Thin ’brew line

>> The Schmelvis doc is pointless, and funnier for it

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Back in May of 2000, local documentary-makers Diversus Productions let the Mirror in on their plans to sniff out Elvis Presley’s Jewish heritage, citing his mom’s bloodline, his chai pendant and other clues. They were going to blow the story wide open, challenge cherished preconceptions and say Kaddish over the King’s grave to boot.
Schmelvis (or rather, local born-again Hasid/Elvis impersonator Dan Hartal) was to be their point man (or rather, “the sacrificial lamb,” in his words) on a mega-schlep to Graceland. Though producer Evan Beloff and director Max Wallace would never admit it, it was clear that they’d drawn a direct line between a best-doc Oscar and footage of a schvitzing Schmelvis fleeing enraged, pitchfork-wielding rednecks.

Fortunately for Hartal, this never happened. Throughout the now-completed Schmelvis: In Search of Elvis Presley’s Jewish Roots, assorted Southern-fried goyim are boldly confronted with the fairly substantial facts, and almost uniform in their reply: “Who cares?” Later, when the crew visits Israel, the reactions are the same, only preceded by, “Yeah, yeah, we know.”

Thus, what might have been a daring exposé of America’s racist underbelly, or conversely, a moving portrait of the evolving South, or maybe a heartfelt look at what brings us together as human beings, amounts to something else entirely. It’s a gruelling profile of five kvetchy boychiks (and a “lone gentile”) trapped in an overheated Winnebago, nursing their neuroses, periodically bullied and brow-beaten by the hard-boiled, straight-shooting, chain-smoking Rabbi Poupko.

Of course, some of the “local colour,” both in Memphis and in Jerusalem, is priceless. But throughout the film Beloff spills an endless stream of angst and self-doubt. What is the film going to accomplish? What’s the point? Well, if the point, from the get-go, were to make a really funny fools-on-the-road film, a kitsch-culture Idiossey sprinkled with occasional insights and oddities, he’d be grinning like a monkey, ’cause that’s what they gone done did. As such, it’s hilarious. :

Schmelvis screens with live music, at Salle de Gésu (1200 Bleury) on Thursday, May 30, 7:30pm, $18