Monday, September 28, 2009

Jason watches THE WEEKEND KING

At the Niles Film Museum, but watching a modern, talkie movie. What the deal?

Well, the deal is this is a local, independent movie featuring Niles standing in for a bankrupt town in Utah and Niles locals like Michael McNevin, Bruce Cates (film museum board member), and Jack Totheroh (son of Rollie Totheroh and now perhaps the record holder for longest film career--he played a baby in a Gilbert Anderson movie in 1915...and now this).

So the movie is about a shlub--Rupert is a (not very good) computer programmer, who secretly made a bundle in the boom of the 90's. But he still works a job where he's not respected...because he's not very good. His only sorta-friend is Tom (director Bill Levesque) who also works there (and carpools with him) but really wants to be an artist. He spends his free time getting drunk and painting erotic (okay, smutty) pictures of women (ummm...touching themselves). Well, Rupert has a plan--he's been following the story of a town in Utah going bankrupt, and he offers them a solution--he'll simply buy the town. At least, he'll buy all the government building and remake the town in his image--with a fountain! (although I don't know, it's not much of a fountain town). Enter Niles as that bankrupt town, and Rupert starts spending all his weekends there. Trouble is, although everyone appreciates what he's done, nobody really likes him. Probably because instead of the powerless schmo he is back home, here he's a big man jerk. Wacky hijinx ensue, and I won't give any more away. Beyond just the fun of identifying local landmarks, it's also a pretty funny movie.

It's definitely low-budget and made by people who are still learning to make movies. The acting, lighting, or sound are not up to professional standards, but are more than adequate for someone who (like me) watches a lot of low-budget indie movies. And it's fun.

Okay, that's it.

No comments: