Shut Up Little Man

this documentary left me feeling giddy but cold. the recollections of ivan and daniel are the best and most human part of this film. the telling of the pete & ray story is a bit creepy, but i just couldn't stop watching.

it's all real and that is what is so disturbing about this story. two humans treating one another like trash yet the watcher or listener finds it entertaining and at moments a brilliant use of the English language in phrases. i must admit i had to laugh along with the thousands of others - but it's an uneasy laugh!

this flick is also a wonderful look into the pre-internet subcultures and how it spread nationwide. fascinating! and they also bring up the legal ramifications in their story!

it's worth watching. they did a good job. it does get to a boring part, but stick with it as that is very short then the pace picks up.

I tried as hard as I could not to laugh at the recordings of two drunks hurling abuse at each other. It was impossible, my moral code failed beneath the sheer brilliant beauty of the dialogue that takes place. Some of the lines from Peter and Ray are pure comedy gold, I wish I could remember as many of them as possible.

The film itself is very well made, weaving together exciting visual eleemnts to accompany the auditory subject matter. There is a distinct nod to Erroll Morris in the Interrotron, to-camera style of interviews as well as the re-ennactment of the scenes taking place inside the Pepto-Bismol Palace.

This film is a riot, great for fans of the tapes and those who know nothing. Highly recommend.

From director Mathew Bate comes the stunningly well put-together documentary "Shut up, Little Man: An Audio Misadventure." It tells the complete story behind the infamous audio tapes that have been circulating around the globe for around 20 years. For those unfamiliar, the tapes are real-life recordings done by two college graduates of their drunken, next-door neighbor's violent, profane and often hilarious verbal (and occasionally physical, as is implied) brawls. They were essentially a viral sensation long before the age of the internet took over, and circulated throughout the US. (and eventually the globe)

This documentary, as mentioned in the subject line, feels like two different documentaries on a common subject, "smooshed" together. The first half of the film follows the two guys, who in the late 80's made the initial recordings and helped facilitate their distribution. It follows their stories, and how the audio grew beyond expectations, spawning everything from comics, to small plays and even eventually a film.

The second half of the film is a more comprehensive look at the two main subjects of the audio- Ray and Eddie, a homophobic violent drunk, and his gay and equally as drunk roommate. It pieces together their story and we are eventually able to learn more and more about them, and their relationship as friends/roommates/enemies.

The film is presented in a very interesting way, and the method by which the production team chooses to develop the subjects is fascinating and very cool. Lots of cool visuals, stock footage set to the audio, and other visual tricks give the documentary a level of eye-candy, and there is rampant humor throughout. If you've seen the fabulous documentary "Winnebago Man", you will know the sort of thing to expect, because the latter half of the film is in much the same vein.

It's also interesting seeing "Eddie Lee Sausage" and "Mitchell D", the two men who made the recordings, and how their lives have been affected by it, both for the better and for the worse. Some scenes focusing on the morality and exploitive nature of the audio and the "art" it inspired are exceedingly though-provoking.

That being said, the film does get a little lost at times. Some scenes focusing on "fans" of the audio feel out of place and don't add much to the story, there is some redundancy in how the film keeps coming back to the same themes over and over again (but not in a clean, poetic way, but in a forced, contrived way), and it does drag at times.

However, that being said, it's still a fundamentally solid and extremely fun documentary, and I'd highly recommend it. I give it an 8 out of 10.

In the end, this movie felt like an excuse to milk the tapes for a little more fame and/or money.

The first 2/3rds nicely chronicle how the whole phenomenon took place. And it truly is fascinating. You get a sense of how strange, serendipitous and organic it must have been to have a personal project turn into a meme.

But the key word is "organic". Other people drove the Pete and Ray story. The partners, correctly, said "go ahead" since, in effect, it wasn't really theirs to control.

It's when they take control that movie inadvertently reveals that, rather than a sweet, hapless pair that fell into something, they've staked their identities on this one thing and they've become kind of self-important assholes.

When Eddie Lee made proclamations about "art" my first thought was - "Really? What other art have you created? Because an artist normally creates more than one piece of art and all you did was tape some guys screaming at each other. Other people picked it up and turned it into something. Duping tapes and giving them to people...well...that's not really art." After that, the pair goes on a quest to do the one thing that art should never do - explain itself. Tracking down Ray, the roommate, felt like a stunt. It was a fishing trip to solve the riddle of whether Pete and Ray were lovers. That's dull and pointless.

Art, imho, allows people to project themselves into and onto what they see. These two, Eddie in particular, seem to want to prove something that doesn't need to be proved. Wrapping up the film with the Pete and Ray dancing sucks everything that's interesting about the relationship out of it.

I saw this documentary at the Traverse City (MI) Film Festival. Two Midwestern college grads move to California in 1987, only to find that their new apartment has a pair of profane, arguing drunks living next door. After being awakened repeatedly by their new neighbors' rants, the guys start audio taping the fights. Eventually they collect dozens of hours of material, share bits with their friends, and an underground sensation begins. Tapes, comic strips, a play, and even a puppet show depicting Peter and Ray, the fighting neighbors, emerged throughout the 90's. At one point 3 competing movie productions were planning films about the couple.

The first 30 minutes or so of the doc sets up the scenario and lays the background to the story. It is this part, when we are first introduced to the vulgar fighting couple, where the movie is at its best. Unfortunately the film can't sustain the humor and energy from the first third of the film, as we follow the legal battle to determine who has the rights to the recordings. The film ends with the college guys returning to the scene of their recordings, 20+ years later, and investigating what has happened to their old neighbors. Still, I found the story engrossing and interesting enough to sustain my attention through the second half of the film. The movie is entertaining, but if you're easily offended by profanity look elsewhere!