The Booker

Shot in black-and-white, filmmaker Michael Perkins' The Booker follows Hawaii-born Steve Scarborough, an obsessive fan since childhood of the larger-than-life choreographed spectacle that is “pro wrestling.” After wrestling for a time himself (under the moniker “Lethal Litigator”—a nasty-yuppie persona based on his law-student self), Scarborough went to Atlanta in a do-or-die quest to promote his own upstart pro-wrestling franchise—Platinum Championship Wrestling—in hopes of reclaiming the sport/performance from the likes of the giant WWE (which, he contends, has lost sight of the audience and "wrestling culture"). Careening through profiles of the wrestlers (one a Wells Fargo banker), partnerships, and venues that don't work out, the PCW saga discovers an unlikely patron in Atlanta's Academy Theatre, whose director (against his board's wishes) embraces pro wrestling as an extreme form of theater arts. Well-educated Scarborough (capable of profanity-laced abusive tirades) here delivers a classic rant praising pro wrestling over David Mamet plays and avant-garde sculpture ("with fish heads!") in terms of getting a reaction out of audiences. A funny, bracing, offbeat sports documentary, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)