Big River is a sort-of sequel to King Corn; it’s a short film at less than thirty minutes. The gist is that record flooding hits Greene, Iowa, and this inspires Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis to return to the town where they grew their acre of corn and investigate the impact of pesticides. In true, high-concept fashion, the idea is to “follow” the pesticides they used on their land down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico via canoe. This film is of substantially less interest than King Corn; there just isn’t time to really build in the character arcs of King Corn and the film has less time to be creative. But it is fun to hang out with Ian & Curt again, three years on from King Corn. If you get the two-disc edition of King Corn, Big River is on disc two, so while you’re watching King Corn, you might as well watch this one too. It’s no masterpiece, but it’s an engaging enough companion piece. 3 stars.
tl;dr – short film picks up where King Corn left off in order to examine the impact of pesticides on the Mississippi River; not nearly as good, but a diverting thirty minutes. 3 stars.