A Kansas farmer is inspired by the local livestock in Nuts! (Artist: Drew Christie/Courtesy of Cartuna)

The latest documentary from Penny Lane (Our Nixon) presents itself as an odd true story curio and then reveals itself to be much more. But first, the hook that will make you raise your eyebrows and snicker: yes, the “nuts” of the title is a double entendre.

John Romulus Brinkley is a local doctor in Middle of Nowhere, Kansas, in the early 20th century when a local man comes in complaining about his lack of fertility. Admiring the vigorous mating of goats, the despondent man wonders what it would be like if he had the animal’s glands inside of him. So Brinkley tries it out. He surgically replaces the man’s impotent testicles with the healthy ones of a goat, and it works! The man becomes a father, and Brinkley has a new business that grows to include the fourth most powerful radio station in the country. The high wattage station introduces acts like the Carter family and pushes the doctor’s various products.

You might be thinking things along the lines of: “What?” “Why haven’t I heard of this?” and “I have a basic understanding of science, but I don’t understand how this is possible.” Well, in a third-act twist that is reminiscent of F for Fake, aspects of what the audience is led to believe as the truth are upended. And readers who want to experience the twist for themselves should stop reading this now.

Basically, Brinkley is a charlatan, a huckster. He lied about medical miracles to sell snake oil to unsuspecting dupes who then go on to experience placebo effects. What Lane is trying to accomplish with the twist is to put the viewers in the shoes of Brinkley’s victims. Viewers get to experience the feeling of having the rug pulled out from under them like they did, except without the inconvenience of money lost and the dangers of possible health problems. Lane uses the format of the documentary against her audience. Most brilliantly, she takes of advantage of a seemingly innocuous framing device, presenting the film as being based on a book. This eases the viewer with a false sense of authority. It’s revealed, late in the movie, though, that the book in question is actually another one of Brinkley’s products, nothing more than propaganda filled with outright fiction.

Lane uses a combination of talking-head interviews and animated adaptations of the tall tales and the real-life trial in which Brinkley’s fraudulence was exposed. The animation starts off very simply, resembling little more than very good doodles without any color. The more the truth is revealed, the more complex the animation becomes. Details are filled in and color is added.

What starts out as a movie that seems to be the quirky story of an intriguing, forgotten man turns into an exploration of gullibility and the dangerous traps of the documentary format. If the film had presented the story outright, the viewer might have guffawed at the suckers who believed Brinkley’s claims. By presenting the fiction as reality, Lane does not allow any incredulity. This exposes the manipulation inherent in the genre and leaves the viewer with a healthy dose of skepticism. It’s one thing to be weary of a Cutco salesman or the presumptive Republican nominee, but is your guard up when a Mike Daisey type tries to tug at your liberal heart strings through “investigative journalism”? That Lane might open your eyes with a truly unbelievable story that involves goat nuts is an achievement in and of itself.