Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana

MOVIE #1,430 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 03.11.24 This is a fascinating story. One that I was fully unaware of. In 1994, the artist Mike Diana became the first person to receive a criminal conviction in the United States for artistic obscenity for his comic Boiled Angel. The comic depicted, among other atrocious acts, sex with children. The film shows this work in full, and even partially animates it with voiceover. I can't say I see the appeal in it whatsoever, but that's not really the point. These are just drawings. You don't have to like that one scene in Happiness to get something out of the movie. The documentary does a great job setting the tone and showcasing the real reasons why Diana was targeted.

The film is narrated in part by punk legend Jello Biafra. I found his voice jarring (too breathy and talking too fast), especially in contrast to the contributions made by Diana himself, who — while he doesn't have a traditional voice for it — I found was more suited for the tenor of the film.

It's a minor complaint as, otherwise, this is the tightest and most polished of the three Henenlotter docs. The other two are loving tributes that rely heavily on clips from the content they dissect, but this is a much more focused (and traditional) affair. As is the case with any doc, to what degree it works comes down to the viewer's interest in the topic. And I was engaged throughout. Henenlotter gets nearly all of the important parties — from Diana and his family, to members of the prosecution — on tape with extensive interviews. He also gets noted luminaries like Neil Gaiman and others to chime in on the topic for added measure.

We also get a really good sense of Diana as a person. The clips from his childhood slasher movies are excellent. This setup was lacking in his Herschell Gordon Lewis picture but it's deployed to great effect here. Definitely worth your time. And be sure to check out my Frank Henenlotter Director Focus here.

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Tells the story of underground cartoonist Mike Diana, who was the first person in the United States to be convicted of artistic obscenity It was released on March 31, 2018.