Louie Bluie
Director: Terry Zwigoff
Year Released: 1985
Rating: 3.0
Inspiring mini-portrait of Howard Armstrong, a supremely gifted musician who specialized in country blues (but don't ask him about B.B. King) and playing the fiddle and the mandolin not to mention painting and making books (I would love to see a reprinted edition of his hand-written A-Z guide to pornography). It's free-form but it works - it takes Armstrong from jamming with friends to playing in clubs to walking around flea-markets to visiting his old home town, all the while telling stories and genuinely enjoying life: his positive attitude is undeniably infectious (the man was a rambler). The film could have been a lot longer and filled in more details - the way Zwigoff covered his friend R. Crumb years later so thoroughly - but this glimpse into a unique individual's worldview is sufficient.
