Very Cool!!!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This was a very unimpressive rental. Some of it shed light on things which were interesting, but much of it is embarrassing.Not because I already know about the things they talked about and don't feel they measure up to some 'test' (in terms of obscurity, oddness, etc.) - but in the way the way that the writers and narrator choose to talk about the topics as if they were very fascinating and "important" - like life-changing, revolutionary stuff. They take themselves too seriously - yes there is some seriously odd stuff (and a few genuinely interesting things) - but not necessarily that interesting or enigmatic.In one segment, they talk about "outsider music". I expected something on alternative music - maybe something I didn't like myself necessarily, but serious musicians. Instead they showcased people they thought was goofy and made cheesy, embarrassing music videos, and finished off the segment with one such music video, a black presumably immigrant woman singing a song praising Canada's openness and friendliness, (non-verbatim) "in canada they won't be mean" as part of its refrain, and the picture of a smiling mountie superimposed on the top corner of the screen.Another video, they tout to be the hottest "underground" video - shows some yokels lighting they uncle's crotch on fire, then putting it out, and then putting it on, etc., or spraypainting his face silver while he was sleeping, duct-taping him etc etc. The joke is that he always says "goddamn" when something happens. Or that he is unaware or unconcerned about fire on his crotch (he was dressed, not naked). This makes it okay? Honestly some of the disinfo serious doesn't even deserve a review.Another segment is about misfits who praise satanism, and how they're breaking up and out with the cult founder because he was not evil enough etc. (he felt satanism is evil but not necessarily anti-Christian, while they sincerely are proud of things - one member recalls choking a dog with a wire fondly as if it was a coming-of-age story - actually the typical weird nerdy guy who praise evil, god knows how or why but there really are some messed up people.) Disinfo - informs me of the lowlifes there are in America, yes, although we all more or less know that there are odd people in any country. Anything cool or at least somewhat worth watching in the DVD? Some are - say Kembra Pfahler, Ted Gundersen, Paul Lafolley.Though I'd recommend you to Google instead of rent.Wish I'd understood this fully before I rented it: "The SCI FI Channel in the US bought the show and then declined to air it when they realized how messed it up is." Messed up - not because of anything cutting edge, but because much of it is seriously trash, trumped up as meaningful counterculture. Not because its already been covered (that too for some segments) but because it's meaningless and unimpressive, even "stupid." (hence people compared it to Jackass...)

The Disinformation show was a short-lived television series (only 4 episodes) that explored the world of counter-cultures and subcultures. Sometimes it explored things with a loose journalistic integrity, while other times it seemed to be very tongue-in-cheek. The topics, while generally interesting, were nothing new.The summary of the show really sums up the review, as well. While the topics were interesting, they were a combination of old topics or newer ones presented in a less than thrilling way. The one exception was the Joe Coleman interview: both Coleman and his art were very fascinating.The interview with Howard Bloom or some of the other people were interesting, but done in a boring way. Bloom would ramble on and so would other people (particularly a guy explaining the world of plant pain). It made me very sleepy. On television, rather than in books, you need more flash and more bite-sized pieces -- not droning rambles -- and this show really missed the mark.Some of the information was incredibly old. They interviewed Genesis P-Orridge, who I freely admit was a very important figure, giving rise to the industrial music movement and other subcultures. But he has done nothing of interest since the early 1980s, so why interview him now? This, and many other topics, have been beat to death by the Disinformation books, and before them by the Rapid Eye books (which I recommend).Also, the shows became repetitive, featuring a segment called "Uncle Goddamn" in each episode that was allegedly better than "Jackass". It wasn't better than "Jackass", first of all. But second, I got the point in the first episode: they light Uncle G on fire. They did it again in each episode. Wow! Creative, boys! This show had a good heart and good intentions. I'm always in favor of presenting subcultures and counter-cultures when you can. But they took these freaks, geeks and weirdos and made them seem normal and boring. In essence, this show was killing the very group of people they were feeding off of. In another ten years, there will be no subculture left.