CIFF: Wesley Willis's Joyrides, Terribly Happy
By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 17, 2008 3:40PM
This is part of Chicagoist's coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival.
Wesley Willis's Joyrides (screens 10/17, 10/25, 10/27)
A 300-pound chronic schizophrenic born into poverty on Chicago's south side would seem like an unlikely artist and rock star, but that's just what Wesley Willis was. In his short life (he died from leukemia in 2003 at age 40) he produced hundreds of drawings and at least 50 albums; he was celebrated as an outsider artist by several critics and was eventually signed to Jello Biafra's label Alternative Tentacles, appearing on MTV and Howard Stern. This documentary takes a short and sweet look at his life, speaking with members of his family and many of his closest friends, and featuring ample footage of the man himself. The movie also serves to encapsulate people's attitudes towards mental illness. Some viewed Willis as a genius, others as an eccentric or just a freak. Although Willis never had formal training in either art or music he had a gift for both. Many of his architectural drawings, large panoramic landscapes of Chicago, were executed using nothing more than ballpoint pens (he would use the edge of a pen as a straight edge instead of a ruler). The lyrics of his songs showcased his bizarre, often profane sense of humor, with a sweetness underlying the scatology. It's too bad the movie only lets us hear snippets; complete songs might have given us a better portrait of the man. The movie's technique might be little more than a conventional, talking-heads affair, but Willis's outsized personality (and determination despite the odds) easily carries it.
Terribly Happy (screens 10/22, 10/23, 10/26)
See if this sounds familiar: a cop from the Big City has gotten into trouble and as penance he's shipped off to a backwater burg to cool down. Of course the minute he gets into town skeletons start rattling around in the inhabitants' closets and before you know it he's in even deeper trouble than before. Classic film noir ingredients, right? But this isn't Where the Sidewalk Ends, or even Body Heat for that matter. It's the setup for Terribly Happy. The only novelties the movie brings to its well-worn plotline are a bleak Danish setting (which, including copious amounts of fog and odd-looking townsfolk, is admittedly fairly creepy) and a protagonist who's so borderline-unsympathetic that we can't help but feel ambivalent about his fate. When he hooks up with the town's battered wife it isn't hard to predict what happens next. Yet like so many neo-noirs the movie throws in a doozy of a plot twist halfway through and never really figures out what to do with it. At only 90 minutes the story moves along briskly enough. But it isn't something you haven't seen before, done better.