The Same River Twice

This is an engaging documentary about an ancient and halcyon time when people had pubic hair. Yes, the ’70s, before depilation became a religion and nudity was outlawed. In those glorious days, a group of friends worked as river guides, and took a long and naked trip down the Grand Canyon. The film then follows the more fully clothed ex-river guides in their modern, late-’90s lives, where, surprisingly, these hippies have now largely moved to the suburbs and became mayors of quaint small towns. One of them points to a shelf of his medicine cabinet and says, "These are drugs that we never use"—that’s something you’d never, ever say in the ’70s. Sad and pretty, and inspirational, it’s a movie about people who lived in a more naked way and then didn’t really sell out, just kind of got dressed and made babies. You know, like Adam and Eve did when The Man got all fascist and closed down that park where they were camping out.