Go See This Movie

By Andrew Jenkins in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 14, 2006 7:35PM

You only have two more chances to see I Like Killing Flies, which is not a Japanese horror film remake starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, but one of the best documentaries we've seen in a while — and it's about food. Flies is a zero-budget documentary that chronicles the life of Kenny Shopsin, owner of a quirky Greenwich Village restaurant bearing his name, just before a rent hike threatens to move Shopsin’s from its home of nearly three decades.

As the film shows, Shopsin cooks up all 900 dishes on his menu from scratch in a kitchen the size of a closet. And when not cooking, or killing flies, he is happy to share some eccentric and profane views on life, philosophy and world politics. Shopsin is a pretty opinionated fellow, but aside from that part of the film you get to see some amazing culinary prowess. Just look at the six-page breakfast/lunch menu and you’ll get an idea of what the guy is capable of. Our favorite quote from the movie may come from a story Shopsin tells about a customer who, on the rarest of occasions, found a cockroach in her soup.

“It certainly doesn’t mean anything in the history of the earth. But in your relationship with that person, it’s just you, them, and the soup. Yeah. And this is like a huge event of incompetence on your part….”

You can see I Like Killing Flies at Facets, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave., this Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Phone: 773-281-4114.

Image via www.ilikekillingflies.com.