REVIEW: THIS AMERICAN LIFE

Grand Readership,

Ever see those previews for IN-THEATER EVENTS? Things like live beer tastings and live opera shows and so on...? Ringing any bells? Well, the basic idea is to take an event - and broadcast it live via satellite to a select theaters in cities across the country. The most recent of these events was to take the popular NPR radio show, THIS AMERICAN LIFE - and broadcast it live (complete with IRA GLASS) across the country. I'm excited to announce that one of the readers here at X RETICENT REVIEWS, HOOM HUM, was able to attend one of the two screenings. He's a passionate student of the pictures and I'm happy to share his take on the experience. Hope you enjoy!



This American Life, the Peabody winning radio show, has been a public radio staple for over a decade. Each episode is comprised of personal short stories, documentaries, and fiction readings, all tied loosely to a common theme. The quintessential “driveway moment” show, This American Life is also the #1 podcast on iTunes, a cable television series, and now a live film. On April 23rd, TAL recorded its radio show and broadcast it live to hundreds of theaters across the US.

The show starts, as it always does, with Host Ira Glass taking the stage and introducing the theme, “Returning to the Scene of the Crime.” He tells an amusing story about a Florida judge with a unique punishment for shoplifters. Shoplifters have to literally return to scene of their crime, and hold large signs saying, “I stole” or “I am a thief.” Taking advantage of the screen, the piece was also animated in parts.

Kicking off Act 1 is comedian Mike Birbiglia. He tells a story about being hit by a drunk driver and the sloppy accident report that followed. The tale is hilarious, infuriating, personal, and poignant. Birbiglia has a great stage presence from his years of standup, and is expert at story telling. This was a great story to start with, and was the best of the show.

Starlee Kline then took the stage. She tells a personal story about her time spent at an emotional therapy retreat, which centered around “killing her parents” (pillows) with a whiffle ball bat. Her story was accompanied by simple drawings shown in a split screen. The story is amusing, and the drawings are nicely integrated, but the story is not as focused as the others.

Next up is Dan Savage, of sex advice column Savage Love fame. In a completely different mode than his column, Savage drops the snark and tells an extremely personal and affecting story of his struggle with faith while being gay, and his relationship with his mother. It's an emotional, darkly humorous piece, and had Savage, the audience, and myself, at the brink of tears.

Capping off the show is Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Firefly,” and the internet musical “Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.” The new DVD contains a musical commentary track, complete with rhyming lyrics and backing instruments. Whedon perform the first song from the track. The song isn't too bad, and the lyrics are funny. A pleasant way to end to show.

It was very well put together program, and as good as This American Life can be. But is it worth seeing in theaters? While every story had visual components, they didn't add very much, except to highlight some of the humor. Kline's piece benefited the most from the visuals, but oddly, this was the weakest part of the whole program.

Seeing the people behind the voices was interesting and it was fascinating to watch Ira Glass smoothly cue up music and audio clips during his story. Visuals aside, it is great to see This American Life in theaters and experience it in a group. We laughed, gasped, smiled, and cried, together, an experience impossible to have while listening in your car. A collective driveway moment. The show will be rebroadcast on May 7th, in select theaters, and played on the radio in the coming weeks.