Shades of Donald Trump! Penny Lane's NUTS is another great American story about fakery

What absolute, unencumbered, hoot-and-a-half fun is NUTS!, the new documentary directed by Penny Lane (of Our Nixon fame) and very cleverly written by Thom Stylinski. Combining with flair, humor and -- eventually -- not a little sadness, the film uses charming, stylish animation along with grand archival footage and a smart narration that probes America's past and still current (hence the headline reference to Donald Trump) inclination to make wealthy heroes out of lying trash.

The antagonist of Nuts! is one, John Romulus Brinkley, little known today but in his time -- the early 1900s -- one of the most famous men in these whole United States. But famous for what? For curing impotence by transplanting goat testicles into (or maybe onto: his methods, as you will see, are a tad unclear) the human male. Ms Lane, shown at right, tells the tale of this man (of whom TrustMovies and I wager most of his readers had never before heard) with such cleverness and gusto that she yanks us into the crazy story full on.

Brinkley, shown above (in animated form) and below in an old (and I suspect colorized) photo, was a practicing doctor in a small Kansas town who made his discovery in 1917, went on to become one of the country's major celebrities and wealthiest citizens, transplanted thousands of those goat testicles, ran for governor of Kansas (could he have been any worse than Kansas' current cretin, Sam Brownback?), introduced to Americans everything from the infomercial to junk mail, and created the world's most powerful radio station (broadcasting out of Mexico yet -- to circumvent laws that America's medical and broadcasting establishments had created to put him out of business). This guy was something else!

Something else indeed. Ms Lane's great notion here is to base much of her documentary on Brinkley's story, as told by the biography of the man written at the time of his rise. It's a whopper, in so many ways, but also a terrific tale. So we are put in the place of those adulatory fans who no doubt bought that book and drunk in every word. Sort of like Mr. Trump's followers have done with "the Donald's" own books, TV shows and ridiculous rhetoric from the podium.

During this delightful and rather short doc -- it lasts but 79 minutes -- we also meet Brinkey's bête noire, an American Medical Association-sanctioned fellow named Morris Fishbein (above, right), who dogs the good doctor's trail over years. My current gut feeling about the AMA and its sometimes abusive powers put me in mind to dislike Mr. Fishbein, but Ms Lane wisely allows a scenario to eventually emerge that is quite a bit different from that of the Brinkley "biography."

What we learn from all this is not just vastly entertaining but also salutary. It's always good to be reminded how easily charlatans can become powerful and how quickly a large portion of the general populace can be made to follow them. From the doctor's supposed first "goat gland" patient (above) to the woman he marries (well, one of them) and the son he fathers and helps raise (below), we move through a life that seems devoted to success and achievement but is actually all about something quite other. The manner in which Lane shows us (in animation) what happened to that son, juxtaposed against a recorded message from his father, is beautifully and artfully handled.

Nuts! brings to life and art so much of what passess, then and now, as the sort of American Dream that eventually turns into the American nightmare -- from which, thanks to the efforts of Mr. Fishbein, the USA managed to awake. But who will help us today, given the way in which corporate power and the media have embraced our latest example of egotism, narcissism and fraud? Maybe Ms Lane, even as I type, is preparing a look at this present-day subject. After all, she 's already covered I-am-not-a-crook Richard Nixon and I-cure-impotence-using-goat-glands Dr. Brinkley. Why not Mr. I-make-the-best-steaks-education-casinos-and-walls?

To get a rich and full look at the damage Mr. Trump can bring to a country, its citizens and environment via one of his "projects," try to view the sad and wonderful little documentary You've Been Trumped, but meanwhile, do see this exhilarating new doc, Nuts!, from Ms Lane and released via Cartuna. The movie opens tomorrow in its U.S. theatrical premiere at Film Forum in New York City for a two-week run.  Elsewhere? Definitely. The following week, you can see it in -- yes! -- Kansas City, Missouri. Then look for it to screen all across the country in the weeks and months to come. Click here and scroll down to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters. (Even Kansas itself -- one city, at least -- is going to get a look at this smart new film.) 

THE EXTRA MAN -- from Berman, Pulcini and Ames -- revels in urban eccentricity

American eccentrics overflow the work of film-making duo Shari Springer Berman (shown below, left) and Robert Pulcini (below, right), from what you might call the eccentric celebrity-dining pictured in their 1997 debut film Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's to their masterpiece -- one of the greatest and most original movies this country has produced -- American Splendor. Even their so-so, somewhat misfired adaptation of The Nanny Diaries was saved by the eccentricities of its lead character (and the fine performance by Laura Linney, an actress who finds the latent oddities in all her characters).  Berman and Pulcini seem more than intrigued by and attracted to the oddballs among us; they actually champion them.

So it is with their latest venture, THE EXTRA MAN, set in New York City among very possibly the most eccentric group of people I have seen in a single film (unless that film was set in a mental institution).  Our hero(ine) Louis, played by Paul Dano (shown below), is a young man attracted to but as yet untutored in the art of cross-dressing, who comes to the city from a school-teaching job in Princeton, planning to become a writer modeled somewhat on F. Scott Fitzgerald and two of his characters.   The opening scene and credit sequence, beautifully done, introduces us to those two characters with a very effective and funny jolt.

Once in New York City, Louis becomes involved with one, Henry Harrison, played by Kevin Kline (below), a prime oddball who seems to live by his wits, acting as the "extra man" of the title by escorting wealthy and eccentric (don't those two words go together more often than not?) widows of Manhattan society out and about. Aside from the boss of the "green" publishing house where Louis lands a job, and one of his co-workers (played by Katie Homes), just about everyone we meet in this strange little movie is utterly bizarre. Including Henry's downstairs neighbor, played by a bearded and bewigged John C. Reilly in near-nutcase form (shown two photos below).

All this makes for some genuine laughs. For awhile. But eccentricity can be tricky: Show too much of it and a movie begins to feel unbalanced. When it's offered up in a manner like that of American Splendor -- so integral to the characters and situations on view -- it pulls us in and deepens our understanding. We come to inhabit the world of Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner (with Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis simply brilliant in their roles). The Extra Man, for all its odd situations, strange characters, and ample humor, fails to do this. We're always on the outside looking in and seldom feeling for or understanding the people we're viewing. 

Mr. Dano makes the best of the situation, partly because he is such an intuitive actor, particularly good at playing vulnerability.  His is also the character we know the most about.  Mr. Kline, on the other hand and for all his charm and verbal dexterity, is given a role in which he remains -- the filmmakers' intention, I would guess -- a mystery and thus little more than a collection of tics and oddities. He's fun, but he doesn't make us care about his character in the least.  Which makes Louis' choice at film's end something of a stretch. While our hero's decision makes a statement about the wonders of eccentricity and what he really wants out of life, I'm not sure that I buy it.

Among the supporting cast, Ms Homes, above, registers midway on the interest scale; her character seems to exist in order to convince Louis that he is better off alone and (yes) eccentric.  One of the treats of the film is  Marian Seldes, shown below with Mr. Dano and tarted up as you will seldom have seen her (so much so, in fact, that did not recognize her until reading the end credits).  Also appearing to good use are Celia Weston, as one of the hangers-on of the wealthy, and Patti D'Arbanville as an oddly low-key dominatrix who caters to the cross-dressing set.

TrustMovies admits that he was looking forward to this movie with great anticipation, which may be adding to his disappointment -- which is unfair to the filmmakers.  Still, as writer/directors, with screen-writing help from the man who wrote the novel upon which the film is based, Jonathan Ames, Berman and Pulcini have managed to show us a very peculiar New York world, while failing to enter it at all fully.  I liked the film enough, however, to wonder if I might get more from a reading of Mr. Ames original novel.

The Extra Man, from Magnolia Pictures, opens theatrically on Friday, July 30, in New York City (of course!) at the Angelika Film Center and the Clearview First @ 62nd 7.  Further playdates, cities and theaters around the country can be found here.  And if all this does not put the movie near you, there is still hope: The film is currently showing On-Demand from many of our major TV-reception providers around the country.  Check yours for its availability.