In my childhood, I was lucky enough to make it across the Atlantic to the Disney Theme Parks a few times. Occasionally I ended up in exhibitions showing movies about America or the American Dream. They were alright because, I was on holiday in a foreign country, and happy to be there, they had air conditioning and they lasted about ten minutes. Watching this, at home on Disney Plus, for 84 minutes I was less enthralled.
The documentary has us meet a number of Americans, most of whom participate in some form of "wacky" way to amuse themselves. Some of these range from genuinely worthy, such as the Erik Welhenmayer, a blind man who ice climbs or the Hoyt family, who run marathons together. Some, such as Olympic Boxer Michael Bennett or Oil Well Fire Fighters in Texas chose difficult lives for themselves. Some of them like the Bandaloop Cliff Dancers or the Art Car festivals just have more money than sense and two of them, Frank and David Pino just play in one of the worst craprock bands you'll ever see.
The issue is, to call it a documentary is a bit of a stretch. It's a mile wide but a centremetre deep, there's no focus to it, or even really a theme other than these people are all American. It might have been interesting had we gone from coast to coast in order and seen how the landscape of America itself changes, but instead it's a scattershot approach, leaping from here to there and seeing people in a seeming random order.
I didn't hate it but it's hard to think of a reason to recommend spending time on it.
The documentary has us meet a number of Americans, most of whom participate in some form of "wacky" way to amuse themselves. Some of these range from genuinely worthy, such as the Erik Welhenmayer, a blind man who ice climbs or the Hoyt family, who run marathons together. Some, such as Olympic Boxer Michael Bennett or Oil Well Fire Fighters in Texas chose difficult lives for themselves. Some of them like the Bandaloop Cliff Dancers or the Art Car festivals just have more money than sense and two of them, Frank and David Pino just play in one of the worst craprock bands you'll ever see.
The issue is, to call it a documentary is a bit of a stretch. It's a mile wide but a centremetre deep, there's no focus to it, or even really a theme other than these people are all American. It might have been interesting had we gone from coast to coast in order and seen how the landscape of America itself changes, but instead it's a scattershot approach, leaping from here to there and seeing people in a seeming random order.
I didn't hate it but it's hard to think of a reason to recommend spending time on it.