NUTS!
Description
What starts as a simple story of a goat testicle-grafting cure for impotence blooms into a kaleidoscopic almanac of early 20th-century quackery—and a cracking courtroom thriller in Penny Lane’s mind-blowing new documentary NUTS!. Definitely bespectacled, probably taller-than-average, and dubiously claiming to be a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, JR Brinkley parlays his canniness as a country doctor into an empire, albeit that of a megalomaniacal, Nazi-sympathizing, border-hopping radio and direct-mail baron and private-hospital profiteer. The rise of Brinkley’s fortunes continues unchecked and seems unstoppable—until a zealous medical journal editor dares to question his claims. Lane’s prior film, the tour-de-force Our Nixon, established a style of rigorous research, due diligence and cockeyed archive pillaging. NUTS! takes that specific mix of ingredients and adds another layer with the addition of animated sequences by multiple artists. The documentary is an exuberant romp through an offbeat (and by now obscure) chapter of American history. If Brinkley were alive today, he might deem it the ultimate cure for lethargy, mental sluggishness and malaise. —Mike Keegan
After making a number of documentary shorts, Penny Lane made her feature debut with archival-footage doc Our Nixon (2013), which won the Ken Burns Best of the Festival prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, among other honors. In 2012, Filmmaker Magazine named her as one of “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”
Trailer
//player.vimeo.com/video/158394255?autoplay=1Film Details
Language English
Year 2015
Runtime 79
Country USA
Director Penny Lane
Producer Penny Lane, Caitlin Mae Burke, James Belfer, Daniel Shepard
Writer Thom Stylinski
Editor Penny Lane, Thom Stylinski
Cinematographer Hallie Kohler, Penny Lane, Joseph Victorine, Angela Walley, Mark Walley
Music Brian McOmber