Let's be realistic.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This could have been an excellent movie, but it lacks focus. It deals with some highly unusual people living in some highly unusual houses. After a quick round-robin visit to each house and occupants, that lasts about ten minutes, we know about as much about these people and their houses as we find out in the next hour. We are left with wanting to know more about how these people came to be in their current situations and about the history of their houses. For example, the alligator man says that everything in his house has a sentimental value - then show us some of those things and explain to us what they mean to him.I wanted to see more about the houses themselves - how they are laid out and how the people live in them. The people who live in the old missile silo give us a ten second tour of where the rooms are in their house *from above ground,* and that is it for the overview.These people are satisfying some deep emotions through their living environments and I wanted to know more. Think what Errol Morris would have done with this material.The film indeed has the look of a home movie, so the title is a clever pun.

This documentary is by the same person who did "American Movie" which documented the attempted making of a low budget horror movie. It's a fascinating look at how people re-model their houses to match their personalities. I love quirky documentaries like this, so it was right up my alley. The houses included one that was made out of an abandon missile silo in Kansas - complete with an aging hippie homeowner playing a Native American flute to chase the evil spirits away. There's a retired actress that lives is a hydro-electric powered tree house in the jungles of Hawaii, an alligator wrestling good old boy that lives in a houseboat in the swamps of Louisiana and an uber-geek that has remade an electric house complete with robots. My favorite though, is the family that has completely remade their house in order to let their 11 cats run amok in it. This is a short fun film - if you want a break from heavy, serious stuff, give it a try.

To his credit he's built one 280-pound, 6'8" robot named Arok who can vacuum the carpet, mix drinks, dance, take Polaroid photos and talk, plus two smaller (5' tall) robots, one for the Orland Park Police Department another for the police department in Park Ridge. Before the Ferrari there were three other remote controlled automobiles. Skora says he invented a cordless telephone three years before AT&T came up with theirs. He's built a viewer/telephone that actually operates between his home and that of a friend in Mokena.Skora's home is an electronic fantasy with a 6'-diameter electronic iris door, remote control roll-down shower curtain and a 16'-diameter revolving living room. The house has kitchen cabinets with shelves that go up and down electronically, lights, music and waterfalls that turn on and off by remote control, a wet bar that glides out from a flat wall, electronically-controlled hands that appear out of nowhere to deliver hand soap or swizzle sticks for your drink, a transporter room, Hollywood smoke effects and an easy chair that can be driven --starting, stopping and turning on a dime-- by operating two toggles on the arm rests. And, as they say, that's not all. There are fascinating things too numerous to chronicle around every corner in Skora's house. Most can be operated by simply dialing numbers on a touch-tone phone. "I can operate everything here even if I'm in Tokyo," Skora boasts, making a sweeping motion with his arm to take in his entire residence. What's even more remarkable, from all accounts he's been able to perform that bit of electronic magic for close to thirty years.All of Skora's electronic bells and whistles, from the suit of armor that doesn't just talk to the full-sized female mannequin/floor lamp with a panties lampshade to the, well, bells and whistles, are created with one thing in mind - fun. Ben Skora is nothing if not an elfin prankster. Friends say that if Ben thinks about something he'll build it, but if it can get a laugh, he'll build it faster.

Just saw this film last night at Austin's South by Southwest Film Festival. What a breath of fresh air. This documentary, I think, brilliantly captures the humor and zest-for-life of five eclectic households whom are all living their own version of the American dream. All of the characters are fascinating for their quirkiness and eccentricity, but what really strikes you is just how genuine each person is. In a world of pre-packaged sound bites, "reality TV", and political correctness, it was refreshing to see people that were so in touch with themselves that they are able to create habitats that are such complete extensions of their personality. To me it also reminded me what I believe is best about America, that even in this day of look-a-like sub divisions, SUV's, and office cubicles, you can still be who ever you want to be in this country as long as you have the courage to follow your inner voice.