The latest addition to the booming library of docs archiving the Nixon-Nam era, this magnetic pop-history memorial has everything: free sex, celebrity, psychedelic rock, polygamy and beyond. The focus is on one Jim Baker, a charismatic giant of a man who—after mastering judo, robbing banks and making millions as a pioneering L.A. restaurateur—decided, in 1969, to start his own commune and promote himself to deityhood. A Kenneth Anger film come to berserk life, Baker’s cult was both progressive and decadent, and its story makes for a juicy saga—even if directors Maria Demopoulos and Jodi While reduce the collective’s rise and fall to a mere talking-heads testimonial.
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