Very few people in life have the ability to drop everything, be rid of all sorts of city life vices, and go on the road to live the life they want to. Very few people actually have the courage to do so, and risk losing their family in the process. Poppa Neutrino is one of those people. He’s a man who isn’t rich or famous, or even that well known, but at the end of the day he can tell us that he’s lived his life how he’s wanted to, and no one can take that away from him. This is the subject of the latest documentary from the directing team of Victor Zimet and Stephanie Silber.
“Random Lunacy” is the chronicle of a man named Poppa Neutrino who lives like a hermit in the city, collecting trinkets and garbage to create houses, while his family tells the story of how he picked his life up and went out onto the road. Living in makeshift floating homes and trailers, Neutrino, and his family traveled all over the world living off of what they could find, and acted as a nomadic musical troupe who performed as the “Flying Neutrinos” and learned to get by. Though it may sound like material for a sentimental little family film, it’s really the true story of the group of people who lived like nomads using their abilities to get by, all the while revealing the hardships they experienced. Alienation, social awkwardness, angst, and their inability to learn their place in a world where they had no actual home, the story in “Random Lunacy” is told through a series of home videos that Neutrino and his wife took throughout the years exploring their adventures and their tribulations.
Through these videos we see the children wax insightful about their parents, their irritation with constantly running around unable to make actual friends, their unorthodox education that Poppa and wife Betsy defend, and of course their performances for crowds in various circles including their favorite locale, Mexico. Zimet and Silber thankfully never exploit the interviews here, and gather very objective commentary from Neutrino’s children all of whom fondly remember even the worst moments, including Neutrino’s son Todd suddenly getting very sick on the road, along with Neutrino’s firm life lesson to his children on possessions being fleeting. Neutrino and his family is a compelling bunch, and I honestly could have watched their home videos for hours.
Even without the interviews, and commentary, the Neutrinos are such an interesting group of people who had the most unusual life, and still grew up to be basically well adjusted, if not a bit strange. But Zimet and Silber really just sum up what this documentary was by the exciting climax, with a perilous journey that ends in something rather beautiful, and words simply weren’t needed. “Random Lunacy” is a documentary about a compelling man who raised the all-American family, who lived the ideal life as they viewed it, and if that’s not American, then I don’t know what is. Zimet and Silber bring forth a unique and entertaining documentary chronicling one of the most fascinating family’s in America, raised by one of the weirdest men ever depicted on film. Sure enough though, Poppa Neutrino will become a favorite, come festival time.