Wonderful character development!

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

To amend the other comment, it is not primarily Louisiana, but North/Central/East Florida up to North Georgia/South Carolina area. I lived 23 years in Gainesville, FL, my master's thesis required me to extensively examine Southern Appalachian culture, I know people who have had Harry Crews for a professor, I have read much southern literature, and I am familiar with the Cracker culture. I only state this to show I am more researched with the "true" South. It is a good and rather accurate documentary but biased in that it focuses on finding out the meaning of something. Thus the documentary is not an accurate portrayal of the entire South but of sub-cultures to the South. Another good look at more Eastern Florida is "Vernon, FL," showing a different sub-culture well. The other review comment's enough and is accurate but to note it is hard for any one documentary or film to capture what the South is considering how regional and place specific traditions, religions, and lifestyles are, so don't take the film as "truth" creating a stereotype. A lot of behavior examined in this documentary comes from, in my opinion, boredom, difficult financial conditions, and the heat and humidity. Not a rather atypical result of these either I might add. Anybody staying anytime in any of these places will soon experience emotions contributing to this behavior and cultural identity. Other than that, it is worth watching if you are at all interested in documentaries, aspects of southern culture, or are just interested in people.

I would highly recommend this film to those who can appreciate an "as is" representation of our Southern American culture. I found the stories and testimonies of the south to be accurate and insightful. The film keeps your interest like flipping through a readers digest... there's a lot of good stories and none take too long to tell. My favorite part is when he rents an old 1970 two tone Chevy for a $100 a day so he can fit in with the locals. I also found the people and their personal reflections on life refreshing. The film does a good job of representing a diverse group of people and shares everyones story from the shouting religious types to the folks who opted out of the church seen and are down at the local bar.

This is another in a long stream of movie industry attempts to dramatize the south in a "it's so pretty, let's show close ups of trees and swamps and have people pick banjo's" etc etc.This is no more an accurate portrayal of the south then say "Forrest Gump". Scenes like inside the barber shop where the guy and the woman are singing some type of murder ballad are pretty much indicative of the tone of the entire movie. If you notice the scene is obviously scripted (like a lot of the film is) and check out the very real discomfort and embarrassment of the locals sitting there waiting for a haircut."People in the south won't talk to you if you're driving a new Land Rover or something." Then all through the movie you see "every day people" driving by in mostly newer SUV's and sedans, and the filmmakers are the only ones driving a beat-up 1970 Chevy.This whole film is mainly a riff on the idea of the south that most outsiders have, a view that is mainly perpetuated by Hollywood.It's time for the motion picture establishment to make a real southern movie, documentary or not. It's a shame that people who saw this on the BBC believe this to be the way things really are in the southern US. What's even more unsettling is the people in our own country believe it as well.

As a 'stranger' to the American culture, I was really impressed by this docu-movie. It gives me a look in the American South. Of course one can not give a complete portrait of something. There always a need for some subjectivity. I understand there a million other sides of the American South. For example, if you make a movie about Holland, surely you'll see mills and klompen. This is not representative for modern-day Holland, but it's a part of our culture, our history. I think the same applies to this movie. Apart from this, the movie is intertwining music, art and storytelling. This is fantastic!