Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

gavin6942 Shannon Whisnant purchased a grill at an auction. Inside the grill was an amputated leg. What follows is a story centered on the enterprising Whisnant and John Wood, the man whose leg wound up in the grill due to an odd chain of events.This story, by itself, is quite interesting because of the events and people involved. Shannon Whisnant is clearly crazy, with delusions of grandeur. He does not seem stupid, but clearly feels he has been slighted by the world and should be someone important. John Wood, on the other hand, is generally portrayed as the victim, but he has his own problems and from what we see in the film, he seems to have more or less thrown away a golden ticket.A little bit deeper, there are two issues I would love to have seen more of: one, why did the doctors let Wood keep his leg? I feel like there are some biohazard issues with letting people keep rotting flesh, and the film never really got into that.And two, I wish the issue would have gone through actual legal channels. There are some excellent legal questions involved: does the leg belong to the person who found it, just as money in a mattress would? Or is it clearly something different because it is human remains -- can you actually own part of another man? This could have been fascinating to see argued in court, but that never happens.

MovieHoliks Maybe it's because I am in Ohio, and this took place in North Carolina, but I don't recall hearing anything about this public feud over a leg found in a smoker that was sold off in a storage unit auction. There are many different types of documentaries -- historical, biographical, ones that take on social, environmental or political issues, but soon into this film, I ascertained it to be I guess a comedic doc-?? Well, a bit farther into it, I realized there is more to this than I thought. In fact, I would call this a documentary about healing, recovering from addiction, and making amends. Definitely worth checking out sometime...

jdesando "I've always been famous. It's just now people are finding me." Shannon Whisnat Bizarre is as bizarre does. Finders Keepers is an authentic good-old boy documentary set in North Carolina about rednecks John Wood and Shannon Whisnat, the former storing his amputated leg in a smoker grille in a storage unit. The latter buys the smoker at auction and wants to keep it to peddle his fame while John wants it back because it is his connection to his dad.The challenge with the material is for educated audiences not to feel superior to the Crackers on the edge of insanity struggling with their demons, John alcoholism and Shannon fame. Shannon's plight is the more pathetic of the two, an overweight dreamer who pursues reality-show fame as if it were his destiny.As we watch family members--sisters, mothers, wives-- themselves redneck real, there seems no way out of their unsophistication, yet there is. John laments the furor over the leg--he goes on a Judge show with Shannon to fight legally for possession--and turns his energy to sobriety. Shannon sees he's the butt of jokes on the reality circuit and while disconsolate seems to be entering a sober phase of his life.Whether or not the filmmakers manipulate to make the subjects denser than they are is arguable, but they sure have some witty observations: About John, Shannon says, "He was born with a silver crack pipe in his mouth." There's a cinema verite feel to the proceedings, recognition that even these down-home characters have arcs leading to self-awareness. Too many fiction movies don't do that.

jake_fantom This is documentary filmmaking at its best, filled with hilarity, surprising twists and turns, eccentric characters, and poignant revelations. The film is brilliantly constructed from bits of news footage, beautifully photographed interviews, and quirky bits of animation that highlight the timeline of events. It's actually one of the best edited films of any kind that I have ever seen. Add to that a quirky soundtrack that's as unique as the real-life characters themselves, plus a story so bizarre it has to be witnessed to be believed — and you've got one absolutely remarkable film. It is best to come to this film without any preconceptions or expectations, so I am not even touching on elements of the story. This movie is a gem.