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List Price: $19.95 | | Label: TROMA ENTERTAINMENT INC.
Salesrank: 131242
Released: June 17, 2003 |
| Our Price: $28.99 |
| Used Price: $4.99 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Meet Jeff Towne. He's a beer-drinking, porno-consuming, wrestling fanatic with Down's Syndrome. He lies, he cheats, he steals; he fondles women. In short, he's a lot like the rest of us than we care to admit. Jeff's days are divided between his filthy home that he shares with his 98 year old, wheelchair bound foster mother (who pins their financial future on the certainty that they'll win the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes) and a mall movie theater, where the employees alternately mock and care for Jeff. They've become a bizarre surrogate family for Jeff, providing him with all the vices that his mother so desperately ignores - to her, Jeff is a good Christian boy with a heart of gold. As this shocking and hilarious documentary will show you, Jeff frequents strip joint, bum-rushes celebrities, cares for his horrifying blackened diseased foot, and gets his few remaining teeth extracted. One thing is for sure: you've never seen anything like Jefftowne and you've never met anyone like Jeff.
Jefftowne Reviews:
My favorite Troma release by far. 
2009-07-28 - Jefftowne (Daniel Kraus, 1998)
In the world of Troma film distribution, every once in a while you come across something that makes you start singing "one of these things is not like the other" in your head. Jefftowne is that thing, a documentary that is not at all played for laughs. How on earth did Troma find this, and what were they thinking? (Unfortunately, I'm sure the answer to that is "people will laugh at this guy." More unfortunately, I'm sure they were right.
Jeff Towne is a forty-year-old with Down's Syndrome. He lives alone, has a job at a movie theater, and actually lives pretty much like a lot of other confirmed bachelors; he drinks a lot of beer, looks at a lot of porn, watches pro wrestling. How is this out of the ordinary? Because Jeff has Down's Syndrome, of course, and because he does everything he does to extremes.
You'd expect a movie like this to be exploitive, and I'm sure that's what Troma were thinking when they picked it up for distribution (and because of that, I'm sure there's a segment of the populace that will see it exactly that way), but it really isn't. Kraus (Musician), a friend of Jeff's, treated him pretty much like any other documentary subject you'd see captured on film, Yes, there's some humor here, but it flows naturally (Jeff is something of a raconteur) rather than coming from Jeff's lot in life. The documentary is sensitive and fascinating despite, essentially, following a regular guy around doing regular stuff.
The DVD contains a wealth of extras that make it well worth checking out even if you've seen the movie itself, including a short follow-up Kraus filmed two years after the original movie. Very good, this. *** ½
Very Different, but entertaining...I guess 
2008-11-05 - If you are expecting random violence and nudity, this is not the movie for you. It is kind of entertaining in parts, and funny sometimes, but I felt like I had to force myself to sit through it just because of the Troma label.
Plan your visit to "Jefftowne" 
2007-10-14 - As one who prefers non-fictional, gritty and anti-Hollywood filmmaking, I think "Jefftowne" is a major accomplishment, especially in the way it develops and celebrates relationships between a man with Down's Syndrome and those he befriends at his local mall's movie theater. Did the filmmakers try to profit from Jeffy's disability? Hardly. I'm pretty sure they were film students at the University of Iowa, surviving by working at the theater with one of the film's heroes, Kim the manager. Kim is the man who accepts, appreciates and nurtures Jeffy, who otherwise would be forced to spend his life living with his invalid foster mother. This woman, Genevieve, deserves credit for adopting Jeffy, but she is hopeless, can't take care of Jeffy's hygiene and somehow believes that she will be the next Clearing House Sweepstakes winner.
I bet the movie derived from boredom at work, when director Daniel Kraus and associates realized that Jeff Townes' life was a readymade documentary that only needed to be filmed. You can tell that Kraus, and almost everyone else, loved Jeffy and wanted to give him the spotlight he always dreamed of. That Jeffy loved beer, women, Star Trek and wrestling normalizes him, and without his movie theatre friends, he would have never met William Shatner or seen Hulk Hogan live.
This is a touching story about one man's bizarre journey through life, vocalized through his dozen or so vocabulary words that end up saying it all. Credit goes to Jeffy's friends who participated in the film, and of course to the production crew, who spent only $6,000 to make it.
The only drawback is the company that released "Jefftowne," Troma, whose reputation is questionable and likely caused this movie to end up buried in the Cult section of your non-corporate video store, which is where I uncovered it. The DVD does offer much more than just the film, including a short feature, "Jefftowne 2," that revisits Jeffy's situation four years after the original film. In "Jefftowne 2" we see Jeffy making great strides toward independence, after Genevieve has gone into assisted living and Jeffy has his own apartment. His theatre friends are still there to help him, and these films document the important friendships that disabled folks must trust to help them through life. I would be very interested to see "Jefftowne 3," should there be one.
non-climatic 
2004-12-29 - an interesting movie, along the lines of "american movie". not really entertaining, kind of monotonous and non-climatic. i found myself finding other things to do while i watch this movie at the same time.
the funny thing is that during the beginning of the movie i couldn't understand a work jeff would say, but towards the end i began to almost understand what he was saying.
the part where he makes his own movie is, by far, the best.
The most uplifting movie about regular people I've ever seen
2004-03-03 - Jefftowne is a masterpiece. I was literally laughing and crying at the same time. No kidding. There isn't a single scene in here that tries to solicit your pity, your contempt of a disabled man, or his demented stepmother. It is a triumph of the human spirit and how we will help people that need help. The people at the cinema where Jeff works obviously get a kick out of Jeff, but they also love him. It's obvious because he brings out the best in them. Only a freako, liberal 'academic' would mistake the people in Jeff's life for not loving him. They treat him with respect and (at least on camera) never exploit him or publicly humiliate him. If Jeff did not have the people he works with, he would be 'hurtin' for certain'. They take care of his social, emotional and even his warped sexual needs. They don't have sex with him, but they allow him to type the captions in his girlie mags that lets him process it without shame. The scene where Jeff has the camera affected me physically. It was timed so wonderfully in the film that I really felt like I was looking at the world through Jeff's eyes and I laughed out loud as tears were rolling down my face. Not tears of sadness or pity, but raw emotion knowing that Jeff has a place in the world and he knows it. This is due to his friends. When you see Jefftowne2 and how far he has come, it's amazing. Each one of the people he hangs out with have a completely different view of Jeff, yet they all accept him. I could go on and on but I'll leave it at this: If you don't finish this tape and feel good (not because you're not Jeff, but because you can share in his accomplishments and the way in which these normal folks take him into their lives) then you are absolutely emotionally retarded. Well done Troma and bravo Jeff.
