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The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

Play trailer Poster for The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia 2009 1h 24m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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56% Tomatometer 9 Reviews 65% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
A documentary by director Julien Nitzberg, this film focuses on the renowned West Virginia outlaw Jesco White and his eccentric backwoods family. In addition to getting in trouble with the law, the Whites, who live deep within Appalachia, uphold a time-honored dancing style, even as they contend with poverty, drugs and other issues. Alternately humorous and sad, the movie is an unflinching look at life on the criminal margins of rural mountain culture.

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The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

Critics Reviews

View All (9) Critics Reviews
Linda Barnard Toronto Star Rated: 2/4 May 18, 2012 Full Review Perri Nemiroff CinemaBlend The Whites are very screen-friendly subjects even if it's for the wrong reasons. Rated: 3.5/5 Aug 13, 2010 Full Review Gary Goldstein Los Angeles Times [It] loses some of its anarchic steam as it goes. Still, it's a dang good bet you've never met any family quite like the Whites. Rated: 3/5 Jun 24, 2010 Full Review Christopher Long Movie Metropolis At the very least, the film will not allow you to dismiss them as caricatures. Rated: 7/10 Nov 12, 2010 Full Review Bill Gibron PopMatters ...an instant classic. Rated: 5/5 Nov 7, 2010 Full Review Andy Klein Brand X ... a slow-motion human train wreck that ... the audience just can't turn away from. Jul 14, 2010 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Hilarious documentary that's really a cringe comedy involving a colorful (and criminal) West Virginia family. The White Family is filled with outrageously colorful and literally criminal characters who are endlessly entertaining to watch in a Jerry Springer sort of way. However, the filmmakers are clearly mocking their subjects and hold them in contempt, which makes the film seem less objective and more simply a sneering elitist hit piece on these uneducated criminal hill folk. Still, the White Family is so outrageous, it's a train wreck that's impossible to look away from and compulsively watchable. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I feel as though the filmmakers only focused on the negative of the family. They also gave incorrect info about the WV court system and managed to make the state look bad. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Seeing Johny Knoxville as the Executive Producer, it doesn't shock me that this was a movie exploiting the biggest collection of hillbilly trash I've seen since Deliverance. While it's a decent documentary and very informative re: this disturbingly uneducated band of trash, the local Defense Attorney said it perfectly at the very beginning: a local kid got accepted to MIT. Why isn't a camera following him around? This documentary is a saner, longer version of Jerry Springer. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member What starts as an Outlaw trainwreck finishes as a White Trash trainwreck. Then again, what's the difference? Knoxville & Tremaine's doc is completely exploitative. But the Whites obviously love attention any ways. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member It's watchable but very depressing. There are dysfunctional families and then there are the Whites. Not to mention this story is rather scattershot with no real narrative. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member The early family started out as Rebels and devolved into government dependent drug addicts. The tragedy is about the kids being raised in their sickness. With all that, a pretty entertaining flick. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

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Movie Info

Synopsis A documentary by director Julien Nitzberg, this film focuses on the renowned West Virginia outlaw Jesco White and his eccentric backwoods family. In addition to getting in trouble with the law, the Whites, who live deep within Appalachia, uphold a time-honored dancing style, even as they contend with poverty, drugs and other issues. Alternately humorous and sad, the movie is an unflinching look at life on the criminal margins of rural mountain culture.
Director
Julien Nitzberg
Producer
Julien Nitzberg, Storm Taylor
Production Co
Dickhouse Productions
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 10, 2016
Runtime
1h 24m
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