The outsider artist and musician is profiled in this documentary. Bittersweet, charming and respectful, Wesley Willis's Joy Rides generally avoids exploitation. Exploitation would be easy to do. Suffering from schizophrenia, spouting strange non-sequiturs, obese, standing 6'5", and often appearing disheveled; this portrait of Wesley Willis could have devolved into a tragic comedy. Instead, it showed Willis' sense of humor, his work ethic, his business acumen (which consisted of carrying around large quantities of cash from gigs, merch, and cd sales, but that seemed to work for him), and many images of his ballpoint pen drawings of buildings and buses.
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