I Like Killing Flies: The Movie

By gingertastic_10 June 18, 2009 1 Comments

I like killing flies. The movie i bet no ones heard of. Its a documentry by Matt Mahurin. It follows Kenny Shopsin and his family as they work in the famous Shopsins resturant in New York. I saw it on IFC this week and i was shocked really.

There really isnt much of a story since its a documentry. But like i said in the intro, it follows Kenny Shopsin as he cooks, tells stories and pretty much drops the f-bomb every five minutes. It does kinda go off a little from just talking about the history of the place and how he works, to him struggleing over weather to move to a bigger location or not. Which i guess you could call the story.

Now, the camera in this movie is shot by hand. I like that, it makes it feel natural. Matt Mahurin is behind the camera. Though, the Shopsins resturant is in a small space. So the camera is often right in the peoples faces or close to it. Also since its a one man filming crew, Mahurin has to provide the audio also. So you often see his hand holding a small microphone to the peoples face so that you can hear them. Yes its awkward at first, but thats kinda the appeal i liked about the movie.

Like i just said, there is a good amount of appeal. Everyone in this movie (besides the Shopsins) is a customer. They interview them, and this is the best part of the movie i think. Each person tells a story of the place. Also, for being shot by hand, this movie looks fantastic.

There's this sence of humor i cant explain about the movie. Kenny is funny as shit, but i dont know if i should laugh or not. To try to explain, heres a video from the movie of him talking about how people are shit:

  

Despite it being a awkward sence of humor, it adds a great deal of charm to the movie. Kenny might be my new favorite character in any movie. He has so much personality. In the movie he tells stories of how he treats his customers. They way he treats some of them just to inforce a rule is insane. He wont seat a group above four, even if the place is empty. You cant come in just to order coffee. He tells customers to fuck off. Ok, im from indiana and never been to new york. So i dont know if this is normal of new yorkers to do. But from what i have seen, he is a fantastic chef, he has 900 recipes hes made up. Hes written a book on that. The man has my respect.

So overall, this is a fantastic documentary. Though it does have some problems, like the close ups on the faces i didnt like so much. Also, they have a still image on the screen and there is talking over it, its a tad awkward. Though those small problems aside, this is a movie with an outstanding family who yes, have family problems.

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