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A snail stuck in first gearReview: 'Jackpot' has no payoff
By Paul Tatara (CNN) -- Even if you've had your fill of Hollywood's accelerated approach to storytelling, you may find yourself yearning for good old-fashioned momentum while watching "Jackpot," Michael Polish's self-consciously "artsy" examination of elusive fame and fortune. Polish and his brother, Mark (who co-wrote and co-produced the movie), demonstrate their contempt for business as usual, but refuse to do anything to keep an audience interested. Their pacing suggests a snail stuck in first gear, and they seem to think that whispering tedious dialogue gives it added dimension. The movie's meandering narrative follows the plight of Sunny Holiday (John Gries), an aspiring country singer who travels life's lonely highway crooning at third-rate karaoke competitions. Sunny and his endlessly talkative manager, Lester (Garrett Morris), drive from town to town, hoping for lightning to strike. But Sunny is a self-deluded schmuck, and Lester keeps filling his head with dreams of glory. There's no hope whatsoever that this guy will become a star, or even a consistent breadwinner.
So you're stuck with an existential slog through territory that's part David Lynch and part Hank Williams, Jr. If that's not enough to give you nightmares, you have an exceptionally sturdy constitution. Nothing to say about nothingnessIt's almost impossible to discuss the story, since, outside of Sunny leaving a wife (Daryl Hannah) and child behind when he hits the road, there isn't any story ... at least not in conventional terms. That would be fine if there was bedrock beneath the aimlessness, something that gives weight to seemingly disjointed episodes; director Terrence Malick, for instance, manages this sort of thing by bouncing beautifully conceived, oddball characters off of the dullness. But the notion that we don't really know where we're going, and that we can travel for miles without ever leaving the cage of our own bodies, is a great deal less than cinematic when the people taking the trip are lug-heads. If you have nothing to say about nothingness, you make a nothing movie. Sunny drifts from one gig to another, hoping for transcendence but meeting only despair and disappointment. He and Lester spend many nights sleeping in their car. At one point, we get to watch Sunny catch a fly that's buzzing around the interior. Such humdrum moments are punctuated by a droning self-help cassette that Lester plays on the tape deck, apparently to keep himself from jumping out of the car while he and Sunny cruise to their next bummer.
Sunny, rather inexplicably, hauls in a few women during their journey. Gries has a nice scene with Peggy Lipton, playing a waitress who takes a shine to Sunny. The morning after their drunken tryst, he sells her a $50 bottle of cleaning solvent that's stored in the trunk of the car. (Note to fledgling Romeos: Try roses, gratis.) Sunny also tries to seduce a makeup-heavy cowgirl (Crystal Bernard). But she falls asleep on the couch, and he ends up recklessly flirting with her underage vixen of a daughter. Then it's back to the car, for another bout of apparently enlightening monotony. Faux philosophyThe Polish brothers' first movie was an equally pretentious outing called "Twin Falls, Idaho." That one crawled on its belly through the Nowhere Man existence of a set of Siamese Twins. "Jackpot" utilizes most of the first film's stylistic devices, including off-handedly poetic characters and ominous, unexplained rumblings on the soundtrack. You get the feeling someone once told the Polish boys that they were shallow, and they've set out to disprove the assertion by making faux-philosophical movies. Next time, if we're lucky, they might stop patting themselves on the back long enough to tell a story. "Jackpot" contains profanity, a bit of sex, and not a single reason for existing. This is the first movie shot on Sony's 24P HD (high-definition) camcorder, and it's a major breakthrough in digital technology. The look is almost indiscernible from 35-millimeter film ... if that helps. Rated R. |
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