Finders Keepers - B

Rated R, 82 minutes

The fascinating, engaging new documentary "Finders Keepers" will become affectionately known as the "foot in the BBQ doc" and it's one of those stranger-than-fiction/has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed type of stories, but it also a bittersweet story of change and family roots that most can relate to. Recovering addict and amputee North Carolina resident John Wood finds himself in a bizarre battle to reclaim his mummified leg from Southern entrepreneur Shannon Whisnant, who found it in a grill he bought at an auction in 2007 and believes it to therefore be his rightful property. Co-directed by Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel, the latter of whom co-produced the equally fun 2007 documentary "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," the absorbing, bittersweet story is alternately weird, sad and funny, and perfectly captures what happens when the 15 minutes of fame and fortune come to regular people. This time it just happened to people living in the deep South with accents that may be different than yours and mine, and if you can relinquish some (but not all) of your "white trash" sensibilities - which is actually part of its fun - then you can see that the story can apply to just about everyone, given everyone's imperfections. Whisnant for one, wanted to profit off of it (charging people upwards of $3 to view it not to mention making customized T shirts of it), while Wood clearly had some substance abuse issues, both of which are detailed in the story; the first part of "Finders Keepers" is the crazy, funny hard-to-believe part, while it turns very serious in the second half as it delves into each man's demons. Wood's story, dealing with addiction and family problems - he lost in his leg in a small plane crash of a plane he was piloting that killed his father - is the more compelling. If you know anything about the story, it was actually resolved in an equally crazy way - on the TV show "Judge Mathis" -  but it also helped Wood get the help he needed (too bad Judge Mathis isn't interviewed here, would've been nice to see what he really thought). Especially in its final act, "Finders Keepers" is too melancholy and redundant when it focuses on what could've been, but Tweel and Carberry strive to keep it upbeat, especially in its coda, when finds both men moving on to different lives. All amazing what a leg in a BBQ does to people. This worthwhile documentary is one of the year's best, and deserves to seen.