On WFF #9: Half in the bag
Decider previews the Wisconsin Film Festival
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There have been so many films documenting the questionable practices involved in modern food production (including this year’s Food, Inc.) that it’s easy to overlook that lonely soul at the end of the checkout aisle. Save for the rare moments when they’re being sworn at for cracking an egg or moving too slowly, grocery store baggers remain mostly invisible. Paper Or Plastic? (April 5, 11 a.m., Wisconsin Union Theater) changes all this by placing eight baggers in the spotlight as they embark on a bizarre quest to become the nation’s top bag-stuffer at the National Grocers Association’s U.S.A Best Bagger Championship.
This offbeat backdrop sets up perfectly for a paint-by-numbers documentary—contestant backstories plus challenges equals drama—though in this case, it mostly comes up short. At 80 minutes, Alex D. da Silva and Justine Jacob’s film doesn’t linger long enough on the personal stories (eight characters are probably three or four too many), or the particular minutia that can bring backbone to a goofball movie like this.
The film reveals that all the hopefuls certainly want to win, and their friends and families support them, but rarely does Paper Or Plastic? explore what truly drives them to spend their off-time perfecting a craft that offers so little reward. It also glosses over the specifics of the competition itself. The contestants are judged on speed and bag-packing technique, but it’s not entirely clear what different strategies they employ, how the scores are tabulated, or why the winner is ultimately chosen over everyone else. By the time it’s done, Paper Or Plastic?’s own bag of tricks feels like it needs to be filled with a whole lot more stuff than it is.
For more previews of the Wisconsin Film Festival, please see the On WFF archive.
