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Australia · 2011
1h 30m
Director Matthew Bate
Starring Ivan Brunetti, Daniel Clowes, Mitch Deprey, Peter Haskett
Genre Comedy, Documentary
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In 1987, Eddie Lee Sausage and Mitch Deprey recorded the nightly squabbles of their over-the-top neighbors, homophobic Raymond Huffman and proudly gay Peter Haskett, and the chronicle of the pair's bizarre existence soon took on a life of its own. Eddie and Mitch reminisce on the tapes' influence and viral success.
In making Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure, a documentary that tells the story of not just the tapes but their strange and increasingly sad afterlife, Australian filmmaker Matthew Bate faces the challenge not only of visualizing the audio artifacts but also of finding a way to position their makers and explain all that has transpired since the tapes were initially recorded.
For once, trying to expand into a bigger exploration of the zeitgeist actually proves to be a misstep; the movie works best when it simply shuts up and concentrates more on the anatomy of a prank gone pop phenomenal.
Alternately hilarious and discomfiting, and finally rather poignant.
The Hollywood Reporter by James Greenberg
Cleverly put together by writer-director Matthew Bate, the film takes a bizarre, cult folktale and turns it into a picture that is more provocative than entertaining.
The New York Times by Neil Genzlinger
A dandy little documentary whether you view the story it captures as a precursor to the flash fame of the Internet age or as one of the last genuine underground phenomena before the Internet made that whole concept obsolete.
Slant Magazine by Nick Schager
Shut Up Little Man! fails to legitimize its topic as one of any significance.
Bate invites a disparate bunch of SULM true-believers to explain their obsession, and many of them point to the same spirit of voyeurism that makes YouTube videos go viral today: that sense of getting an unfiltered look into how other people live.
Boxoffice Magazine by Sara Maria Vizcarrondo
Upbeat, bitter, sweet and always gripping, Shut Up! Little Man gives remix culture the ucky origin story it likely won't heed, but could sorely use nonetheless.
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