Wrecked a Bunch of Cars, Had a Good Time
2024 · 11m · United States
Directed by James P. Gannon, Matt Ferrin
Genres: comedy, documentary
Four strangers who have never met converge at a demolition derby in Durham, Connecticut, to smash each other to smithereens — and find transcendent communal joy in the wreckage.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone's waiting for the ironic twist, the dark underbelly of American ritual, but Gannon and Ferrin just... let the joy be real, which is somehow more subversive than any cynical deconstruction could be.
The film's restraint in not editorializing its subjects—letting the demolition derby speak as both document and metaphor—shows a formal maturity that respects both the documentary tradition and the absurdist comedy nested within it.
The decision to shoot these strangers' faces in real-time collision, no dramatic music, no manufactured stakes—just genuine laughter in the dust—is the entire film, and it's perfect.
Reviews
In their documentary about four highly memorable participants in a demolition derby, directors James P. Gannon and Matt Ferrin justly celebrate the transcendent and communal pleasures to be found in smashing stuff into other stuff.