Nuts!

2016 documentary

Rating: 15/20

Plot: The true-ish story of Dr. John Romulus Brinkley, who used goat testicles to cure impotence and later got in battles with the government over a "million-watt" radio station.

There's a Buster Keaton reference in this right off the bat. As you might recall, I didn't get the reference to a "Goat Gland Specialist" in Keaton's "Cops."

Brinkley's a fascinating individual and the perfect subject for a biographical documentary. This combines home video, interviews, reenactment, and lots of cheap-but-effective animation to tell an intriguing and continually surprising story. Director Penny Lane and writer Thom Stylinski toy around with the idea of documentary truth in an interesting way, too. I wouldn't want to spoil anything by telling you how, but I think there's a neat little trick they pull here, a sort of bait and switch, and it really makes you think about how one watches a documentary.

Bonus point given for the exclamation in the title because something like that takes balls.