Movie Review:
Twin Cities Reader
April 7, 1996
by Jon Tevlin
The sad thing about a typical home movie is that it disguises the almost inevitable dysfunction of the family both behind and before the camera. Patrick Hennessey's low-budget documentary, The Homeless Home Movie, however, manages to expose as much about the people involved in homeless issues as it does about the homeless themselves.
Billed as a movie "not as much about (the homeless), as with them," The Homeless Home Movie does offer compelling portraits of complicated people, and does so without glossing over the realities of their problems. It's hard to forget characters such as West Side, a drunken but sympathetic Vietnam Vet who volunteers at a shelter, or Ken and Debbie, an aimless couple who tally rent payments by the number of bottles of Windsor they would buy. As he promises, Hennessey allows them to tell their story, a tactic that humanizes his subjects, but also leaves viewers pondering the holes in each personal history. Why, for example, does Debbie suddenly show up on camera with a black eye?
An interesting side plot, but one that doesnít fit neatly with the director's stated intention, is the philosophical rift between homeless-shelter guru Mary Jo Copeland and Up and Out of Poverty's Mark Thisius. Rather than simply portray Copeland as the local savior, as most media have done, Hennessey uses the contrarian Thisius to challenge her assumptions. Scenes of Copeland calling on God to save the poor are nicely intercut with Thisius riling the troops to action: "We've had enough charity. We want justice," he shouts.
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