I LIKE KILLING FLIES

    I LIKE KILLING FLIES

    Kenny Shopsin’s Legendary Eatery

2005 – THINK FILM – 79 Minutes – Directed by Matt Mahurin

When I next get to New York City, I’m planning to visit Greenwich Village and see if perhaps I might prove “worthy” enough to eat at Shopsin’s restaurant at its new site. After watching the documentary I Like Killing Flies, directed by Matt Mahurin, I have no choice, I must go there and try one of 900, made from scratch, dishes that chef Kenny Shopskin cooks from scratch. I will definitely not go there with more than three other people.  I hope I don’t get thrown out because I’m not a regular customer.

I Like Killing Flies is an intimate, funny, cinema verite style documentary that pulls you in and makes you feel as if you were there in Shopsin’s small kitchen as he cooks one amazing concoction, after another and at the same time talks to you about his life, experience and philosophy, often in a humorous, bawdy context. Kenny Shopsin also appears to be one of those New Yorker’s who believe that the “F” word has a number of grammatical uses as a verb, noun, adjective, pronoun etc. But in his case it never seems gratuitous or out-of-place.

The film begins with Kenny Shopsin starting his day and explaining how he has jury-rigged the kitchen over the years, so that everything is user-friendly. He also talks about his ongoing battle with killing flies which he occasionally does when a fly dares to enter his kitchen space. He even has a zapper up near the ceiling to catch the “high flyers,” which he explains are similar to terrorists and hard to kill. The film covers sine kitchen wisdom from a philosophically prone Shopsin, much of which seems to make sense!

Whatever the film lacks in production value (in one scene the interviewee is holding the lavaliere mike and in another scene the filmmaker appears to be holding it out in front of the camera) it makes up in spontaneity and actuality. The editing is good and the story doesn’t lag. Editing of scenes in the kitchen while food is being prepared captures the pressure of preparing food from scratch during busy times of day. The camera work is steady even though it appears to be handheld.  One of the interviews with Kenny is done while he is driving in his car.

One enjoyable aspect of this documentary is watching Kenny cook up a huge amount of unique dishes as he talks about his various beliefs.  Customers talk about their experiences ordering, the types of food they eat,  why they frequent Shopsins’ and why they are willing to take some abuse occasionally. Shopsin family members give their feelings about Kenny and life in the restaurant. In one part of the film some people who were turned away because they were a party of six who came into the restaurant, recount their experience of being thrown out. According to Kenny, since they did not read the sign on the door that stipulates that only up to a party of four is allowed, they will now always be a party of six and never allowed in the restaurant. Kenny’s believes that he “does more” than the customer and so they need to prove to him that they are worthy of being fed. If they don’t like his policy they can go “fuck them selves,” he says.

As the documentary proceeds we learn that Kenny will soon need to move to another location because the new landlord has raised his rent to a point that it would not be profitable to stay there. Part of the film follows Kenny, his wife and other family members hunting and ultimately finding a new site not far from the old one.

This humorous, intimate documentary explores not only a quirky restaurant owner and his philosophy of life it also takes a look at how in an urban environment this restaurant does more than just feed people. Shopsin has created a place where people come to eat and meet the rest of the family.

I Like Killing Flies is informative, fun and well worth spending seventy-nine minutes watching, maybe more than once.

Review by JRMartin

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