The Start of a New "Man" Movie Streak: Winnebago Man

2009 documentary

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Jack Rebney's his name although nobody knew that when they laughed through a collection of outtakes and bloopers on the Youtube featuring the guy cursing up a storm and throwing hissy fits while trying to extol the features of the Winnebago for the company. Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer decides to dig the guy up and see how he feels about his Internet fame. He discovers a complicated man.

I never really liked Jack Rebney here, but I was intrigued by him. He played a character here, knowing that the camera was on him and that he would possibly be seen by dozens of people watching this movie, but the character he played was so inconsistent. The original footage that gave Rebney his Internet fame is funny enough and there are plenty of other humorous moments in this, but there are also some really touching moments. Rebney really is a complex figure, one who will not be worthy of a documentary for a lot of people who stumble across this, and I never really could pin him down. I thought the director kind of got in the way a few times and kind of wished he had less screen time. Made the whole thing seem self-indulgent or something. In fact, he got in the way so much that the climax has a sort-of forced feel to it, made Steinbauer seem more like a wrench-happy handyman than a chronicler of events. Rebney would have taken this in one direction that might not have been as interesting, but Steinbauer manipulates things and takes it in the direction he wants to go. Not that it doesn't work out just fine because it does, but it seems a little more forced than it should have. There's a little insight on the nature of unwanted fame, so easy to find with our 21st Century resources, and it made me wonder what Warhol would have to say about the Internet and our 15 minutes of fame. I also wonder how many idiots are going to go bug this guy after figuring out where he lives.