Review of North Dixie Drive (2011) by Borrowed C — 05 Jun 2014

NORTH DIXIE DRIVE.

Dayton's survivors tell their sad tales.

You can take the boy out of Dayton, but you can't take Dayton out of the boy, as evidenced by the documentary North Dixie Drive. Brooklyn filmmaker Eric Mahoney, a Dayton native and Columbus ex-pat, has crafted a love letter of sorts to the frequently strange and sometimes seedy inhabitants of Dayton's north side.

Denizens who end up in his spotlight include amateur wrestlers, strippers, student barbers, repo men, conspiracy cranks, a quasi-homeless crooner and the Israeli owners of a used-tire shop. Their stories are funny and frustrating, sweet and sad, but ultimately full of pride.

Sans narration, the film allows all of them to tell their own stories, or what they want to share of their own stories. As different as they are, each is a survivor of an area in its economic death throes.

With the exception of an introduction to the area that precedes the titles, these interviews are what you get, warts and all. The narrative thread of the film is best held by the owner of Dixie Donuts, whose story compares the area's thriving past with its current woes.

You don't have to be a Dayton resident to empathize with the characters, as their stories-and the story of the area they call home-are all too familiar to those of us who live in the rest of America. - Rick Allen "The Other Paper".