Film Friday: The Pez Outlaw

Some weeks ago I happened to watch, "The Pez Outlaw," when it popped up on Netflix and I keep thinking about it thanks to the crazy story it tells. It's a documentary about how a man named Steve Glew smuggled Pez dispensers from Eastern Europe into America during the '80s & '90s, making himself the #1 enemy of the big corporation through his actions. It is a fascinating little flick as it follows Glew describing how thanks to various legal loopholes he managed to go from a quiet factory job to having a multi-million business empire of Pez dispeners. The movie hints early on that at some point everything went wrong, and it is quite the wild journey full of highs and lows as Glew and his friends (as well as corporate Pez foes) walk us through how the whole surreal story occurred.

"The Pez Outlaw," has various recreations of scenes but it arguably doesn't even need them as Steve is such an engaging and strange fellow that just hearing him recount the whole story captures your attention (he is referred to by multiple people as being reminiscent of a strange magical troll with his short stature, big beard, and hippie-styled demeanor). All collectible hobbies have a wide range of folks attracted to them (I would know as a comic lover) and Pez definitely has some quirky folks within the fanbase who have their own interesting takes on Steve and Pez itself. At a relatively brisk 90-ish minute runtime the movie remains engaging and never gets dull or stuck in a random tangent as some of the multi-episode documentaries out there can do. With such a unique yarn it is easy to keep viewers enraptured.

Steve Glew

"The Pez Outlaw," is a fantastic little flick and worth checking out. I don't think it has had a physical release but it can be streamed on Netflix. If you're into any kind of collectible or just enjoy a good story, give it a viewing!

5 out of 5 stars.