White Lightnin' (2009)

I'm not familiar with the true story of Jesco White. (But I will be soon.) On viewing the film, I was happy with the portrayal of the dark side of life in the backwoods of Appalachia. Not knowing the true story didn't ruin things for me, and I truly enjoyed the film.But...If you're going to do a lot of research about Southern Appalachia and try to make the film as true to life as possible, it's unforgivable that Jesse repeatedly refers to one person as "y'all." Y'all is ALWAYS plural, and is only used when talking to more than one person.For instance:When Jesse talks to the fat man about his tattoos, he calls the man "y'all." No matter how fat a guy is, he's still one person. Jesse should call him "you."When Jesse is talking to his dead father in heaven, he actually calls his father "y'all!" Best I can recollect, the man has/had ONE father.This issue probably does not bother non-natives much, but it made me disrespectful of this director's work. Too bad the chosen film location was in Croatia. There was nobody around to correct this glaring error.Hope y'all enjoy this here review.

Don't do a biopic of a LIVING legend who already has two documentaries and tons of you tube videos featuring his antics and do this poor of a job of casting! Nick Cage's southern accent in Con Air sounds like General Robert E Lee himself compared to this BRIT trying to sound Southern! Are you kidding me??? After the first few lines of narration I looked up the cast and was shocked to see that ridiculousness! I watched twenty minutes of it and then I just couldn't stomach it anymore. Did Jesco actually allow you to butcher the telling of his life like this? I really cannot believe he would have done that. If you want to see a good film on Jesco White, rent The Dancing Outlaw and forget about this garbage!

I was very surprised by this film's quality. The directing was very well done. The aesthetic reminded me of a 90's music video, maybe Nirvana.The edit was expertly put together. There was never a dull moment in this film. The music was layered in nicely and heightened the tension in a good way.The acting from Edward Hogg left a lot to be desired in my opinion. It's not that he performed badly, it was a good performance of some character, but that character wasn't the embodiment of Jesco White. A Brit shouldn't have been selected for this role. They don't get the inherent hopeful humor even the darkest of us in the USA have. Brits are typically too cynical.Jesco was way too serious in this film, even as a child. A big part of what makes Jesco cool is his nonchalant attitude. Sure, I think there is part of him that was like Hogg's rendition. I just think the character that Hogg portrayed was two dimensional. There was probably something within him that was frightened by Jesco White to fully embrace his character. In that fear he acted out what scared him of Jesco. His violence, his intensity...but where was his humor? Where was his softer side? Even when he's talking about Cilla he seems more like Charlie Manson than Jesco.I thought Carrie Fisher did a great job as Cilla. The rest of the cast was excellent too. Even Hogg brought something meaningful to life, but there's a difference between meaning and truth. Meaning is the treatment of a symptom, truth is when many meanings come together leading to pure health.

There is no better summary line than the quote I used from the Guardian! The quote is on the poster of the movie too, along with "rollicking terrifying trip" and "white-trash psychobilly nightmare" both by Vanity Fair, and they fit perfectly. This movie is definitely a trip.A trip that's worth taking. A movie that you might think is more violent than it actually is. On screen violence is pretty rare, or better put not explicitly. Apart from that, the story of a man (white-trash) is almost linear, but nevertheless confusing and appalling at once.Bottom line: You'll either love this movie (because it's not only out there, but beyond) or you will hate it, because of it's craziness! I'm not going into story details, just be warned that this isn't for the faint hearted or overly religious. You could say it offends almost everyone it can!