A Man Named Pearl

2006 documentary I was supposed to watch in June

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A man named Pearl in a small town in South Carolina decides to turn his yard into a topiary wonderland without having any experience with botany, gardening, or forming vegetation into abstract shapes. That little part of the world is transformed into a more beautiful place.

The world needs more people like Pearl, a guy who does when he's told he can't, a guy who brings a little light to a part of the world that needs it, a guy who has reasons to be angry but turns to beauty instead. It's inspiring, and it makes you feel good. I enjoyed watching Pearl at work with his skinny chainsaw thing, but I enjoyed even more the interviews with experts who seemed astounded by his ability to take shrubs discarded by a greenhouse and do this with them or have types of foliage flourishing far away from where they're supposed to flourish. This has the production values of a television documentary, but the subject is so likable and his philosophies, often extending almost metaphorically beyond his shrubbery, are worth hearing. This is the best documentary I've ever seen on topiary.

But I should have watched it in June.