This film is probably not what anyone expects, and it's captivating throughout. This could have gone another way, but we've seen similar things before (the series Family Business, for example). This film benefits by editing away the business, to reveal the family behind it.
The director's family owns a strip club/hotel in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The family's two sons grew up there, and now are beginning to share day-to-day management of their father's business. There is some brief female nudity, but this documentary is not really about the strippers.
The father has made some odd choices. He's added a violent (and I think dishonest) man to the situation as a sort of adopted son. And he's also eaten himself to obesity, requiring surgery to address. At the same time, he's failed to pay the right kind of attention to his wife, who is withering herself away via anorexia (and we can't really know the reasons for this, though it is tempting to jump to an easy conclusion).
There aren't many documentary features shot from within a family, by a member. The very different Tarnation is the only other one I've actually seen that comes to mind. So this is worth seeing even for that aspect alone.
Part of what is going to be interesting to people about this film is the family's reaction to it, so hopefully that can be included as a DVD extra or short, or maybe even added to create an extended cut.
The director's family owns a strip club/hotel in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The family's two sons grew up there, and now are beginning to share day-to-day management of their father's business. There is some brief female nudity, but this documentary is not really about the strippers.
The father has made some odd choices. He's added a violent (and I think dishonest) man to the situation as a sort of adopted son. And he's also eaten himself to obesity, requiring surgery to address. At the same time, he's failed to pay the right kind of attention to his wife, who is withering herself away via anorexia (and we can't really know the reasons for this, though it is tempting to jump to an easy conclusion).
There aren't many documentary features shot from within a family, by a member. The very different Tarnation is the only other one I've actually seen that comes to mind. So this is worth seeing even for that aspect alone.
Part of what is going to be interesting to people about this film is the family's reaction to it, so hopefully that can be included as a DVD extra or short, or maybe even added to create an extended cut.