Monrovia, Indiana

The level of accumulation of Wiseman's filmmaking is just extraordinary here. Every part of this city feels as comfortable as hideous in so many ways -- oppressive Christianity all over, gun culture, of course, not to mention those city council meetings where the biggest fear is just development, welcoming people from other places -- well, you know -- and moving forward. The heyday was in the 1930s when high-school basketball won trophies. Now it's just old rural America facing its funeral.

Wiseman has been accused of partisanship in the making of this this film, with some considering it a criticism of Middle America and its conservative ways. But Wiseman is never one to judge, and he does not do so in this film. As with all of his films about towns/neighbourhoods, this is how Wiseman sees and hears Monrovia, Indiana as a loose collection of individuals doing what they need to do in order to make a meaningful life. The mattress sale scene is rather funny for a Wiseman film.

Amazing scenes, terrible attitude. Wiseman had more respect for a fucking public library than for the people of the American countryside. Opens with a sequence showing the pigs and shows Monrovians in the same manner. Wiseman is belittling the subjects he is shooting, but I cannot see why a small town meeting or a sermon at the church in Monrovia is considered more ridiculous or absurd than a social interaction in NYC. And I wonder if the people of Monrovia got paid a fair amount. I suspect no.