture hanging out of the trunk was just one examlpe of grossly obvious, heavily planned and in the end trite "symbolism" that permeates the film. Ugh.

(The New York Times review was much more fawning; i wonder if it is because they aren't from the south? And interesting idea; did we dislike it because we are so familiar with (and often scornful or indifferent to) the ignorance and decay that the movie fawns over? I don't know; debate amongst yourselves!)