Cash Cow Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Cash Cow Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 30, 2025

Minority experiences are hugely variant globally, but I'd argue from personal experience that one of the weirdest "minority" experiences in the western United States anyway is growing up a non-Mormon in regions largely populated by the Latter Day Saints*, as in Utah (my birth state) or Idaho (the birth state of Cash Cow's, um, auteur Matt Barats). There's an inherent irony to this particular "minority" experience since virtually everywhere else, it's the Mormons who are the minority, and taken as an aggregate even in Mormon dominated regions, non-Mormons would probably generally make the cut as a "majority" elsewhere. One way or the other, Barats has one of the more unique CV's in recent memory, including evidently having been fired from the Blue Man Group and having what is also apparently some kind of karmic interlude which sees his life as an actor repeatedly (or at least twice) having a connection to a pizza commercial. Barats' sense of humor as evidenced by Cash Cow is certainly going to be an acquired taste for some (many? all?), and it may in fact bring to mind a comedian who kinda sorta shared my surname, albeit with one less "f". When Andy Kaufman first appeared on the scene, he was greeted with a general sense of befuddlement which mixed pretty much equal reactions of "is he kidding?", "is he not kidding?", and/or "is he actually certifiably insane?" Barats shares the same kind of deadpan humor that Kaufman could utilize and he also exploits a very Kaufman-esque blurring of the line between "performance" and reality. The underlying conceit of Cash Cow is that just as Covid overtook everything, Barats had a Domino's commercial in the can which was slated to go national and be his titular funding source, but airing was delayed by the pandemic. In the interim and with dwindling funds, Barats decided to retrace the life of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. What is not actually clear from Barats' conceit in this completely odd maybe/maybe not mockumentary is that he was an Idahoan with a long interest in the early history of that region's predominant religion. What plays out is an often hilarious "first person" road trip with the lone Barats (no crew along for the ride) tooling around in his Subaru and visiting various historic Mormon sites while continuing to harass his agent as to when his Domino's spot is finally going to start airing, documenting it all with his minicam. It's all almost as weird as growing up non-Mormon in Utah or Idaho.

*I'm not going to wade into the debate over terminology, which I've already mentioned in some detail in my Heretic Blu-ray review, other than to say I am still waiting for a response from Stephanie Ruhle.

You're going to have to listen to Barats' commentary on this disc to get a better idea of how much in this piece is tethered at least somewhat to reality (or whatever it is Barats is experiencing), but without giving away the wending course the story takes, as Barats visits various sites and falls further into financial despair, things begin to go at least somewhat haywire. That ultimately leads to a really funny reveal which won't be spoiled here (which Barats mentions in his commentary some viewers didn't get, which makes me fearful of the IQ levels of the general populace, since it seemed to be completely overtly clear to me). Barats' "journey" of course starts to mirror Joseph Smith's in more than one way, at least in Barats' increasingly addled psyche, though thankfully without any mobs with pitchforks and torches.

Barats' humor is so unique my hunch is most will know within moments whether or not they're going to appreciate the extremely skewed perspective offered here. And even those who may be guffawing at least somewhat regularly may agree that there are a few questionable decisions sprinkled into the mix, some of which Barats seems to be aware of in his retrospective musing on the commentary track, mentioning how he had to film this entire thing on the fly by himself, inventing things as he went along. I'd actually argue that two of the least effective bits were probably added in post (at least the audio element), namely Barats' repeated phone calls to his agent, who grows increasingly exasperated with his attempts to find out when the Domino's spot is finally going to air, and with his erstwhile best buddy, who during Covid has found incredible fame and fortune as a TikTok lip synching star. Both of those setups are inherently funny, and Barats' writing is sharp, but the bits come across as obvious performances instead of supposedly real phone calls, in a way that some of the other actually kind of amazing "meta" material really commendably doesn't. A few other stylistic quirks, like a couple of sudden intertitles, may strike some as odd, though a repeated one about the age ranges of Joseph Smith's wives is pretty funny.

Cash Cow Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cash Cow is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cartuna with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Barats caught all this footage on his own camera, often going to hilarious lengths to grab some candid footage, as in a memorable sequence involving the funny "reveal" mentioned above. The quality here is about what you might expect from a typical home video. There is some frequent noise in low light situation, though I'm wondering if some was intentional, as in some underlying noise beneath the opening text crawl. Brightly lit outdoor material tends to fare the best, with some good detail levels. Some of the lower light material, as in repeated baleful vignettes by campfires, have noise, crush and can come close to macroblocking.

Cash Cow Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cash Cow features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. The bulk of this film is simply Barats speaking to the camera, but perhaps surprisingly there's a rather winning score by Simon Hanes that shows up interstitially and sounds great. A lot of the outdoor material also has a wealth of ambient environmental sounds, as in a pesky bird which drives Barats a little nuts late in the film. Optional English subtitles are available.

Cash Cow Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Director's Commentary has even more of the "is he kidding?", "is he not kidding?" and/or "is he actually certifiably insane?" sensibilities of the feature, but Barats does clarify at least some of the subterfuge involved in various parts of the story.


• Here We Have Idaho Short Film (HD; 25:57) is another pretty sui generis piece with Barats visiting his childhood home with his two elder married brothers. As with the main feature, there are laugh out loud bits here sprinkled with some maybe intentionally less funny moments, as in Barats demonstrating "bad comedy" to his parents.


• The High Rise Beckons (HD; 2:42) is probably even more peculiar than even the main feature or above short. I guess it's a "come hither" enterprise from a skyscraper. You figure it out.


• L.A. Screening Promo (HD; 2:07)


• Original Trailer (HD; 1:28)

A nicely appointed insert booklet offers a ton of behind the scenes photo culled from Barats' iPhone.

Cash Cow Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The best thing about Cash Cow is that there is really nothing remotely quite like it in the annals of either documentary or mockumentary. It's so unique that it may in fact be off putting to some, but for those with skewed senses of humor, and with perhaps just a touch of a jaded response to either religion in general or even Mormonism in particular, will find several laugh out loud moments here. Technical merits are fine given the context of the filming, and the Idaho short and commentary in particular are very enjoyable. Recommended.