An early piece I did, the funeral story. Dates me a bit. Saint Ursula was a patron saint of brides. Think I’ll skip that reference point.
Off and running with Ms. Fredlet, the littlest of the Fred’s. In honor of her visit, I wonder if “Fred, Texas,” is still open, just little west of downtown, in Fort Worth. Good burgers and huge, icy schooners full of cheap beer.
Trailer Town at the Alamo.
I spotted this on the website, followed it up and for a slow news night in Austin, that moved looked inviting. I didn’t realize just how good, or bad, or whatever, it was.
The opening was auspicious, a trailer for Bubba Ho-Tep coming up, then the floor manager did a quick intro to the film, “The Southern Premier &…” and then, “You’ve got 60 seconds to get a refund and leave….”
The movie is series of vignettes, threads of an idea, and the easiest way I could pull it together was invoke Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, except that the Tales lack the scatalogical-sexual references of this particular film.
It evoked a response. Fredlet was on one side, laughing, almsot non-stop for the whole film. Bubba Sean, on the other side, was almost catatonic. I was thinking about moving to check his pulse. That boy is rarely speechless for that long.
I think the inherent absudity was missed by some. Afterwards, the director himself was there for Q&A. I spoke with hi briefly, heaping accolades upon him, and verfifying that he had inked a deal for more films, from major studio.
Maybe you don’t live in trailer park. Maybe you don’t know any regular drunks. Maybe you don’t understand futility, death, psychological scatalogical reference points and guns. Okay, it’s a budget film. The guns weren’t that good. Expectations? Didn’t expect to see great special effects – this was real life. Or a series of stories based on real life. Always play to that lowest common denominator. Although, maybe that missed – perhaps it was too high-brow for some.
Troma has, according to the filmmaker himself, picked him up for Trailer Town II & III.
