It's hard to review Todd Rohal's The Guatemalan Handshake. It doesn't follow a set narrative structure; there is no complete story. Take Richard Linklater, Harmony Korine, and David Lynch, combine them into one man, shackle them to strange, small-town America, and inject them with thoughts of short shorts, strange characters, and lots of atomic buzzing -- then, just maybe, you can begin to imagine what's in store for you with this film.
At its vaguest, the film follows what happens after one man disappears one strange afternoon in a rural town near Three Mile island. Musician and actor Will Oldham, who has worked with indie names from John Sayles to Harmony Korine, begins the tale as Donald Turnupseed -- a young man who walks off and vanishes during a big power outage. No one seems especially concerned about his disappearance, except the young Turkeylegs (Katy Haywood), who tries to get the police involved before getting distracted by the crazy people who surround her.
There's Sadie (Sheila Scullin), the pregnant girlfriend Donald left behind, who is itching to win the upcoming demolition derby and is getting the full-court press from Stool (Rich Schreiber), a man who struggles to be accepted and repeatedly and continually takes his shirt off at weird moments, Mr. Turnupseed (Ken Byrnes), who is busy with friends and weird car adoration, and more strange players from a woman who visits her own funeral to a daredevil dude who jumps off cliffs.
This is an indie without the huge studio budget,* with a lot of inexperienced talent, but there's one player who really shines -- Haywood's young Turkeylegs. While she might be the big newcomer to the group, she provides a wry sense of reality that helps reign in the zaniness around her. In one scene, she sits there and watches while the others in the house zoom around her at an advanced speed. The others are a mess of buzzing energy and she just sits there, watching -- the lightning rod in a storm that stands unhit and baffled at the surrounding electricity.
The players might be inexperienced, and the plot isn't entirely cogent, but this is a beautiful movie to watch. There are a number of stunning scenes in the film, and they're not the dark and eerie shade of something Lynchian, but rather, they exist like rural living photographs of strange folks. The color and the framing show that this isn't some haphazard collection of visuals, but rather, a number of carefully planned moments that add life to each scene, whether the camera twists in a hayfield, or Mr. Turnupseed goes wild with fireworks.
As for the DVDs, this release is an indie movie lovers dream. Honestly, this is how a release should be done. It is absolutely jam-packed with extras, making many of today's releases seem like starving, paltry offerings. On the first disc, there is a commentary with cast and crew that explains some of the weird occurrences, but mainly discusses how they pulled the production together; there's the ridiculous and strange music video for Ola Podrida's "Lost and Found," which stars Ivan Dimitrov (who plays Sadie's dad in the film) doing wacky dances with old-school 80s techniques; and there's deleted scenes.
The second disc has even more supplements. Half of it is a collection of random moments. The first group covers scenes from the set of the film that includes perming moments for teeny tiny payoffs, music, interviews, production mishaps, and more, available as separate blips or played together, while the second group covers moments from the film's national and international premieres. The other half of the disc, meanwhile, is a collection of short films directed by the cast and crew.
There is also one remaining goodie, a booklet that features an essay by David Gordon Green. In it, Green wholeheartedly praises the film, calling it not only "laugh-out-loud funny," but also "inspiring because it was simultaneously genius and idiotic and IT GOT MADE. It was a gift. I literally felt like someone had created a movie speaking magically to each of my sensibilities." This would be a perfect introduction to the film, if the following rant about studios and films that lack boldness, distinction, and risk, didn't bring to mind Pineapple Express. It's hard to take his rant against typical films seriously when he just went mainstream.
Nevertheless, The Guatemalan Handshake is an interesting and creative film. Do I like it? I'm not sure. I imagine I will have to watch it a few more times before I can say. However, I definitely appreciate it. It's spastic, but it also has heart, and at least a few moments that shouldn't be missed.
*Edited for clarity.
