How's Your News? (1999)

Heartfelt, moving, inspiring!I found this film to be wonderful - respectful - and life affirming all at the same time - the reporters - a group of people with so much heart and verve for life that you cannot help but learn from them "what's your biggest dream?" is about the most profound and elemental question known to humankind - and these reporters dare to ask.Kudos to everyone involved - if you've ever felt like an "other" and outsider, or someone behind the glass - watch this film and then join all of us - each person striving to be, do, learn and become - the best the can.What's not to love - the people driven to realize the film - the reporters on a quest to explore America - they each have a valuable mission - to become themselves by interacting with others, where they will learn. As cheesy as the story could have been, it wasn't - nor clichéd - which of us on this planet has not a single quality which stands in our way? We are all coping as well as we are able - and my favorite feeling at the end wasn't just for what the entire group accomplished - but how the film reflected some aspect of the viewer - whether they were looking or not.

Let me preface this by saying that I rarely get high. Therefore, the views portrayed in this comment may be biased.That said, on the particular day that I watched How's Your News, I was high. I had, in fact, recently participated in the "high-ing" event, and walked into a house that was playing this movie. I promptly sat down, and spent the next half hour trying to determine whether this was, in fact, real, or simply some type of Matt Stone and Trey Parker joke. Ironically, it was both. So, let's put it this way: Are you looking for humor that goes far beyond the boundaries of what even the creators of South Park could deem fictionalized? Do you fantasize about jokes that involve people in wheel chairs or with IQ's below 20? Have you ever had the need to laugh at a hippie that, through his own ignorance, herded up a group of physically and developmentally disabled adults, got them on a van, and paraded them to America as some sort of therapeutic exercise? Well, then, you've found your dream movie. Somehow, Matt Stone and Trey Parker learned of a guy that, at some rich Northeastern summer camp for the mentally and physically challenged, had his clients run a grass roots news show. So, he handed a guy with down syndrome a microphone, had him walk up to unsuspecting folks, and ask them anything that came to mind.Yes, there are some touching moments in the movie. And, since it is Matt Stone and Trey Parker, they really do capture important points about how people treat and even try to avoid mentally or physically disabled citizens. But the meat of the comedic attempt is that, for a group of guys that cartooned Ben Afflick jerking off a 10-year-old, even THEY couldn't make something up like this and get away with it. So, they funded this guy to take his top group and travel from the Northeast all the way to the land of people that could only compare to their oddness: Venice Beach.You'll get hymnals. A man with severe cerebral palsy being left in wheel chairs on the streets of New York with nothing but a microphone and a "please talk to me" sign. Show tunes. And, ultimately, psychics paid for palm readings by people that can't even form full sentences.If you need to come up with some heart warming story of why this movie really touched you personally, by all means, do so. There really are important points to be made. But those points are made, as Matt Stone and Trey Parker often do, through the completely politically incorrect humor of it all. Rent it. Laugh your butt off. Then, when the guy at the party talks about how "Chuck and Buck" or "Happiness", or even "Gummo" was the most shocking thing he'd ever seen, you can tell them this...ever see a developmentally disabled adult question a high farm worker about the Fonz? I have.

I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to watch this film because you were worried that it was exploitive of those with disabilities. I felt the same way before I watched it. I feel different now. If you could see how proud the "How's Your News?" crew are of their work, you'd realize what an accomplishment this was for them. I really admire the courage it must have taken to go out and meet the world face to face. They have a truly amazing perspective on the American experience. I think they probably have a better understanding of how "we" are doing as a society than any of the people who refused to talk with them. They really earned my respect.

This movie from start to finish was an in-depth look into the developing minds of the mental and physically challenged. I must say that it puts away the fears that the general public reserve for the less fortunate, including the severely retarded. I, being one of these people, have a new understanding and tolerance. The line between "laughing at them" and "laughing with them" is not even an issue. The sheer joy, dedication and child-like determination makes this film shine. Whether it be the "goofiness" of the characters or the ignorance of the people they encounter. You will undoubtedly be laughing your head off from start to end and left with a warm, fuzzy feeling deep down. This movie is an instant cult classic and has already been copied and recopied through my friends. The reaction is ALWAYS the same..."Tell us, "How's Your News?"".