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Review

Australian director Matthew Bate's documentary Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure focuses on a strange viral sensation of the late 80s and early 90s (before the internet! Oh, how naive we all were!).

Back in 1987, two young San Francisco roomies named Eddie and Mitch started recording the loud, druken arguments of their next door neighbors - Peter Haskett and Raymond Huffman. Raymond would berate Peter and taunt him with a variety homophobic tirades - to which Peter would frequently respond, angrily, "Shut up, little man!" These angry, unhinged conversations proved so interesting and unusual that copies of the original recordings started spreading like wildfire to hip audio verite enthusiasts across the country - and even oversees. This doc examines that phenomenon - as well as the conflicts that ensued over whether or not the material could be copywrighted. What the film too often leaves out, sadly, are the most intriguing aspects of the whole story: Peter and Raymond themselves. Who were these men? What events transpired to turn them into such crazed and curmudgeonly alcoholics? How did they meet, what is their shared history and, most importantly, why would an openly gay man share a small apartment with a drunken homophobic bigot?

The film attempts to answer those questions, but comes up short. Raymond and Peter were both deceased prior to the making of the film. The filmmakers score an interview with a stand-offish, potentially violent former friend and frequent houseguest of Peter and Raymond's, but he doesn't offer much insight. What we are left with are artfully-crafted, but unfulfilling reenactments offering the theory that Peter and Raymond were actually lovers. These theories, however, are not backed up with any proof or evidence. Far too much of the film's time is spent following Eddie, Mitch and various other opportunists who attempted to cash in on the strange secret recordings. The lack of access and information about the shining stars of those recordings makes it seem as though the filmmakers forgot what made those recordings so fascinating in the first place.

 -- Robert O'Neill