The Corndog Man

source: The Corndog Man

Aronofsky didn't make this film. However, it may be little more than the dialect that separates this uniquely disturbing bent of storytelling from his. As a third generation piece of poor white trash, I can vouch for the language. Dead on, trust me. And as a native Southerner, I must sadly confirm that in certain rural pockets, this brand of racist garbage still exists. But the ultimate fate, and apparent past, of the protagonist of this film proved strange enough to wreck my sleep for at least three nights. To say that I liked this film would be amiss. A-way-the-hell-miss, in fact. But the storytelling is taut and cerebral. And it's cinematic impact is pretty powerful. Next time you feel like you're going to scream at another Meg Ryan romantic comedy or another Bruce Willis explosion movie, try this one on for size.

At a loss for anything decent at the video store I took a chance on Corndog Man. I'm really glad I did. This is an intriguing film that has you wondering who the antagonist is and what his motivation is throughout the film. There are moments of very good comedy and moments of very good yet tasteful social commentary about racism and how it heats up when biased people regress to their simpler emotions under stress. Mostly though, I found it an enjoyable mystery and character study that is well paced and well-developed. Definitely worth a look.

I actually had the privilege of taking a directing class with Andrew Shea. I think this film was very successful cinematic ally and in many different ways, but I ultimately I think the narrative structure amazingly innovative. It doesn't break the narrative rules by not being linear, but does something totally different that I can't even explain. My only critique of the movie is I didn't feel established enough with his past, so the memory of the rape felt a little to sudden and not developed enough, not enough transition. I was felt the transvesite character kind of swung the story out of wack a little but not too drastically, it just brought out this other element of the character's life that the movie didn't have time to deal with. Although the parts with the drag queen were treated with enough decency and was not too attention seeking that it didn't take to much away from the movie, and in its defense it did drive the narrative at certain points. You can see Andrew's genius come out through the characters considering the difficulty of the material. I also think that not showing the caller, which is a critique of most of the poor reviews, is actually a threshold of the film. It makes us sympathize and experience with the main character, because he never really sees this person either, and one of the greatest powers of this antagonist is his anonymity. Another critique is why does the man keep answering the phone which I think is another threshold of the film. He keeps answering because he has a guilt complex. He knows what he has done, even if its a repressed and subconscious memory, so he can't avoid it because he has an indescribable attraction to the situation. What these characters have to express to each other is complex and subtle (by this I mean the undercurrent of the humor, swearing, and the son toying with the father), which is accomplished by Andrew's amazing skills of working with actors. Ultimately a great film, even though it may take a few viewings, and I gave it only a 7 simply because I have been recently watching amazing films by Bergman, Wilder, and Hawks. Inspiring to see what you can do on a really low budget.

All the comments about "suspension of disbelief" in here are making me LOL. This really happened people. Pretty much word for word. "Al White Motors." The tapes are REAL. I did not know someone made a movie out of them. They are much more interesting and extensive than the Tube Bar calls. It sure is making me feel like I have some secret information, which is a really hard thing to do these days, what with everyone and everything on the Internet. Do some research! Not trying to be confrontational. I just think it is hilarious. This movie is a tribute to the Greatest Practical Joke of all time. I'm happy I knew about it in its original form, because no movie could ever do it justice.

If your idea of fun is seeing a middle-aged small-town bigot get totally tormented, then this may be the film for you. While this fellow is not intended to be sympathetic, he's not very interesting either. In fact he seems a dreary friendless figure to begin with and more and more foolish and pathetic as the story goes on. His nemesis remains pretty much of an enigma, smarter but not all that appealing. Other characters remain in the background, their voices barely heard. For a student film on a shoestring budget, the movie does suggest its creators have potential. But they have more work to do to be first-rate.

I recently watched this film on The Sundance Channel and it kept me interested from the start. However, it seems to take forever getting itself where it wants to go and in the end, I felt somewhat cheated. In a nutshell, Noble Willingham (of Walker, Texas Ranger fame) plays a boat salesman who starts getting harassed by telephone from a man claiming to be his son. According to the mysterious caller, Willingham has a dark, dirty little secret that affects the son and he (the son) is enjoying reminding him of it. I won't spoil anything for anyone but for me three things kept me from liking this movie a great deal. One, the movie has more foul language than Goodfellas, Scarface, Casino, and Glengarry Glen Ross combined. 99% of it is spewed from Willingham himself. It didn't take long to wear me out with constant four-letter words. Two, I simply could not believe that anyone would answer the telephone that many times, especially when one knows that a crank caller is on the other end of the line. No matter where Willingham is in the movie whether it be at work, home, a diner, etc., the phone rings and he always answers it spewing venom at the "son", and then hanging up ONLY TO ANSWER IT AGAIN WHEN THE CALLER CALLS BACK IN ABOUT TEN SECONDS! How many of us would do that? Now I realize that we probably do not have a movie if he doesn't keep answering, but I just could not suspend disbelief on that particular matter. Three, and this is the most minor of the criticisms, why is the director so opposed to showing us the "Corndog Man" (a.k.a. the caller/son)? Most of the time he's just a redneck sounding voice on the other end of the phone. I could have lived with that one if other things had fallen into place, but since they didn't it's just one more to tack on. I do give the movie credit for being a somewhat original idea and for holding my attention with suspense from the beginning but that's about it. Do see it, if only one time. However, if you're like me, you'll be saying "Triple K Marine!" in your sleep for a night or two after you finish watching it.

In modern movie making, an unfortunate trend has surfaced. In order to keep people interested in a film, too much of the story is given away right away, due to lack of ability to properly develop characters in a subtle fashion. And this may be why Corndog Man receives rather mixed reviews. In reality, Corndog Man is a skillful work which purposely doesn't portray Ace Barker, our main character, as an evil man or a vicious one for a purpose. This is a work not only about the torture of an evil man, but about the difficulty to pin evil on him. Wonderful acting and plot development make you somewhat sympathetic for Ace, as his life is shredded, because you don't know why it's happening until the end. It's a quick reversal when your emotions see the truth, an all too common feeling in real life when things and people aren't as they originally seem. Not too often does a movie properly invoke real reactions. Yes, the sound of a phone ringing does tempt one to pull out some hair, but all in all it's worth it. My highest recommendations for Corndog Man.

This movie was horrid and at the end made me wonder why someone went to the trouble to make it. Now it was not all bad, I have studied film and this film was put together very nicely and had very good cinematic everything with interesting angles to very nice lighting and excellent camera work. I wish I could have seen it back in school because it would have made a good film to write a paper on. BUT........ Since I have graduated and lost most of my film pretentiousness I have realized that a film should be entertaining above all, this movie was long and boring and I'm not sure when it finally got to the point that it was worth my time.

Triple K Marine! This little known movie (and I mean little known, there are no reviews at Rotten Tomatoes) has been my favorite ensure film ever since it came out. I was lucky to find it on a Blockbuster shelf. I am not even sure it ever came out in the theaters. I've passed this film onto family members since no one I know has ever heard of it either. I can't even find anyone to talk about it on the Net! Put simply, there is nothing else like it. The scenes are quite simple, a man's voice (we never get to see his face, and I love that) is calling Noble Willingham's character over and over on the phone and calling him "Daddy". Why? In my opinion who cares, I just love seeing how Noble's character breaks down with each call! And the interplay between the two men is even funny at times. We do find out why this man (voice) has come to town with one mission only. The soundtrack alone is terrific, and I wish it were on a CD. The acting is...well it doesn't even seem like acting! Trust me if you like offbeat films, see it!