Reel Paradise

John Pierson, an impresario of American independent cinema who helped launch Spike Lee and Michael Moore, took his family to a remote Fiji island for a year to run a movie theater with free admission and hired Chicagoan Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) to document the project, particularly its final month. Pierson’s wife and teenage son and daughter seem more sensible about and more integrated into the local culture than he is, and James gives them ample opportunity to question Pierson’s missionary zeal. The results are fairly entertaining if not exactly profound. R, 110 min. (JR) Read more