Denver Film Festival 2022 Review: ‘Chop & Steele’

Written by David Minkus

Everyone loves a slice of life documentary.  Normal people living their lives and we get to go along for the ride. When there's work put into a passion for its own sake regardless of if it makes them rich or not, that's compelling. When they also have a side hustle that's absolutely insane, though... well, that becomes something you MUST watch. Enter the world of Chop & Steele, the strongmen you probably don't remember but have almost definitely seen at some point.
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Directors Berndt Mader and Ben Steinbauer bring us the story of Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett, creators of the Found Footage Festival. This is an event where both men tour the country showing clips of videos previously thought to be lost to time or that were never meant to be seen by the public. Sparked by the discovery of a uniquely awful McDonald’s training video, both men have spent decades curating a collection of bizarre movies, training videos, and infomercials on VHS. Treating people to their own brand of insanity and discovery is the duo's day job.

However, this team also has a dark secret that undoubtedly has Andy Kaufman bouncing with glee in his grave. Stumbling upon a network of TV stations desperate for human interest content, these two maniacs would send out communications marketing themselves as various kinds of talented individuals.  What got them the most traction was as the strongman team of Chop and Steele. These were just two working class guys “featured on America's Got Talent” and other credentials that they made up. There's a perverse joy to be taken in watching a strongman group demonstrate their power by stomping on wicker baskets, curling an empty tire or a single cinderblock together, breaking twigs and sticks, and using their bodies for tandem pushups and pull-ups, then look at the news personality who is having the realization that they've been duped in a big way.

Eventually this results in a news corporation lodging a significant lawsuit against Prueher and Pickett for hurting their brand, potentially destroying both men and their families. On one hand, the suit is taken very seriously as the repercussions are very real and very threatening. On the other hand, we're talking about two men who would be dismissed as real strongmen with about 1.5 seconds of looking at them.  That makes it hard to take the suit seriously, and ends up culminating in one of the most bizarre and hilarious spotlights ever cast on the team.

Chop & Steele is an oddly comforting film about two guys whose brains work on a slightly different wavelength than the rest of us, and invites along for the ride on the rollercoaster that is their lives. It's almost impossible to take their antics seriously, and it's absolutely hilarious to witness them egging on the people who do. Every documentary doesn't need to change the world, but this one is a genuine and engaging laugh the whole way through.
 
Clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73_TpfedpjQ

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