Michele Massa's blog

When one hears Johnny Knoxville is starring in a film produced by Quentin Tarantino, in all directions a slacker who grows squeak, it’s wise for a haze geek to freak faulty and buy in in accord down at the multiplex a scattering weeks early. Then, it’s also entirely reasonable for that same pic monstrosity to be totally disappointed when that talking picture turns absent from to be something of a chick flick, and the real focus of the exposition is in reality a 14-year-obsolete girl. This is the story of Daltry Calhoun.

Daltry is a good guy, or at least he has built himself into one. As seen in the flashback opening, as a young mulleted punk, he once impregnated a girl (Elizabeth Banks, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and settled into a robe-wearing life of NASCAR watching, punctuated by violent outbursts aimed at targets like Duran Duran. Essentially, Daltry is a southern-fried ass.

Now, he’s a legitimate business man, putting the small town of Duckstown, Tennessee on the map with his popular grass hybrids, which are used on all the big golf courses. That is, until they start showing an odd mutation that manifests itself in cactus-like protrusions that are hardly acceptable in the game of golf. Naturally, this has a negative effect on Daltry’s business, and the repo vultures are circling.

As Daltry struggles, he’s faced with a new challenge, as May, that girl from long ago, comes back into his life, with June (Sophie Traub), her 14-year-old daughter, in tow. May needs Daltry to finally be a dad, and, of course, he’s definitely not ready. June is a music prodigy aimed at Julliard, who’s too smart for her own good, yet still very naive. She needs Daltry, and is willing to admit it, but that just puts more pressure on a man already crumbling under the weight on his shoulders.

Outside of Daltry learning to be a dad to June, the only real plot centers on Daltry’s grass problem, which he hopes to fix with the help of rebel horticulrturist from Australia named Frankie (Kick Gurry). Other than that, the film is mostly a character study of Daltry and his pals, including Flora (Juliette Lewis), a widow who runs the local sporting goods store, and Daltry’s feeble pal Doyle (David Koechner, Anchorman). In that, the film is an overwhelming success. After all, any movie that can make me like Juliette Lewis, who to this point had only annoyed me, is a pretty good movie.

Tarantino discovery and first-time writer/director Katrina Holden Bronson keeps things moving smoothly from beginning to end, bouncing between Daltry’s life and June’s life, and rarely getting trapped on either side. The only trouble comes in regards to the tone, which is far from consistent, sliding from June’s surreal daydreaming to emotional moments between Flora and Daltry to comedic scenes with June and Daltry. The lack of a bridge between these shifts makes the progression of the film a bit halting, but the talented acting helps smooth out the path.

In the end, the movie isn’t as satisfying as it should be, as the story, or perhaps the way it’s told, doesn’t resonate. Instead, it just exists on the screen, without the energy or magic that a “special” film has. It may be the high expectations brought on by the cast or the connection to Tarantino that affects the way this film is seen, because as a film by a first-timer coming from out of the blue, this movie would probably be hailed as the coming of a new talent. As it is, it’s simply a well-constructed film and the end of an era at Miramax.