Short Takes

Documentarian Jennifer Arnold presents an oddly compassionate exploration of the nation's most hysterically maligned hairdo through a strange series of interviews with follic offenders. Listen as a Billy Ray Cyrus lookalike explains how "the look" both kick-started his musical career AND earned him a free trip to Dollywood. Or there's the rockin "hair band" holdout who theorizes that chicks who dig his do harbor secret sapphic desires. Yet no confessor is more bizarre than the webmaster of MulletsGalore.com who appears on camera MASKED like some sort of gangland stoolie. Incidentally, those amused by the popular site's cruel chronicles of the mulleted, will likely tire as Ms. Arnold strays onto the high road by probing the, gulp, cultural significance of the hairstyle among lesbians and Native Americans. (2001, 52 mins, Fullframe, DD 2.0, Bonus footage including a five-minute "how to" on the bi-level cut, Trailers.)