Movie review: How's Your News?

The hilarious and charming documentary How's Your News? was released in 1999, but I'm glad I've seen the DVD version with special features clips that make the film a more rounded experience. The film follows five people with developmental and physical disabilities as they travel the country in a hand-painted RV interviewing people they meet.

This movie is something of a litmus test into your own deep feelings about interacting with developmentally and/or physically disabled folks since you can't help imagining how you would react to an attempt to be interviewed. And you can see how nondisabled people in the film feel as they either pass the interviewers by or engage them in conversation. True to my experience, one of the most willing ends up being a hollering streetcorner evangelist -- something I find both funny and sad.

There's Robert Bird, who understands what other people say just fine, but has some sort of speech impediment that makes his own words unintelligible. His report from the Continental Divide is the highlight of the film for me. He makes perfect sense. And not. Robert's conversations with strangers on the NYC streets are fascinating to watch.

Reporter Ronnie Simonsen likes to do impersonations of celebrities for the people he interviews. He's interviewed several celebrities in the past, and keeps in touch with many by mail, including Chad Everett, his "Spiritual Brother," whom Ronnie has a deep and abiding love for because of his role as Dr. Joe Gannon on TV's Medical Center back in the 1970s. The DVD special features section offers the climactic scene of Ronnie's quest to meet Chad, and includes his Ode to Chad Everett, which stuck in my head like a jubilant earworm for days.

When the crew reaches Venice Beach, California, their interview success increases, proving that abnormal is just normal in the land of LA. Sean Costello, Susan Harrington and Larry Perry all meet folks almost as interesting as themselves.

I wish the documentary had a sequel, though there is a cd of music (since the reporters love to sing), some fantastic interview footage from the 2004 presidential election (including Rob Corddry, G. Gordon Liddy, Hillary Clinton, Andre 3000, Triumph the Insult Dog, Jerry Springer, Newt Gingrich and Ben Affleck), and current news about the film's stars at the How's Your News? website.

If you haven't spent much time around people with developmental disabilities, the documentary is a low-pressure way to meet a few. If you have some friends with developmental disabilities, these reporters will be a delight to follow as they tour the U.S.