The Outcasts, 1985 - ★★★★

The Outcasts, 1985 - ★★★★
REVIEWED

"Horrible hairy, boozy, smelly, pervy bikers!... but they're nice people."

Pub Barman

Viewed as part of my Beware the Docs of March Marathon 1. Hilarious documentary, following an hard Heineken® drinkin', cheeky pot smokin' & speed abusin' Great Yarmouth based biker gang, who are sort of a low rent chapter of the English hells angels.

Taken from the British 'Forty Minutes' one off short documentaries, The Outcasts was so painfully funny you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a 'Spinal Tap' style soof mockumentary. The gang only consist of 30 odd members (best to keep it small, so we know everyone) but they do meetings with other gangs and get upwards of 150 showing up. They love their mams and seemingly make their club funds by running a burger van, during the film most the members get caught in a DHSS fraud swoop. Not the best doc I've ever seen, but one of the more funnier ones. Hell even the darker, more serious sides to the film made me laugh, like one of their members Wulf's funeral.

Originally taken from Letterboxd

Gates of Heaven, 1978 - ★★★½

Gates of Heaven, 1978 - ★★★½

"Mountains won't grow, but men always will."

Dan Harberts

Viewed as part of my "Beware the Docs of March Marathon 1". Its a well established point of view that most pets are bought to teach ourselves about death, Errol Morris talking head styled documentary runs away with this idea. It focuses on the setting up of a pet cemetery, its closure then relocation of its 450 pets to another area.

"Gates of Heaven" successfully manages to not only cover the owners and workers of the cemetary and the awkwardly odd, usually lonely world of the pet lovers who've lost their little furry friends. But also the reason why humans have the need of pets. Most the memorable insights come from the relocated cemetery owner Calvin Harberts, like his view that the rise in modern pet popularity is down to the introduction of the pill, and do his patrons animals go to heaven. The end is amusing and charming, featuring the grave digger playing his electric guitar looking over the cemetery then to quirky trinkets people had left behind (a nice ploy by Morris, to leave his audience with a smile).

Originally taken from Letterboxd