Month: October 2011 Page 1 of 2

“Love Always, Carolyn” Is Documentary About Carolyn (Mrs. Neal) Cassady

On October 25, 2011

Neal and Carolyn Cassady with their son John.

At one point in the documentary “Love Always, Carolyn” son John Cassady, [Neal Cassady’s son with the Carolyn of the title], says, “In a secret way, I dig the attention.” Someone should break it to John that his love of the spotlight is no secret; it comes through loud and clear in this documentary made by Swedish filmmakers Malin Korkeasalo and Maria Ramstrom. This underscored when Malin shared, after the film screened in Chicago at the Chicago Film Festival, that John, now in his sixties, drives around in something dubbed “the Beatmobile.”

Swedish filmmaker Malin Korkeasalo.

Asked how this documentary about Carolyn Cassady came to be made, how the filmmakers gained access to her, Malin said, “I did a short portrait of Carolyn for a magazine and, afterwards, she wanted help with her photographs.” Added Malin, “I was surprised at how eager she was to have her children involved (in the documentary).”

Carolyn Cassady was not the only woman in Neal Cassady’s life. He had a previous marriage (to LuAnne Henderson in 1947, which was annulled), became a bigamist with Dianne Hansen (he had another son named Curtis in 1950). When he died in Mexico at age 41, he had yet another woman (Anne Murphy) in his life. Said Carolyn, “Every woman fell in love with him.”

Swedish filmmaker Maria Ramstrom.

Apparently every man did, as well, since Neal and Alan Ginsberg had a well-documented homosexual relationship that spanned 20 years. I saw Alan Ginsberg come onstage to give a poetry reading at the University of California at Berkeley in the summer of 1965. A less attractive physical specimen would be difficult to find, “Howl” notwithstanding.
Neal Cassady, on the other hand, was physically handsome and very charming, but his upbringing with his alcoholic father in Denver, Colorado was far from normal—although Carolyn, in the documentary says, “There is no such thing as normal.” Carolyn also says, “I don’t regret knowing Neal, but I regret all the artificial self-promoting stuff that has come after it. You just can’t get away from it.”

Maria Ramstrom and Malin Korkeasalo.

At this point in her life, nearing her 89^th birthday (April 28) Carolyn has begun divesting of various mementos of her life with Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac, her lover from 1952 until 1960 at Neal’s urging. As Carolyn explains in the film, “It was Neal’s wish to share me with Jack. I was against it, to begin with, but it was a survival for me to keep the man I loved.” Puffing on one of many small cigarillos, she says, “You have to go with the flow…There isn’t any hard and fast thing called love…Your heart is too big to just hold one sometimes.”

Going with the flow must have been difficult for Carolyn Cassady, who describes herself in the documentary as frigid ever since an older brother (she is one of 5 children) molested her in adolescence. Said Carolyn, “I was totally frigid from then on, but from then on I sold it for affection.” As she told the filmmakers, “You just do what you have to do. You get on with it and do it.”

Maria Ramstrom during the Q&A.

Carolyn’s early life in Lansing, Michigan and Nashville, Tennessee was fairly repressive. The youngest of 5 children, she describes a very solid Victorian upbringing, with a good home and a good education. “There was no touching or cuddling after infancy. My nanny was the only hugging I ever got. Almost anything you did, you never were quite good enough.” Carolyn left home at 16 to study drama and theater and became an accomplished painter and costumer of theatrical productions.

She met Neal and Jack in Denver at age 24 (1947) and says, “Some clog just clicked on a wheel. That’s just how it felt and I knew this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.” Unfortunately, her parents strongly disapproved. Her mother wrote Carolyn a letter in which she told her “what a horrible horror I was” and her parents eventually disinherited her.

To this day, Carolyn has money issues. At the film’s outset, her son John says of her situation that she has only 200 pounds in her British bank. (John: “She was down to 200 pounds in the bank last week, and I don’t know what we’re gonna’ do next month.”) (*Carolyn moved to Bracknell, England, outside London, at age 63 and lives there alone, as her 3 children with Neal Cassady all live in the United States. At one point in the film she jokes that the sheets she is folding have been around since 1954 and that “maybe I should sell them to Johnny Depp or somebody.”) There is also a line about “all those pictures that have been supporting me ever since” and Carolyn is heard verbally admonishing a representative of Penguin Books, who is selling a book that has a picture of Neal and Jack on the cover that Carolyn took. (“Well, shame on you! You used my photograph without permission or payment!”)

“I think we learn by our mistakes, by our wrong choices,” says the 89-year-old in the film. “The hardest part of my whole life is ending up alone.” She repeated the theme, “It’s a real drag that I ended up my life completely alone,” yet it was Carolyn who moved thousands of miles away from her children. She pronounced possible men in her age range after Neal to be “married or gay or impossible.”

When she looks back at Neal’s constant departures and irresponsible behavior as a husband and father she says, “You don’t do that (leave on a road trip) when you have a new wife and baby.” But, she adds, “He’d always talk himself back…Throwing them out never worked.” She says wryly, “He couldn’t quite get the marriage thing together.”

Cassady also “hated himself like that” when he would play the fool while high on drugs. Neal told her, “They all just look at me and I get high and behave like an idiot.” Added Carolyn, “Which is so sad. He hated himself for it. I asked him, ‘Then why do you do it?’ He responded, ‘I don’t know. They just all expect it.’” Several times, Carolyn murmurs, “Such a brilliant mind. Just horrible that he wasted it all on drugs.”

Carolyn has been quoted in Notes from the Underground as saying, “As far as I’m concerned, the Beat Generation was something made up by the media and Allen Ginsberg.” Her marriage to Cassady suffered tremendously when she refused to post his $5,000 bail after he was arrested for offering 3 marijuana cigarettes to an undercover policeman and he did 5 years in prison at San Quentin as a result. Said Carolyn, “We had some good times after that, but always in the background was resentment. He never ever really forgave me. I couldn’t risk the house, could I?”

The throngs of college students cheering for Carolyn and John Cassady at their appearances on campus seem to have bought into what Carolyn dubbed the myth of the Beat generation, without considering the consequences to the participants. Sad is the biggest emotion that comes through.

Carolyn says, “I watched both of them destroy themselves. It was hell.” She quotes from a letter written to Neal discussing their young son John, who is acting out in adolescence, and says, “I don’t know how I can stand to watch him go the way you have, at what expense?”

Maria Ramstrom and Malin Korkeasalo.

Carolyn Cassady may have lived an interesting and memorable life that she has chronicled in her own book Off the Road, but this documentary takes a look at an almost 90-year-old woman who is living alone, trying to sell off memorabilia from her past with two of literature’s notorious Merry Pranksters in order to survive. What is even more distressing is that her three children seem to also have the idea that living off their always-absent father’s name is desirable. (One daughter wanted to market a wine with the pictures of Kerouac and Cassady on the jug.)

Far from leaving the film feeling envious of a woman who has experienced this history up close and personal, it just made me feel sad. Sad for Carolyn Cassady now, and sad that her life was spent in thrall to a man who had numerous women other than Carolyn in his life. (LuAnne Henderson, his first wife, in 1947; Diane Hansen, who gave birth to Curtis in 1950; Anne Murphy when he was in Mexico, where he was found dead alongside the railroad tracks just 4 days shy of his 42^nd birthday.)
As for Jack Kerouac, he drank himself to death at age 47.

Allen Ginsberg, bearded, disheveled and unkempt, in 1965 had to be physically carried offstage by the janitor at Berkeley, since squatting on the floor playing finger cymbals and mumbling incoherently didn’t really fall under the heading of “poetry reading.”

Adjectives like “ineffectual,” “powerless” and “desperate” are employed by the central figure in the film. Carolyn says of herself, “I was overwhelmed,” but adds, “That’s what makes life interesting is all these complications. Mine was pretty messed up.”

Notre Dame de Strasbourg

By Connie Wilson

On October 25, 2011

In France

The Notre Dame cathedral in Strasbourg. France is so closely bordered by shops, hotels and restaurants that it was impossible for me to get a photo showing the church in its entirety. This magnificent structure completely dominates its surroundings. Strasbourg is a lovely city, the ninth largest in France.

The Rhine River, Strasbourg, France

By Connie Wilson

On October 25, 2011

In France

The Rhine River flowing through Strasbourg, France

Barre d’Etel, Bretagne, France

By Connie Wilson

On October 25, 2011

In France

A lovely day in August on the western coast of France

“Undefeated” Documentary: No, It’s NOT the One About Sarah Palin

By Connie Wilson

On October 25, 2011

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews, Sports

The documentary “Undefeated” (not to be confused with the documentary about Sarah Palin) played the Chicago Film Festival, depicting the Manassas High School Tigers football team’s 2009 season, as they attempt to win the first playoff game in the 110-year history of the school.

The filmmakers, T.J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay, spent 9 months living in Memphis and soon learned that “There’s a story under every helmet,” as Coach Bill Courtney told them. Courtney began volunteering in 2004 and is quoted throughout the documentary, reminding this Iowa Hawkeye fan of the antics of Coach Bob Commings (Massillon, Ohio), who was immortalized in a John Irving novel as “Iowa Bob.” Commings called the Hawkeyes the “chosen children” and succeeded in winning some memorable games, but, ultimately, was unsuccessful in turning that program around and was fired. Coach Courtney, by contrast, announces he is quitting after the season to spend more time with his own family.

Daniel Lindsay (R) and T.J. Martin (L) at the Q&A for "Undefeated" in Chicago.

Before that, however, we learn a lot about the players on the Manassas Tigers team. Most successful of the lot is probably O.C. Brown, 6’ 3”, 315 pounds and fast. Mike Ray, volunteer coach, says, “That’s a big dude running that fast.” O.C. has some academic problems and, in a real-life plot that echoes “The Blind Side,” ends up moving in with an assistant coach and his family to make sure he remains eligible and is able to claim a college scholarship. After one report card period, the coach asks O.C., “How do you get a 90 in calculus and a 70 in keyboarding?” One memorable quote to the team, “If you will allow it, football will save your life.”

Another player highlighted in the film is troublemaker Chavis, who has one of the most emotional moments in the film as he turns his attitude around. Then there is “Money,” who suffers an injury to his ACL and must miss 8 to 12 weeks of playing time. He begins to miss school after he can no longer play, and Coach Courtney says, “Money is on the cusp of being lost.”

Director Daniel Lindsay takes questions from the audience following the screening of his football documentary "Undefeated" in Chicago.

Really, most of the team is on the cusp of being lost and the filmmakers, in interviews after the game, revealed how many stories they had to ignore to highlight those that are included. There was Jaquim Collins, who had been in 18 different foster homes in 4 years, a defensive lineman. He became too old to remain in the 19^th home and was kicked out of the system. Said Director Lindsay, “It was heartbreaking not to be able to tell his story. But ultimately the sum is greater than its parts.”

Money, in the film, is shown looking at an X-ray of his injured interior ACL ligament and asks the doctor, “Is that my brain?” The filmmakers reported that Money was not thrilled that that scene remained in the documentary.

Director Lindsay said, “We just filmed a ton of scenes and then laid them out. None of it was scripted…We were going for a very intimate film. Bill’s trusting us made the kids trust us, but it was really surprising to us how quickly they forgot we were there. The camera became an extension of us.” However, reported the filmmaking duo, “Even 2 to 3 months later, they (the players) still didn’t get what we were doing. They’d ask, ‘So, who’s going to play me in the movie.’”

T.J. Martin, filmmaker, in Chicago.

The answer is that the Manassas Tigers played themselves, and the filmmakers did a very good job of being in the right place at the right time to capture moments in their 2009 season. As Lindsay said of one particularly moving scene involving Chavis (the troublemaker), “Oh, my God! Did that really just happen? We have a movie here!”

The film with plenty of exhortations like, “Please remember discipline. Please remember character, and let’s go kick their ass,” (Bill Courtney). As a former NFL player, invited to address the team by Coach Courtney, tells them, “It’s not where you start; it’s where you finish.”

The documentary, which earned great praise from one audience member, in particular, who called it “the best football film I’ve ever seen” will open in February with distribution from the Weinstein Brothers. Said Coach Courtney at one point, “If they don’t win the game, they’re gonna’ win the fight. You gotta’ believe in yourselves. You can come back.”

Daniel Lindsay, T.J. Martin and Music Supervisor Sandy Wilson.

Sandy Wilson was Music Supervisor on the film, and should be singled out for praise, as well. All in all, with 70 young men on the team, there are some compelling and amazing stories of life in North Memphis and what it means to be resilient and never give up.

“Margin Call” Takes Us To the Brink of Financial Disaster in a 24-hour Period at a Wall Street Brokerage Firm

By Connie Wilson

On October 23, 2011

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Kevin Spacey plays Wall Street trader in "Margin Call."

“The ground is shifting below our feet and apparently there’s no other way out,” say characters in the star-studded vehicle “Margin Call,” (playing now in Special Engagements). This film about the financial crisis of 2008 and how it brought Wall Street to its knees and created a ripple effect still being felt around the world is instantly reminiscent of “Too Big to Fail,” which was nominated for 11 prime-time Emmys.

“Margin Call” has Kevin Spacey as the 34-year-veteran of the financial world who sends traders onto the floor to do business each day. Company head honcho Jeremy Irons needs Spacey to help facilitate a plan to sell off worthless securities, once Stanley Tucci and a young protégé, played by Zachary Quinto (Spock in 2009’s “Star Trek”) discover that the projected losses the formulas predict are greater than the financial worth of the company. Can the traders go forth and sell all this junk in fire sale fashion without the rest of Wall Street getting wise? Not easily, says Spacey to Irons, and, he adds, “You will never sell anything to any of those buyers ever again.” He adds, “This one is very ugly” and tries to quit, saying, “I think this will destroy this firm. You’re knowingly putting people out of business.” Irons needs Spacey standing by him for at least 24 months and Paul Bettany, next man down, does not seem willing to step into Spacey’s shoes and take part in what is described as “professional suicide” (A mercy killing, really,” says Spacey.)

It doesn’t help that, as this Lionsgate film opens, 80% of the staffers, including Tucci who found this imminent disaster scenario and is one of the few who totally understands what is already beginning to occur, is being shown the door. He seems anything but eager to return to help the firm out when the s*** hits the fan. Tucci had reported the discrepancies to his superior (a brittle, dour Demi Moore) earlier, but she and Simon Baker had soft-pedaled it to the big boss(es).

The firm tells its traders that, if they sell 93% of their assets, they get a $1.4 million personal bonus, and if the entire floor hits 93.1% sales, all will get another $1.3 million bonus and, as Irons says, “There’s always been fat cats and starving dogs and the percentage will stay exactly the same.” Irons, the big boss, also notes, “There’s gonna’ be a lot of money made coming out of this mess” and says, “it’s certainly no different today than it’s ever been. “ He notes of the fat cats, “We’ve got our fingers on the scales to help them.”

Written and directed by J.C. Chandor, the ads note that, to win, you need to either (1) Be first (2) Be smarter, or (3) Cheat. When Jeremy Irons’ character says to Spacey’s, “Where is this going to come back to us?” Spacey responds, “Everywhere.”

An all-star cast includes Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley and Mary McDonnell, plus Ella the chocolate brown Labrador retriever that humanizes Spacey as he knowingly helps dump $8 trillion of bad paper around the world before Armageddon. Favorite line (re the explanation of the financial machinations): “Speak as you would to a young child or a golden retriever.”)

A bit talky, but engrossing and your cynicism will rise by at least 93%.

Ed Helms, Jason Segel & Susan Sarandon Light Up the Screen in the Comedy “Jeff, Who Lives at Home”

By Connie Wilson

On October 20, 2011

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

“Jeff, Who Lives At Home,” a film by the Duplass brothers, was screened at the Chicago Film Festival on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 to an enthusiastic crowd anxious to see Ed Helms (“The Office,” “The Hangover”), Jason Segel (“Knocked Up,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “I Love You, Man”) and Susan Sarandon (“Dead Man Walking,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Thelma and Louise”). Jay Duplass was present for the screening and answered questions afterwards.

The film follows two brothers, Jeff (Segel) and Pat (Helms) over one day, using the documentary-style shooting that Jay and Mark Duplass have become known for. “We just put people in a room and light the whole room and film it like a documentarian. On a regular film, there is just one area lit and the actor has to come down and hit his or her mark and there might be 50 people standing there in a circle. The actors outnumber the crew.

Jay Duplass, Director of "Jeff, Who Lives at Home'" at the Chicago Film Festival.

In our films, they (the actors) own the space. Of course, I’ve gotta’ hustle to get the shots or there might be something epic going on and I’m standing behind a lamp.” This is the style the brothers Duplass have employed since 2001 and it has become standard on such TV sit-coms as “Parks & Recreation” and “The Office.” Many, seeing those shows on television, think the Brothers Duplass have been copying TV, when it is the other way around. Said Jay Duplass in the Q&A after the film: “We’ll never put anything secondary to what our actors are experiencing.”

Another hallmark of a Duplass film, aside from the fact that all of their protagonists seem to be desperate (“Cyrus” with John C. Reilly is an example) is that all actors are expected to improvise most of their lines. With lines like, “What you just said sounded like Yoda took acid and stumbled into a business meeting,” or (Segal commenting on the size of Helms’ new Porsche), “The Porsche is normal-sized. You’re a Sasquatch,” make it clear that these actors are more than equal to the task.

Jeff Thompson (Segel) is shown dictating his thoughts into a tape recorder as the film opens. It isn’t until the camera pulls back that we realize he is sitting on the toilet at the time. Most of Jeff’s musings are about the meaning of life and the “signs” in the Universe that might help him to realize his potential, since, at this point in his life, he is 30 years old and living in his mom’s (Susan Sarandon) basement. (The M. Night Shymalan movie “Signs” is a recurring reference in the film.)

Jay Duplass and moderator during a Q&A that followed the screening of his film "Jay, Who Lives at Home" at the Chicago 47th International Film Festival.

Sharon Thompson (Sarandon) is at work and speaks to Jeff on the phone, telling him to take the bus to Highland Avenue to get wood glue to fix one of her broken shutters within the house. Jeff (Segel) does get on the bus, but he is currently obsessed with the phone calls he keeps getting asking for “Kevin.” Jeff expresses the idea that everything in the universe is inter-related, that everyone and everything is interconnected and he thinks “there are no wrong numbers.”

When Jeff sees a young black man on the bus wearing a jersey that says “Kevin,” he gets off the bus and follows him, eventually ending up in a pick-up game of basketball and (also) being mugged. So far, no wood glue.

Enter brother Pat, who is married and works at Poplar Paint Company. Pat and Linda (Judy Greer), his wife, have hit a rough spot in their childless marriage, some of it because Linda wants to buy a house, while Pat goes out and buys a Porsche, which Linda is not thrilled about. It is easy to see that both brothers are screw-ups, just in different ways.

After Pat’s impetuous purchase of the expensive Porsche (which he promptly wraps around a tree), Linda almost has an affair with a co-worker, Steve (Steve Zisses), even though all she is looking for is someone who will actually listen to what she says. (At one point, attempting to reconcile with her, Pat says, none too endearingly, “I’m going to try to understand your incoherent babble.”)

Another sub-plot involves a “secret admirer” at mother Sharon’s work, who keeps sending Sharon computer messages. At various points, characters say things like, “This is not the way I imagined my life was going to go.” Sharon muses on how she thought she’d join the Peace Corps, live in a hut, and end up kissing the love of her life under a waterfall. Instead, she is a widow (her husband Dan died in 1995 at the age of 44) and, as she tells co-worker Rae Dawn Chong, “I hate my kids right now. When did that happen? They were so cute when they were little.”

The universal human desire to love and be loved dominates the film. After Pat discovers that Linda has been seeing another man, confronts her and she says that she thinks they should both “just walk away” from their marriage, Pat says to his brother, “I just want to feel like I love Linda and I want to feel like she loves me. I miss it. I want it so bad.” Jeff, who is more the philosopher of the two, suggests that Pat must go to Linda and tell her. (“You need to say that to her right now.”)
That leads to a climactic scene on a bridge in traffic, where both brothers, their mother and Pat’s wife Linda end up in a destiny-shaping moment that makes them appreciate their lives.

“What happened?” asks Jeff as he recovers from a near drowning.

“Everything,” is the answer.

A truly entertaining film that is about much more than it sounds like it will be, when/if you read the plot synopsis.

See it for yourself. It’s worth doing.

“Natural Selection” Screens at Chicago Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 18, 2011

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Gayland Williams ("Sheila") and Michael Bricker of "Natural Selection."

The first feature-length outing by Director/Writer Robbie Pickering, “Natural Selection,” played Chicago’s 47^th International Film Festival on Sunday. It was a welcome change from the independent films and documentaries exploring suicide, murder and torture. I was delighted to find a movie about living life that had such a well-written script, such enjoyable humor and such good performances from all.

Everything in the film worked, from the cinematography (Steve Calitri, with editing by Michelle Tesoro) to the humor to the symbolism. Rachel Harris’ Linda White (Rachel played Melissa in 2009’s “The Hangover”) was one of the most skillful turns by an actress I’ve seen so far this year. Three actresses in the Chicago competition whose films screened could easily be Best Actress nominees, with Tilda Swinton (“We Have to Talk About Kevin”), Michelle Williams (“My Week with Marilyn”) and Rachel Harris in “Natural Selection” leading the list. (And never count Meryl Streep out, as she takes on “The Iron Lady”).

The plot of “Natural Selection” focuses on a character named Linda White, who is modeled on Robbie Pickering’s own mother whose real name is Linda White. In fact, the puffy jacket used in the film belonged to Director Pickering’s Mom. Production designer Michael Bricker and cast member Gayland Williams (Sheila) were present to answer questions after the movie screened and shared that detail, plus some behind-the-scenes about the motivation to make this particular film.

Bricker shared with the audience that Pickering wanted to make a film about how the weaker creatures in the forest survive. He was worried, at the time, about his mom’s being alone, as his stepfather, Bill (to whom the film is dedicated) had recently died. How do people who go through life trying to be “pleasers” and going along with the more dominant individuals among us fare?

The film opens with a Biblical quote: (Genesis 38: 9) “And God said to Onan, thou shalt not spill thy seed in vain.” Linda has been pronounced barren years earlier and is unable to give her husband, Abe, played by John Diehl (Detective Larry Zito on “Miami Vice” from 1984-1987) a child. Abe is deeply religious. For their entire 25-year marriage he has withheld sex from Linda because “God says it’s a sin to act on these desires if you aren’t making babies.” Instead, Abe traveled to the Vista Care Fertility Clinic where he deposited his sperm weekly while watching pornographic movies.

It is while making one of the deposits at the “bank” that Abe has a stroke and Linda learns the truth about how Abe has coped with his own sexuality all these years. In the opening scenes, however, Abe asks Linda to pray with him and it is pretty clear that Linda, whose libido is proven to be undeniably healthy, is just supposed to suck it up and do what Abe wants, once again seeking to please her man. Linda even says, “Whatever makes Abe happy makes me happy.” But does it, really? The film will examine that proposition; the viewer can judge for him or herself. One thing that Linda herself acknowledges is that she doesn’t like to be alone. She finds the presence of another person comforting, even if that other person is inflicting his will on her, like it or not. When on the road seeking Raymond Mansfield in Florida, Linda even attempts to call up the desk clerk at one of the motels she has checked in to, simply to talk to another human being. The lyrics of “Eleanor Rigby” would have sufficed for Linda’s plight, but, instead, we have Raymond saying of Linda, “The chick’s got so many holes, I guess it’s hard to keep them all shut.”

The next scene shows a man mowing grass. We learn a few moments later (in a scene derivative of “Raising Arizona”) that inside the grass bag is a prisoner escaping from Huntsville Prison. He forces his way out of the bag after the lawn mower is left untended and flees to an old colleague’s home: Raymond Mansfield’s ramshackle residence in Tampa, Florida. It is Raymond who is the biological son of Abe White (born of Abe’s sperm from the Vista Care Fertility Clinic) but Clyde Brisbee is the escapee guest in residence at Raymond’s pad when Linda arrives.

After Abe’s stroke, Linda discovered that Abe has a son somewhere in Florida, a son he has never met. The doctors tell her Abe is not going to make it, so Linda sets off to find his child. As the film’s log-line notes, “God help her!” When she comes to Raymond’s door, the young man is quite adamant about not wanting any “Jesus crap” from his clean-cut visitor. In fact, he insists that Linda pay him $20 for 5 minutes of talk time. Unkempt. Drug-using. Living in a pit. Linda says, “This place could use a woman’s touch.” Raymond responds, “So could my pecker but that ain’t happening, either.”

I was interested in the respective ages of the two leads. After all, Linda White of the film says she has been married to Abe for 25 years. Rachel Harris, who plays Linda, in real life was born in 1968. Matt O’Leary, a Chicago-born actor who has been working since age 13, was born in 1987. I have 2 children born those exact years, so Linda is supposed to be 19 years older than Abe’s “son,” (whom, we learn in the course of the movie, is not his son at all).

Raymond (Matt O’Leary) is not too keen on accompanying Linda on a cross-country trip to see Abe before he dies, but an unexpected visit from the police to his drug-riddled lair quickly changes his mind. Linda represents an opportunity to flee Tampa and avoid returning to Huntsville Prison. So, off the two-some go in the hatchback Linda has driven to Florida.

The car is symbolic of the relationship between Abe and Linda with lines like these: “A man gets used to a good old car and he misses it when it’s gone…I’m starting to think it was a piece of shit to begin with.” Later, when the car has been stolen (thanks to Raymond’s unsuccessful attempt to ditch Linda and strike off on his own in it) and Linda has returned home, the miraculously recovered Abe asks Linda if it wasn’t just a mistake losing the car.

Linda responds, “It was a mistake. Yes, it was. All of it.” Only, by then, seeing Abe through the eyes of pseudo-Raymond and others, she is realizing some hard truths about her marriage and Abe’s behavior throughout their 25 years together. She’s not really talking about the car at all.

Michael Bricker, Production Designer for "Natural Selection" awaits the screening of the film.

Linda has longed to make a trip to Morgan’s Key, where a person can be a universe of one. The snow globe representing it reminded me of the 1980 film “Resurrection” with Ellen Burstyn, Sam Shepard and Richard Farnsworth. In that film, a postcard of Machu Pichu took on symbolic significance. It represented that destination we all strive to reach in life, just as the postcards from Cool Hand Luke (Paul Newman) to his fellow prison inmates held that distinction in the days when people actually sent postcards and letters. That mythic place will make us whole and happy. In this movie, that place is Morgan’s Key, which Linda’s older sister Sheila (well-played with a flair for the bitchy and a broad Texas accent by Gayland Williams) has visited, but Linda has not. (Reminds of another great line of dialogue, spoken by Raymond to Linda: “Maybe we’ll catch a unicorn takin’a shit of lullabies.’”)

The film was shot in Smithville, Texas, also the location for “Hope Floats” and “The Tree of Life.” The small town (population 4,000) has its own film committee and, according to Production Designer Michael Bricker, couldn’t have been more accommodating. (Every hotel room contained a DVD of Sandra Bullock’s “Hope Floats” film, and the huge tree in Terence Malick’s “Tree of Life” is a Smithville landmark.)

Although first-time director Robbie Pickering studied film in New York and California, he lived in Texas and knew Smithville, which is near Austin. The film not only won big at SXSW, but also won an Audience Award in Athens, won 2 awards in Indianapolis, another in Kansas, and Director/Writer Pickering has been given a Sundance Award to allow him to make more films. This is good news for those of us who have been suffering through films on suicide, grisly murder(s) and all manner of human suffering. Another bit of good news is that Cinema Guild is going to distribute the film. Writer/Director Pickering was not present in Chicago because he was accepting an award in New York from the New York Friars.

In his place, Production Designer Bricker explained that his path to the film and career started when he studied at the University of Texas in Austin (near Smithville), earning a Master’s in Architecture. He applied to be an intern on a film. He was hired and promoted rapidly to the point that he was, first time out, the Production Manager on a film with 4 sets being built for the movie’s use. His plan for “Natural Selection” was to focus on decay and lifelessness, with “different versions of ‘not right,’ moving on to more colorful images later.”

Gayland Williams, who was also present at the Chicago screening, explained that she was the last Texas principal hired, as most of the actors and actresses were from Los Angeles. As Gayland said, “Sheila was not a real sympathetically written character.” Indeed, she was not. She was the older sister who gave her sister bad medical advice (a recurring theme, intentional or unintentional, is truly horrible medical diagnosis of major characters verging on malpractice). That advice changed her sister’s life.

Meanwhile, Sheila seems quite selfish in flaunting her healthy children before a woman who cannot bear children. She also seems aware that her husband, Peter, a minister, seems quite attracted to her pretty younger sister and takes every opportunity to squelch that. Peter was well played by Jon Gries. His own road trip to rescue Linda after her car is stolen is comical.

The only person missing on October 16th who could have made a trip back home and appeared in support of the film was the film’s leading man, Matt O’Leary, who plays Raymond White/Clyde Brisbee. O’Leary, a Chicago native, has been acting since age 13. I remember him as “the Brain” in “Brick,” a 2005 independent film sensation.

One last bit of praise for Izler Curt Schneider, whose work as Music Supervisor was spot-on. The film won for Best Score/Music at SXSW and was nominated for a World Soundtrack Award. In addition to Schneider’s original scoring, many of the songs were performed by the group Futurebirds.

See this film if it comes to a theater or video store near you. It will amuse and entertain and watch out for Robbie Pickering and crew in the future.