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| From | Judith Beeman <beeman@istar.ca> |
| Subject | Guy Terrifico for Prime Minister |
| Date | Thu, 06 Oct 2005 16:12:54 -0700 |
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It's positvely Springtime here in Canada these days!
First that fine young lad, J.D. wins the INXS thingy; then Carl Newman
is the Magnet cover hunk; and now, well let's just say "hump the drums"
will soon be on every Canucks lips.
I only hope the wonderful film The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico
will soon hit screens across all of North America and beyond. I saw it
today at the Vancouver Intl Film Fest viff.org and it's a smash!
Matt Murphy (flashing lights, superfriend) is Guy Terrifico the early
70's drug-necked country-folk musician who goes missing (or does he?)
Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, and a whack of other Country toughies
appear in extended cameos.
I'm sure there's going to be a soundtrack released. Many thumbs up! It's
too good! The Canadian flag guitar is to die for...
Two online review below.
Regards, Judith
"The life and hard times of Guy Terrifico" is the funniest film I've
seen all year. I checked it out at Austin's South by Southwest film fest
and have been laughing ever since. This crazy little Canadian film is
about a mad man country rock star in the 1970's who disappears at the
height of his career. 30 years later, an album of duets called
"Retribution Honkytonkus" is apparently about to be released with new
Guy Terrifico recordings so this documentary crew interviews all his old
buddies to see if they think he is alive or not. Did he die or didn't
he? I won't spoil the ending but you won't be disappointed. I would
describe this film as "This is Spinal Tap" in the country music world.
It features Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Phil Kaufman, Levon Helm
& Ronnie Hawkins along for the ride. Lots of funny moments but "Hump the
Drum" is my favorite. GUY ROCKS!
AND
Alternative country and its booze-fuelled macho mythmaking get a
well-deserved work-over in Michael Mabbott's raunchy mockumentary The
Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico. The film takes as its starting
point the making of a contemporary tribute album for the notorious Guy
(Matt Murphy), a hard-drinking, hard-living legend who never quite made it.
Guy starts out as a small-town prairie boy who just wants to play music,
until an improbable, unexpected windfall leaves him newly wealthy. He
soon acquires the requisite shady entourage, who encourage him to
indulge in enough intoxicants to fell a water buffalo. As he rapidly
starts to unravel, his dreams go up in smoke - literally. A
spectacularly disastrous appearance on a Christian TV show in Nashville
seems like the last straw, but our spectator culture often confuses
notoriety with fame and, soon enough, Guy's career is back on the rails.
The portrait of Guy is fleshed out by his sketchy manager, real-life
music biz heavyweight Phil "The Mangler" Kaufman; his childhood
sweetheart Mary Lou (Natalie Radford), who has issues with bodily
processes and alcohol; plus hangers-on including Mr. Stuff (Lyriq Bent),
Guy's drug dealer and confidante, and Guy's horrifically foul-mouthed
mistress (Jane Sowerby). Riffing off a host of outlaw-country myths -
most notably the bizarre saga of Gram Parsons's death - Mabbott also
includes hysterically funny testimonials to his hero from such legends
as Kris Kristofferson, Levon Helm and Merle Haggard. All of them adore
Guy's songs (the few they've heard) but can't seem to wrap their heads
around his boorish, dickhead behaviour. Mixing in footage of notorious
incidents in country music history - such as Kristofferson's infamous
acceptance speech at the 1970 Country Music Awards - Mabbott creates a
persistently witty portrait of the music industry and its need to
cannibalize and glamorize its past. Countless experts and rock critics
weigh in on the profound importance of Guy and his career, despite the
fact he was never sober enough to actually record an album.
This is a satire that's long overdue. As fabled country rocker Joe Ely
might say, The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico is high-larious.
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