Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Everything you may ever want to know about "indie movies" is contained in Steve James' REEL PARADISE: The Good, the Bad, the History, and the Boredom.

I kid you . . . but not by much.

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There John Pierson was! And in time, there they were.

At first, before the premier of REEL PARADISE in San Francisco's Lumiere Theater, wiry, redheaded Pierson came in front of an enthusiastic audience of artists from the "indie" film community, some devotees of the genre, and a few people just looking to see a free movie. Pierson, the Star and protagonist of REEL PARADISE, assured us that his family, who appear in the documentary more than he does, would be back with him following the show, for a Q%A. Then, he spoke for nearly ten minutes how he didn't want to say too much about the film before we saw it.

His introduction had the frenetic, hyperbolic quality of the "indie movie experience."

Who is John Pierson? you may ask. Why should so many people turn out for a picture about Pierson? And why did Steve James, prize winning writer/director of HOOP DREAMS (1994) and STEVIE (2002), shoot a picture on Pierson and his family? The answer to the second question may come later, but to the first one, we can say only: Pierson is a big deal in "Indie movies"!

Pierson is the guy who packaged and sold Spike Lee's first effort, THE GIRL'S GOTTA HAVE IT (1986), and he launched Michael Moore's initial effort, ROGER AND ME (1989). He hosted "Split Screen" on the Independent Film Channel, which helped put "indie" on people's lips. In between, he produced or was "czar of representation" and "phase one instigator" (of which REEL PARADISE has half a dozen), or just got a "thanks" for successful, even renowned "indie's" like WORKING GIRLS (1986), THE THIN BLUE LINE (1988), THEREMIN (1994), GO FISH (1994), CRUMB (1994), CHASING AMY (1997), and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.

It would be fair to say, looking at his relationship to these films, that John Pierson was more than anything else "an influence" on their production. Fittingly, for the business of modern Hollywood, that influence made him a famous, wealthy man in Hollywood. And writing an account of his early adventures -- "Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes" -- elevated Pierson to legendary status.

But one day, in 2000, visiting the tiny island of Taveuni in the far Pacific, Pierson observed the joy the people there drew from a Three Stooges comedy short, "Some More Samoa," which had been showing at the 288 seat 180 Meridian Theater since 1954. [Supposedly, it was the only film they had.] Pierson (48 at the time) felt a cinematic midlife crisis overcoming him, a sudden need to escape his existence of modest luxury in LA and New York. Encouraged by Spike Lee, Kevin Smith and Matt Stone (of SOUTH PARK fame), he began to work on a plan that would take him to spend a year showing free movies for Fijians in the far Pacific. He returned to Taveuni about three years ago with wife Janet (45), his son Wyatt (12), and his daughter Georgia (15). In the last month of their stay, Documentarian Steve James joined them to record the end of "the film festival."

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The result is REEL PARADISE, a mildly amusing "vanity" home movie, which resembles occasionally a reality TV show. At its best, REEL PARADISE is a study of a privileged white American middle class family trying to hang together in the uncomfortable, unaccustomed position of being in a minority.
[Think what the sensitive Steve James might have done had the Piersons ended a year in New Orleans, late in August 2005.] At its worst, the picture presents a portrait of a difficult, unconsciously racist and elitist monomaniac lording it over "the natives" of a desert island in the South Seas.

Herman Melville, John Pierson is not.

Some members come off better than others:

John Pierson resembles one of those guys (anybody in love with films can be one) who insists that others enjoy pictures which appeal to him. He wants to recapture that Three Stooges moment for Taveunians which drew him back to the island, but he also wants to uplift them to enjoy better things. When his patrons are bored, or don't turn out for a film, Pierson castigates his audience in a benignly hectoring tone. He is also at odds with Taveuni's outpost of the Catholic Church, which lies across the clearing from the 180 Meridian Theater; uncomfortable with the (Catholic) school his children attended; suspicious of the tippsy Australian landlord of the mansion he leased for his family; and occasionally clueless with members of that family.

Janet Pierson twinkles as a stoical, conscientious wife and mom, who has experience her husband's harebrained schemes before, but has always held the family together, sometimes surprised how well matters turned out. (Because she has acted in a professional capacity on a couple of Pierson's projects, she may not be quite so compartmentalized as she seems.) Jan is particularly concerned this time because her children may be unnecessarily having experiences she is not certain are beneficial.

Georgia Pierson is the pleasantly frank and attractive teenage daughter, who most fully plunges into island life. She forms a firm, genuine friendship with a Fijian her age, Miriama. She also attracts a number of dark-skinned swains, one of whom the film hints she ran off with for a time. Her remarks about life on Taveuni are the most perceptive and honest from the family, but her behavior and mouth might disturb the most equable of mothers. For instance, she has her body pierced without discussing it with her mother and father; finds an island tattoo artist to give her and Miriama large, interesting images in provocative places; and likes to sing duets with her friend about the pleasures of f*cking.

Young Wyatt, twelve years-old, has a Fijian friend, too, Tawake, but they do not seem so close. A chip off the old projector, Wyatt is a natural movie critic, critic of critics, and in particular, a critic of his father. Bored with the traditional, rigorous Catholic schooling, but embarrassed by his Dad's dominant style at the theater, Wyatt thinks that efforts to interest the islanders in Frances Ford Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX "suck." [Could John Pierson have seen a similarity between himself and the brilliantly successful and Conradian Colonel Kurtz (Coppola?) who went nuts and had to have a fellow officer stalk him down?] Wyatt holds the same opinion on Scorsese's GANGS OF NEW YORK. (Boy, is he right on that one!) On the other hand, he seems to agree with his island friends that JACKASS is the best and funniest film ever shown during the Piersons' sojourn.

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When REEL PARADISE was over, the family were united on stage, and three years more mature, they presented a brave face to their fans. Father Pierson thought the experience had been a great one, but he criticized (as did his wife) the view Writer/Director Steve James presented of them in his final cut. Pierson avowed, however, that it was James' film, and he would never demand changes. Though lamenting a series of mysterious robberies which lost them valuable computer equipment, Wife Janet agreed with her husband on both counts, but reflected that if they had stayed home, Daughter Georgia might have become "a ho strung out on crack in Detroit." [A curious prediction for her daughter, who was sitting beside her.] Wyatt still thought APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX "sucks."

Georgia, always the truth bringer of the family, let the cinematic cat out of the bag, when she allowed that the picture was not such an ordeal as it would have been had their lives been filmed for the entire year they spent on the island, "the way you guys originally planned."

She is now an usher at a movie theater.

Wyatt is in the 10th Grade.

John is teaching Film.

Jan has happily returned to homemaking in the U.S.

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I would not recommend REEL PARADISE enthusiastically to anyone not an "indie" picture lover.





Recommended: No

Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older