If Dalton, Georgia, did not exist, Christopher Guest would have to invent it. As the signs in the downtown area proudly declare, the 34,000-strong city is renowned as the Carpet Capital of the World, manufacturing 90% of the functional carpeting in use on Earth. The local industry attracts some eccentric characters, none more so than Roderick James, the primary subject of the enthralling new documentary Carpet Cowboys.
A Scottish émigré comes to America with dreams of textile riches, his accent sits somewhere between his native brogue and the southern twang he adopted to match his flamboyant John Wayne getups. Among his various moneymaking schemes meant to fund a reunion with his long-distance girlfriend in the Philippines, he writes jingles for a proprietary Lego adhesive synthesized by a friend’s son. Like many parts of the film, the Shark Tank clip in which a 12-year-old pitches his business model is homegrown comedy gold, primo weird Americana.
