Film Reviews: Arctic Tale, One to Another, Punk's Not Dead

PICK THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN It’s fascinating that this portrait of the rise, fall and rise of Midwestern organic farmer John Peterson can be read in so many different ways, only some of which appear intentionally in Taggart Siegel’s sympathetic documentary about his friend and fellow artist. Shot in multimedia over nearly three decades with the mostly enthusiastic, occasionally crabby participation of its kooky subject, The Real Dirt on Farmer John­ weaves the giddily dramatic — and self-dramatizing — personal history of a hippie-inspired eccentric who fused art and agriculture into a chronicle, part inspiring, part devastating, of the collapse of traditional farming in rural America. Peterson’s multiple failures morph into multiple glories and back again, and his many faces refract the many faces of the counterculture, not all of them flattering. Is Peterson a lost soul whose father died too young, stunting his emotional development? Is he a closet case hiding behind an endlessly supportive mother and a fleet of look-alike girlfriends whose age remains the same as he grows older? A rotten businessman who bet the family farm and almost lost it, or a creative innovator who rose from the ashes to flourish in community-supported organic farming? A free-spirited romantic or a hopelessly irresponsible adventurer? A typical Midwesterner or a renegade whose neighbors accused him of sponsoring a satanic cult? All of the above, and more. Notwithstanding the pink boas and bumblebee outfits he favors while plowing his beloved land, it would be hard to find a mug more ordinary than Peterson’s, and that’s the point. Dress-up or no dress-up, look for the real dirt on anyone over 40, and you’ll find high melodrama, low comedy and the imprint of a changing world that defies private intentions. (Music Hall) (Ella Taylor)

THE SIMPSON'S MOVIE See film feature

The Real Dirt on Farmer John

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• Ella Taylor
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WHO’S YOUR CADDY?  Name this movie: an up-and-comer from the city buys his way into a high-class country club, but the WASPy club president won’t stand for it. Meanwhile, a poor young caddy is secretly the best player on the course. When the parvenu and the WASP finally decide to settle it all with a high-stakes match out on the links, the caddy steps in to make sure our hero wins. No, it’s not Caddyshack — just swap Jews (Rodney Dangerfield) for blacks (Big Boi) and you’ve got Who’s Your Caddy?. The movie, of course, is terrible; God knows why the writers went to the trouble of “improving” on the plot, giving Big Boi, unlike Dangerfield, some deep motivation (he’s trying to revenge his father, an old-time caddy who was kicked off the course) and adding...midgets. (Citywide) (Charles Petersen)

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