Nuts! (film)

Last updated
Nuts!
NUTS!.png
Directed by Penny Lane
Written byThom Stylinski
Based onThe Life of a Man: A Biography of John R. Brinkley by Clement Wood
Produced byJames Belfer, Caitlin Mae Burke, Penny Lane, Daniel Shepard
Edited byPenny Lane, Thom Stylinski
Music byBrian McOmber
Release date
  • January 2016 (2016-01)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Nuts! is a 2016 partly-animated documentary film billed as the "mostly true story" [1] about the controversial medical doctor and radio magnate John R. Brinkley. The documentary is adapted from The Life of A Man: Biography of John R. Brinkley by Clement Wood, directed by Penny Lane and edited by Penny Lane and Thom Stylinski. [2] Nuts! won the Special Jury Award for Editing at its Sundance premiere in 2016. [3] [1]

Contents

Plot

Nuts!, narrated by Gene Tognacci, [4] documents the life and career of John R. Brinkley (1885-1942), [4] a Milford, Kansas druggist-turned physician who purportedly discovered a cure for male impotence by implanting goat testicles into the scrotums of his human patients. [5] [6] Largely through the testimonials of his "satisfied" customers, Brinkley enjoyed a period of fame and fortune before drawing the attention of Morris Fishbein, editor of the Journal of American Medicine, [7] and the American Medical Association, which revoked his license. [6]

Brinkley is credited for building the world's most powerful radio station for the time, KFKB (Kansas Folk Know Better), [8] popularizing country or "hillbilly" music, [2] and inventing the infomercial [9] [10] with his own diatribes about public health. [7] Brinkley ran into trouble with the Federal Radio Commission (now the Federal Communications Commission), which shut down his radio station. [11] In response, Brinkley built the "million-watt-regulation-skirting border-blaster", XERA, in Mexico and continued broadcasting. [10] [7]

Brinkley ran for governor of Kansas in 1930 as a write-in candidate. It was reported he might have won had thousands of votes not been disqualified, possibly illegally, by his opponents. [11] [2]

Brinkley's fame and fortune deteriorated when he sued Fishbein for libel. It is revealed late in the movie that Brinkley also faced numerous wrongful death suits, had dubious academic credentials, and had an arrest record. [2]

Penny Lane and several of the animators that worked on the film at the International Film Festival Rotterdam IFFR 2016 - NUTS!-3.jpg
Penny Lane and several of the animators that worked on the film at the International Film Festival Rotterdam

Production

The idea of making Nuts! came to Lane in 2009 [11] when she read Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock. [6] [3] She found herself wondering if Brinkley's goat testicle cure worked, a question others asked her as she recounted the story. That current-day people could still be credulous, disappointed even, when she told them it was a "total quack cure" intrigued her. [3] [6]

"It's important that even those who consider ourselves very skeptical and think that we walk around employing our critical capacities all the time, nonetheless, we can all get fooled."

— Penny Lane [3]

In the film, Lane uses a variety of traditional and non-traditional documentary techniques and materials to tell Brinkley's story: animated re-creations, archival film footage (including home movies and newsreels), [12] a narration adapter closely from The Life of a Man, and interviews with present-day experts. [1] [4] [6] [10] [9] Voice over work is done by Andy Boswell, John Causby, Kelly Mizell, Jeff Pillars, Thom Stylinski, and Fran Taylor. [12]

Lane deliberately structured the movie so the viewer is "in the shoes of someone who could be fooled" by Brinkley and his ability to spin a good tale. [3] The first part of the documentary is told from Brinkley's point of view: the story Brinkley would have told. Later in the film it is revealed that the audience has been manipulated in this way. [1]

Both Lane and writer Thom Stylinski were interested in playing with "the conventions of documentary to make a point". [1] [3] According to Stylinski, film makers, including those making documentaries, manipulate information and audiences need to be educated about this. [1] On the website which accompanies the film, Lane provides readers and viewers with an extensive database called "Notes on Nuts!” with over 300 footnotes so people can check her facts and disclosing creative choices: where she stayed true to the factual record, altered the chronology of events, or "simply made things up out of whole cloth". [13]

Reception

Reviewers called Nuts! humorous, entertaining, stranger than fiction, and "catnip for audiences of a certain type". [10] [7] [2]

Dennis Harvey wrote in Variety , "Lane and company created a sort of prankish ode to the classic American Dream of hard work and high ideals leading inevitably to fame, fortune and happiness. That's what Brinkley was really selling, and he mastered its packaging even if the content turned out to be mostly fraudulent". [2]

Robert Abele wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "...if there is a chilling takeaway, it lies in the residue of consternation Lane leaves behind. You may think falling for goat glands is a pre-Internet age, snake-oil era folly. But call it something else, and who knows what you'll believe if the spiel is powerful enough?" [10]

Ann Hornaday wrote that Lane's novel use of footnotes was a welcome and unique contribution to ongoing debates about truth and ethics in documentary film, but she also expressed concern that the footnotes appeared months after the movie's release, allowing "plenty of time for viewers to internalize the filmmaker's imaginary characters and outright fictions of historical truth". [13]

Related Research Articles

Nut often refers to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Hines Woodring</span> American politician and soldier (1887–1967)

Harry Hines Woodring was an American politician. A Democrat, he was the 25th Governor of Kansas and the United States Assistant Secretary of War from 1933 to 1936. His most important role was Secretary of War in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's cabinet from 1936 to 1940. After 1938 Roosevelt rejected isolationism regarding Europe. Woodring quietly opposed Roosevelt and was eventually fired.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John R. Brinkley</span> American quack and radio pioneer (1885–1942)

John Romulus Brinkley was an American quack. He had no properly accredited education as a physician and bought his medical degree from a "diploma mill". Brinkley became known as the "goat-gland doctor" after he achieved national fame, international notoriety and great wealth through the xenotransplantation of goat testicles into humans. Although initially Brinkley promoted this procedure as a means of curing male impotence, he later claimed that the technique was a virtual panacea for a wide range of male ailments. Brinkley operated clinics and hospitals in several states and was able to continue practicing medicine for almost two decades despite his techniques being thoroughly discredited by the broader medical community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris Fishbein</span> American physician (1889–1976)

Morris Fishbein M.D. was an American physician and editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) from 1924 to 1950.

A charlatan is a trickster or con artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirsten Johnson</span> American film director

Kirsten Johnson is an American documentary filmmaker and cinematographer. She is mostly known for her camera work on several well-known feature-length documentaries such as Citizenfour and The Oath. In 2016, she released Cameraperson, a film which consists of various pieces of footage from her decades of work all over the world as a documentary cinematographer. Directed by Johnson herself, Cameraperson went on to be praised for its handling of themes about documentary ethics interwoven with Johnson's personal reflection on her experiences.

<i>Life Itself</i> (2014 film) 2014 American film

Life Itself is a 2014 American biographical documentary film about Chicago film critic Roger Ebert, directed by Steve James and produced by Zak Piper, James and Garrett Basch. The film is based on Ebert's 2011 memoir of the same name. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was an official selection at the 67th Cannes Film Festival. The 41st Telluride Film Festival hosted a special screening of the film on August 28, 2014. Magnolia Pictures released the film theatrically in the United States and simultaneously via video on demand platforms on July 4, 2014.

<i>Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger</i> 2014 documentary film directed by Joe Berlinger

Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger is a 2014 American biographical documentary film produced and directed by Joe Berlinger. It is produced by CNN Films and Radical Media. Its world premiere was at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014.

<i>Dinosaur 13</i> 2014 American film

Dinosaur 13 is a 2014 American documentary film directed and produced by Todd Douglas Miller. The film premiered in competition category of U.S. Documentary Competition program at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 16, 2014.

<i>(T)error</i> 2015 American film

(T)error – stylized as (T)ERROR – is a 2015 American documentary film directed by Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe. The film follows undercover FBI informant Saeed "Shariff" Torres as he engages in a sting operation targeting a Muslim man named Khalifah Ali Al-Akili as well as Tarik Shah. The film won the Special Jury Award for Breakout First Feature at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered.

<i>The Witch</i> (2015 film) Film by Robert Eggers

The Witch is a 2015 folk horror film written and directed by Robert Eggers in his feature directorial debut. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy in her film debut, alongside Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson. Set in 1630s New England, its plot follows a Puritan family who encounter forces of evil in the woods beyond their farm.

<i>Goat</i> (2016 film) 2016 American film

Goat is a 2016 American drama film directed by Andrew Neel and written by David Gordon Green, Neel, and Mike Roberts; it is based on the book Goat: A Memoir by Brad Land. It stars Ben Schnetzer, Nick Jonas, Gus Halper, Daniel Flaherty, Jake Picking, Virginia Gardner and James Franco. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2016. The film was released on September 23, 2016, by The Film Arcade and Paramount Home Video with a limited theatrical release and a same day video on demand distribution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Sundance Film Festival</span>

The 2016 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 21 to January 31, 2016. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 2, 2015. The opening night film was Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. The closing night film was Louis Black and Karen Bernstein's Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penny Lane (filmmaker)</span> American independent filmmaker (born 1978)

Penny Lane is an American independent filmmaker, known for her documentary films. Her humor and unconventional approach to the documentary form, including the use of archival Super 8 footage and YouTube videos, have earned her critical acclaim.

<i>Whose Streets?</i> 2017 American film

Whose Streets? is a 2017 American documentary film about the killing of Michael Brown and the Ferguson uprising. Directed by Sabaah Folayan and co-directed by Damon Davis, Whose Streets? premiered in competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, then was released theatrically in August, 2017, for the anniversary of Brown's death. It was a nominee for Critics' Choice and Gotham Independent Film awards.

<i>Life, Animated</i> 2016 American documentary film by Roger Ross Williams

Life, Animated is a 2016 American documentary by director Roger Ross Williams. It is co-produced by Williams with Julie Goldman, Carolyn Hepburn and Christopher Clements. Life, Animated is based on journalist Ron Suskind's 2014 book Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism, which tells the story of his son, Owen Suskind, who struggled with autism and learned how to communicate with the outside world through his love of Disney films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1930 Kansas gubernatorial election</span> Election for the governorship of the U.S. state of Kansas

The 1930 Kansas gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 1930. Harry H. Woodring was elected Governor of Kansas, becoming only the fourth member of the Democratic Party to hold the position in state history. He won with only 34.96% of the vote, with the remainder being split between Republican candidate Frank Haucke and independent write-in candidate John R. Brinkley. Woodring's final margin of victory over Haucke was just 251 votes, or 0.04 percent. The incumbent governor, Republican Clyde M. Reed, was defeated for renomination.

<i>Step</i> (film) 2017 American film

Step is a 2017 American documentary film directed by Amanda Lipitz, focusing on a girls' Baltimore high school dance team. It won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Inspirational Filmmaking at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2017 AFI Docs Festival. It was released in theaters on August 4, 2017.

Lana Wilson is an American filmmaker. She directed the feature documentaries After Tiller, The Departure, and Miss Americana, as well as the two-part documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields. The first two films were nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary.

Drew Christie is an American animator and filmmaker. His animations have been featured in The Criterion Collection, The New York Times, Sundance TV and Vanity Fair. In 2007 he won The Seattle Times/Seattle International Film Festival's 3 Minute Masterpiece competition with ‘How to Bring Democracy to the Fish.’ In 2012 he was shortlisted for the Stranger Genius Awards for Song of the Spindle in the film category, which he won in 2014. In 2010 he received the Spotlight Award from Seattle Magazine. He contributed animation to the documentary film Nuts! and co-created the animated series Drawn & Recorded for Spotify with music producer T Bone Burnett. He resides on Whidbey Island, Washington.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Amarante, Joe (July 13, 2016). "'Nuts!'--a story of transplanted testicles, and more--comes to New Haven". New Haven Register. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Harvey, Dennis (May 16, 2016). "Film Review: 'Nuts!'". Variety. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pinter, Andras; Levin, Jelena; Bockman, Pontus (July 30, 2016). "Episode #33 Featuring Penny Lane". European Skeptics Podcast . Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 Kenny, Glenn (June 21, 2016). "Review: 'Nuts!' Reveals Doctor's Secret to Success: Goat Testicle Transplants". New York Times (Online). Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  5. ↑ Means, Sean P. (January 23, 2016). "Sundance '16 Review: 'Nuts!'". The Salt Lake City Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Goat Testicle Cure for Impotence? A Strange Tale at Sundance". Daily Nation. Nairobi. January 26, 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Hoffman, Jordan (January 23, 2016). "Nuts! Review - A Ridiculously Enjoyable Ode to Old, Weird America". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  8. ↑ "'Nuts' Cracks Open Fascinating Life of Physician John Brinkley". Gannett News Service. McLean. July 20, 2016.
  9. 1 2 Kohn, Eric (June 23, 2016). "'Nuts!' Review: Goat Testicles Aren't the Strangest Thing About This Brilliant Documentary". IndieWire. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Abele, Robert (July 8, 2016). "At the Movies: Review: Imaginative FlimFlam Tale; 'Nuts!' Tells the Colorful Tale of How One Man Pulled The Wool Over Many Eyes". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, CA. p. E.S.
  11. 1 2 3 Keough, Peter (July 24, 2016). "Getting his goat in 'Nuts!': Lighthearted film looks at an American original". Boston Globe. p. N.10. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  12. 1 2 O'Malley, Sheila (June 22, 2016). "Nuts!". Robert Ebert.com. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  13. 1 2 Hornaday, Ann (June 23, 2016). "Documentary filmmakers need to be accountable to their sources and viewers: Critic's Notebook. As docs become bigger business, transparency becomes crucial". The Washington Post (Online). Retrieved 4 September 2016.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.