Living in Missouri

I stumbled upon this movie a few years ago at a festival, totally by accident, and I loved it. It was one of those situations where you don't know what to expect, and I almost walked out because the short subject it was paired with was so awful. I'm glad I stayed, because it was such a good film.

This is a really entertaining movie, and I laughed a lot, but it is also really painful in places. In this respect, it sort of reminded me of THE OFFICE, which has a lot of comedy that makes me squirm. Some of the funniest parts involved Uncle Roy, played by the actor who is now better known as Donnie Darko's dad. He plays a really creepy old guy who lives in a basement, and all of his scenes really had me laughing.

At first, the movie sort of brought to mind the whole Kevin Smith thing, but I'm not really a fan of those movies, and I think there was a lot more humanity and emotion in this one. Some of it, particularly the second half, was truly heartbreaking. It's exactly the kind of surprise I've always wanted to experience at a film festival, where so often the things I see are disappointing. You always hope you'll discover something more like this. A very good film.