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Sunday, October 19th
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown (320 E 6th Street)
12:15pm
[info] | [tickets]
Following in the footsteps of such docs as Wordplay and Spellbound, Paper or Plastic? takes the ordinary and makes something extraordinary as it follows eight hometown grocery heroes on their journey to the National Grocers Association Best Bagger Championship in Las Vegas, NV. One grocery executive purports that the bagging competition is "like American Idol—you never know where the stars are." Well, the stars, as it tuns out, are on a small family farm in Ohio, a rugby pitch in California, and a bowling alley in Minnesota. They are bright shining lights in their own little universe, riding the emotional rollercoaster of dreams achieved and hopes dashed; in effect, they are us. As one contestant muses, "Bagging isn't the easiest thing, but it's all about being the best at what you do," which is really all any of us can hope to achieve.
As with any documentary about a seemingly trivial subject, Paper or Plastic? could have gone the route of mockumentary (and sometimes, frankly, the actual dialogue of these real people tipped our mind towards the Christopher Guest camp of Best in Show), but directors Alex D. da Silva and Justine Jacob succeed in having fun with their subjects instead of making fun of them. The eight characters take extreme pride in their achievements, as do the people who surround them, even if at times the outsiders don't understand why the Best Bagger competition is such a big deal. If Paper or Plastic? is anything, it is earnest in its reverence and appreciation of the characters' spirits and allows the viewer to see grocery bagging as a barometer for the human condition. In the end, baggers must follow the golden rule: do unto others as you would have done unto you, or in other words, remember to put the eggs and bread on top and a smile should always part of your uniform.
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