Imagine a price-grabber website that didn't just list the best deals from Amazon and its top eight competitors, but every store in the entire world that carried what you wanted. It'd be a low-budget nirvana for deal hunters, and you'd never pay full price for anything again. Why would you? The interviewees of Your Mileage May Vary feel the same way, and it's not enough to get Crest for $2.99 instead of $3.99, but also to send in the rebate, so you're actually earning money buying toothpaste. Some of the statistics rattled off by the participants about average spending and weekly grocery costs are staggering: feeding a family of four, plus two dogs and two guinea pigs runs a coupon clipper an average of less than $20 per week.

And we're not just talking coupons from the local newspaper. They've got bags and boxes of coupons stuffed into photo organizers and filing cabinets, overflowing with every deal they can get their hands on. One woman even has a briefcase with a color-coded filing system that she takes with her when she goes shopping. Many of them stage their coupon-hunting routines for the camera, involving paper recycling dumpsters where they scavenge from newspapers that get tossed out and online, localized forums for dealhounds. It sounds loopy, but they all explain themselves in calm, collected ways without any derision for even the "snobby" ones who don't understand the hype: more deals for them, I guess.

As crazy and obscure as it sounds, Your Mileage May Vary needs a better editor and some sharper planning. A sequence where a woman unloads her coupon bag takes too long, and should have been intercut with the later scenes of people describing their filing systems. Oftentimes interviewees end up talking too long about a specific deal instead of explaining more generalized facts about their techniques or traditions, which will lose people's attentions quickly (it's all very technical, as they say). Story follow-up could also be much better. In particular, one woman comments that "if you're gonna do the deals, you have to let them track you with the rewards cards," and I wondered why there are no interviews with store owners or even corporate figures who follow the patterns of coupon users, while another lady talks about the governor in her state living for a week off of $25 in food stamps for each member of the family when she claims she could feed her entire family for a month on the same amount of stamps. It would be a perfect opportunity for an interview or a challenge even, but it isn't followed up.

The biggest flaw, though, is one of identification, with both the filmmaker and his subjects. As you may have noticed, I have to keep referring to the participants as "that woman" (there's one guy) because none of the interviewees are named on screen, even during the credits (I expected short clips with their names underneath, but nope), and thusly everyone remains anonymous. The box copy also talks up Pocker as if he's the star of this show, with statements about his "rapier wit" and "nuanced humor" pitching the film to Pocker's "friends and fans" and laying out his documentary's exploits as if he's some sort of avant-garde documentary maverick Batman when the guy doesn't even appear in his own film. Had he interviewed some of these women on camera, it might have been more interesting.

There were parts during Your Mileage May Vary where I was bored -- I admit it -- but it's the fault of the movie's crew and not so much the subject material. Topics touched on include coupon gathering rings (at one time even illegal!), the embarrassment of dumpster diving (at least paper dumpsters are dry and relatively clean), and the self-publisher of a coupon magazine. They talk about how coupons affected their diets, let them donate to charity, and change their interactions with other people. It's too bad Pocker and his team, despite such a wealth of information, can't knock this one out of the park. At least none of these folks will shame the truly curious for picking up Your Mileage May Vary out of a bargain bin somewhere down the line.

The DVD
A striking cover graces this single disc set, which uses dotted lines to good measure on the front and back. The disc retains its base silver top with black paint for the title and image, and there is no insert. The menu is clever and easy to navigate. No captions are provided.

The Video and Audio
Since Your Mileage May Vary is such a homegrown documentary project, I'm going to combine my review of the 1.85:1 anamorphic video and Dolby 2.0 stereo audio into a single section because there really isn't that much to say. Color is kind of drab (as you can see from the caps, whites run hot) and detail is far from amazing, but it pretty much looks like it must have on the digital tapes they used to film the movie with. Sound is clear, and obviously directional effects are not the order of the day.

The Extras
There's only one bonus feature, an audio commentary by "the hosts of YMMV Radio", who turn out to be director Sam Pocker and "Jane" and "Alex" (Jane seems to be Pocker's wife, while Alex provides an amusingly foreign perspective). Here, you actually learn the names of many of the coupon clippers, and Pocker turns out to actually be a genial host. While I was worried that the track would be an even slower slog than the more technical aspects of the film, and some will find it too low-key, it's actually reasonably entertaining, likely because these folks supposedly host a radio show. If you liked the film and want to have a relaxed flow of information on the production, this is a pretty good track without any significant gaps of silence in the conversation.

No theatrical trailer is included here, if there ever was one. I am surprised there aren't any deleted scenes either, which are usually a staple of documentaries.

Conclusion
Rent it if you're curious. There's definitely material of interest here (more than I expected), but even those who are greatly pleased by Your Mileage May Vary and its sole bonus feature will probably not find themselves revisiting the film enough to warrant a purchase.