Taylor Guterson’s Hunting Bigfoot is one of the exquisite surprises of my first three days of CineJoy. Within the first twenty minutes of this movie, I had to pause to call up Friend and talk through all the whiplash I was feeling. You start out thinking this guy, John Green, is a bit of a loopy adventurer living in the Pacific Northwest, and it becomes almost immediately clear from interviews with his children that he is a classic alcoholic and experiencing the early signs of dementia. Then you watch him travel through the woods for a bit and visit the foodbank, and it becomes even more clear that he’s effectively homeless. Which is exactly the moment when you discover that there are a group of people at a local gym who have been kind of looking out for him AND THAT THEY ARE ALSO BIGFOOT FANATICS.
I had to try really hard not to write this entire review in capslock, because it would be entirely merited. There are a lot of moments when I felt the need to shout at Wife, who is dutifully preparing for work tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock at night. Like the moment you see John Green walk up to a house, shave his beard, and snuggle on the couch with a very young and beautiful woman, Sara, and suddenly your mind is reeling. Is this sick poor, old man being taken advantage of? What’s this woman’s angle? FLASH FORWARD TEN YEARS.
That’s right. This documentary is playing the long game. You thought you were coming in to rest your head in your hands and raise your eyebrow at a silly little man, and now you’re deep in the weeds on ten years of footage and you’re watching tape from his vacation to the Big Island from 1990 and you know the name of his T-shirt company from LA.
Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned Michael David Pyle, famed lepidopterist and poet, who is one of the major experts they talk to throughout the film! He throws some excellent shade throughout.
I have so much love for this movie, I don’t know how to articulate how happy this has made me.
