If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The Final Member is one of the weirdest most unique documentaries I've ever watched. Just the subject sounds surreal, perfect for a movie of the absurd, real as real life can be. The subject could be enough to make a comedy, but this is not a comedy, it is a slice of life presented with humour. One of those documentaries you won't forget.The Phallological Museum in Husavik (Iceland) is a tiny museum devoted to collecting and exhibiting penises from animals all around the word. A priori, it seems naughty or ridiculous, but it is actually not when you watch this doco and heard the reasons behind the foundation by its founder and curator Sigurður "Siggi" Hjartarson. This documentary follows Siggi in his quest to complete his collection of phalli with a human specimen, interviewing and communicating with possible donors in Europe and America; you cannot go out and chop somebody's willy, no matter how pretty, and put it in a jar even if it is for a museum.The documentary is mostly a personality or character study, and we come to enter into the mind and life of Siggy and the possible donors, and become part of something truly unique. The two directors approach the subject with a good balance of curiosity, seriousness and interest, treating their subjects with utmost respect and consideration. The result is a serious documentary about the absurdity of life. You will laugh or rather chuckle, but still feel that none of the characters was ridiculed or mistreated to make this film. The characters are not ordinary people, they are extraordinary people, perhaps for the weirdest of reasons. Not everything extraordinary has to be beautiful or mainstream. Not for the faint hearted.

I found this one on Netflix streaming movies. It is a hoot, done in a style much like "The Natural History of the Chicken." Haven't seen that one? Then get to it. The gist of the story is a 70-year-old man in Iceland, circa 2011, has been collecting penises for 40 years. He isn't quite sure why he got into it, but I suppose it just was a fascination. He had penises in his collection from just about every animal species, except ... homo sapiens. When his fame and his collection grew he eventually turned it into a museum.The biggest problem is that there are laws regulating what is done with human body parts. You can't just request something and have it given to you, even if it is a spare part, like a penis, that has no other use.A parallel story is of a man, an American, with a very nice and somewhat long penis that he named "Elmo". He was already considering transitioning himself into an androgynous state, neither man nor woman, so he decided it would be a good idea to memorialize Elmo by donating his penis complete with scrotum and testicles to the museum in Iceland. They were well on their way to making this happen when the museum received an offer they couldn't refuse. The whole documentary is pretty interesting and also funny. Not a topic you come across very often!

I remember a few years ago in my sophomore year health class, learning about the obligatory sex organ unit, being deeply immersed in my internal thoughts about human sexuality so-much-so that you couldn't give me money to tell me what my teacher was talking about. My mind kept circling back from films I've seen that touched on sex, to romantic encounters people might have with each other, to the point I want to make here, that the penis and vagina are really not that attractive organs. Men have the luxury of having two immediate go-to body parts on women to feed their eyes, which are obviously the breasts and the buttocks, but women don't have that same luxury. Yet the organs we can't see - and the ones we ultimately desire to see the most - are arguably the two most hideous things on our body; but we're attracted to them.I bring this up because Siggi Hjartarson, the owner and founder of the Icelandic Phallological Museum, clearly finds the male sex organ attractive enough to construct and operate the only museum dedicated to housing penises of hundreds of different animals. The museum opened up in 1997, and inside, Hjartarson has severed mammal penises encased in formaldehyde for proper preservation and puts them on display with a vivid history behind each endowment. However, while Hjartarson has several penises from extinct species, and even a humongous one that once belonged to a sperm whale, he is missing a penis from a species that has billions of functioning ones right now - the homo sapien.That's where the documentary The Final Member comes in; a film just a tad over an hour long that shows Hjartarson's impressive collection as well as his quest to obtain the penis that will complete his collection. Hjartarson's health condition is greatly deteriorating, and while he has two men interested in donating their penises to the museum, he wants to be able to see the museum complete before he dies. The museum was founded after he received a bull's penis as a joke from a friend and, upon doing research, found the idea of opening a phallological museum intriguing and playfully taboo. Contrary to public perception and initial assumptions, Hjartarson's purpose of opening the museum is the furthest thing from being pornographic. Hjartarson, much like myself, admires the notion of how taboo and off-color it is for someone to mention penis in public, despite half of the world having the sex organ. The awkward part about the penis is that people make it awkward.In efforts to track down a human penis to complete his collection, Hjartarson finds two men, one of them named Pall Arason, a well-known Iceland womanizer who agrees to donate his penis to the museum when he dies. Another man is an American by the name of Tom Mitchell, who is perfectly willing to donate the museum his penis while he is still alive, hellbent on making his penis the most famous penis in the world. Mitchell even goes as far as to get a tattoo on the head of his penis, and has ambition to write a comic book series on his in pursuit of his goal.The Final Member works to show the different ways people want to appreciate and commemorate their own sex organs, to which I say continue and let flourish. Hjartarson has found a quirky, unique way to inspire thought and curiosity into something so frustratingly and unjustifiably taboo in a manner that allows education and curiosity to flourish, while maintaining a successful business all the more. The documentary is never too long, is consistently entertaining, and almost operates like a fictional film, with its quirky situations and focuses, but never in such a way that the distracting and often perplexing "mockumentary" features are played for gimmicks. This is a genuinely fun, thoughtful, and surprisingly moving little gem about a museum in dire need of one final endowment.Directed by: Jonah Bekhor and Zack Math.

This was quite interesting and actually entertaining documentary about a Icelandic gentleman who has the world's only full Penis museum. Except, he needs one more willie to complete his collection. A human penis! I never really thought about it before and I didn't realize how difficult it is to procure some dead guys phallus but I guess it is. So it comes down to a legendary but old Icelandic guy whose unit is shriveling by the minute and a American guy so proud of his schlong he calls it Elmo. He's so proud of it in fact, that he's willing to have it removed completely while he's still alive and donate it to the museum. Its both hilarious and kind of blood curdling at the same time. I very much recommend that those with an open mind and a closed zipper should watch this, at least once anyways! Dano.