Like some existentialist episode of Cops (or, say, Lars von Trier’s Most Mundane Police Videos), Sheriff is a jittery riff on the law in rural North Carolina. Ronald E. Hewett, sheriff of Brunswick County, allowed filmmakers unfettered access to him; the result is a vérité exposé of Hewett in action, serving warrants, helming church meetings and police briefings. The video camera, sitting shotgun with Hewett, reveals much about the town and the man himself, yet tantalizingly leaves some stones unturned; a brief montage of several streets and businesses in town with the Hewett name is flashed, but not expanded upon. Far from a high-minded, humorless meditation, Sheriff has its hilarious moments – namely, a jump-cut segment of statements for local news highlighting the vacuousness of the “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality, along with the daily minutiae unfolding at Hewett’s station. Cops have to iron out their vending-machine dollars, too, apparently.
This article appears in October 15 • 2004.