White Lightnin' (2008)
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86% of critics liked it
(14 reviews) -
68% of users liked it
(486 ratings)
The colorful subject of the popular underground documentary Dancing Outlaw finds his outlandish life story adapted for the big screen in this biopic penned by Vice Magazine's Shane Smith and Eddy Moretti (Heavy Metal Baghdad), and directed by UK commercial veteran Dominic Murphy. West Virginia… More The colorful subject of the popular underground documentary Dancing Outlaw finds his outlandish life story adapted for the big screen in this biopic penned by Vice Magazine's Shane Smith and Eddy Moretti (Heavy Metal Baghdad), and directed by UK commercial veteran Dominic Murphy. West Virginia native Jesco White was just six years old when he started huffing gasoline and lighter fluid to get high. As a troubled adolescent young Jesco bounced between work camps and reform schools until the day his father, famed mountain dancer D. Ray White, taught him how to tap dance. That skill would prove indispensable in helping Jesco keep his wicked ways in check after his father is murdered and the demons come knocking. Lacing up his father's tap shoes and taking his show on the road, Jesco (Edward Hogg) eventually meets Cilla (Carrie Fisher), the woman he will eventually call his wife. But even true love can't prevent Jesco from being split by the double-edged sword of revenge and redemption, and for the man who craves both there is truly no peace. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Rating, Runtime
- Unrated, 1 hr. 24 min.
- Directed By
- Dominic Murphy
- Genres
- Drama
- In Theaters
- Jan 19, 2009 Wide
- On DVD
- Jun 28, 2011
- Studio
- Salt Company
Critic Reviews
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Tom Long, Detroit News
There's a crazy-dirty energy to White Lightnin' that's rarely seen in films, a raw beauty and awfulness that's both scary and exciting.
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Patrick Peters, Empire Magazine
Dominic Murphy's pseudo-biopic is as visually assured as it is audacious, but behind the slickly edited imagery, the debutant's storytelling is exposed by shallow characterisation.
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Trevor Johnston, Time Out
This debut British feature weaves sundry biographical details into an awkward cross-hatch of oblique celluloid portrait and backwoods horror thriller.
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Anton Bitel, Film4
From its bleakly comic beginning to its fire-and-brimstone ending, this artful trailer-trash quasi-biopic will set your heart pounding and your feet tapping.
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Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
If you thought Deliverance was too subtle, too refined, too delicate, and that the hillbillies in it were far too much like characters from Jane Austen, then this is for you.
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