[This review is part of the Mercury’s 2021 Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) guide. You can check out all our PIFF reviews here.]
Holy Frit! is a two-hour documentary about making stained-glass, and… wait, wait, wait! It’s actually a lot more interesting than you may think—but not always in the way the director may have intended.
Like many artists, Tim Carey is technically talented, but unable to find that magical “thing” that launches painters to greatness. So he stumbles into a job at an LA stained-glass company, begins learning the craft, and then helps the business win a huge bid with a Kansas megachurch to create the largest stained-glass window in the world. The problem is, he has no idea how to do it, and only three years to accomplish this herculean task. He enlists the help of world renowned (and very eccentric) glass artist, Narcissus Quagliata, and off we go on a journey that explores the meaning of art while sharing plot points from The Mighty Ducks and How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
A lot of documentaries are forced to pull out all the visual bells and whistles to fill in the cracks where information or video are lacking. But director Justin S. Monroe jumped on this particular train very early in the process, so we’re able to follow the multi-layered process from start to finish. As a protagonist, Carey is a likable, artistically frustrated grump who slowly flowers under Quagliata’s mentorship, learning that art isn’t achieved by hitting deadlines, but taking the time to do one’s personal best every step along the way. It’s a classic tale of an underdog overcoming impossible odds, and Monroe’s cast of misfits hit all the sweet spots of these tropes while introducing the audience to a gorgeous art form that’s slowly perishing.
