How's Your News?
September 2004 Reviewed by: Marc Mickelson Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

How's Your News? documents a three-week road trip from New Hampshire to California. Director Arthur Bradford traveled across the country in an RV with five TV journalists who conducted man-on-the-street interviews, and these became the basis for the movie. The interviews are combined with footage of the interviewers, showing their reactions to their "voyage across America." Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, produced the film.

But How's Your News? is much more than a travelogue. During the time he made the movie, Bradford was a counselor at Camp Jabberwocky, America's oldest summer camp for adults with mental and physical disabilities, and the journalists he traveled with were Camp Jabberwocky alumni. There is Susan Harrington, who displays the most apparent seriousness, identifying herself and her location at the beginning and end of each interview. Robert Bird can vocalize only "yup" and "bub-bye," and yet he fires off questions with obvious deliberation -- and gets surprising answers. Because of his physical disabilities, wheelchair-bound Larry Perry is someone people react to, which coaxes his subjects out of their day-to-day personas. Sean Costello is mild-mannered and shy, and his demeanor opens people up in unexpected ways. Ronnie Simonsen is witty, charming, and completely uninhibited.

As a group, the How's Your News? crew proves to be eminently watchable. Robert's interview with a street preacher, who goes on with his harangue even as Robert tries to interact with him, is priceless. Susan belts out "New York, New York" from the top of the Empire State Building in driving rain, and later conducts the toughest interview of the movie with a world-weary veteran. Ronnie's impressions of celebrities may be similar to each other, but his interview with a DOT worker who "likes riding motorcycles" proves how important a dream can be.

How's Your News? is a collection of such moments -- interesting, touching, funny. It never moralizes or attempts to state what it is about, but there are a few obvious themes. The interviewers' lack of self-consciousness and pretense ensures a level of honesty that is refreshing in these days of sycophants primping on reality shows. People with disabilities are portrayed as individuals with talents that are far too easily overlooked, including the gift of humor. There is also the beauty of the trip itself -- the importance of living in the moment. Without really trying to be, How's Your News? is rich and uplifting, both products of the interviewers' unrestrained joy.

The DVD has significant extra materials. These include a pilot episode shown on the Independent Film Channel's Split Screen; a radio piece featured on National Public Radio's This American Life (a terrific radio show); and exactly what anyone who views this movie will want to see: Ronnie Simonsen's meeting with his favorite celebrity and "spiritual brother," TV star Chad Everett. After you have watched the movie, you will want to see more of these people, and the extra materials deliver.

Shout! Factory is on a roll. It has released DVDs of the most entertaining documentaries I've seen this year, including the wonderfully offbeat Off the Charts. Add How's Your News? to this list -- I can't think of another movie quite like it. The How's Your News? team gets people to reveal things about themselves that Mike Wallace never could, and the way they experience their cross-country trip is infectious to boot. See this movie -- you won't forget it.

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