The Other Side

Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini's deeply disturbing cinema vérité documentary is filmed in Louisiana backwater country, where assorted desperadoes and paranoid militia groups live side by side. Most of the film follows the misdeeds of a laconic heroin dealer, Mark, as he breaks into buildings, has sex with a girlfriend, and hangs out (with his elderly mother, and a broken-down drunk named “Uncle Jim”). Mark is also seen shooting up a pregnant stripper with smack just before she heads out to meet customers. Minervini captures this grim parade of images, and if Mark is the least bit uncomfortable over being so closely observed, it doesn't show. Mark disappears from the final quarter of The Other Side (he was due to turn himself in to prison), and Minervini finds himself facing far more intimidating circumstances while filming a cluster of paranoid gun nuts training for the day when President Obama declares martial law in Louisiana and comes to steal away their Second Amendment rights. The fringe lunacy on display here would be laughable if these guys didn't seem so dangerous, and if their vile race hatred wasn't so prominent. An unsettling fly-on-the-wall documentary with graphic sex, drug use, and racist language, this unflinching heart-of-darkness journey into a hellish American subculture is recommended, although it is sure to offend many viewers. [Note: DVD extras include the featurette “Open Carry Sequence” (5 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a disturbing documentary.] (T. Keogh)