Will Oldham Movies
Though he enjoyed a healthy and prolific career as an actor, Will Oldham is perhaps best known as the progenitor of an indie rock band with a distinctive country flair. The said act performed and recorded under an endless series of stage names, but was most commonly billed as Palace Music. As the only constant and fixed member, Louisville native Oldham almost single-handedly maintained Palace until 1997, when he inexplicably (given its popularity and recognition) decided to scrap that name and strike out on his own as a solo act with efforts that exhibited a much darker tone and musical voice than Palace; these opuses, such as the 1997 Joya, scored points both critically and commercially, as did two follow-ups, Ode Music (2000) and Guarapero: Lost Blues 2 (2003). Cinematically, Oldham began appearing in films in his late teens, debuting with a small turn in John Sayles' mining drama Matewan (1987), and following that up with contributions to features on the big screen (Thousand Pieces of Gold, 1991; Radiation, 1999) and small screen Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure, (1989). The offbeat experimental psychodrama Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) introduced Oldham to eccentric writer-director Harmony Korine; the two teamed up on a musical level two years later on the album Ease Down the Road. After several additional film projects, including the 2004 Seafarers and the 2005 Old Joy, Oldham returned to the big screen as a young man whose path intersects with a down-and-outer played by Michelle Williams in Kelly Reichardt's melancholic drama Old Joy. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Fifty-year-old retired goth rocker Cheyenne (Sean Penn) travels from London to New York to visit his dying father, and then journeys across the United States on a mission to seek revenge against the elusive ex-Nazi war criminal who persecuted his dad in Auschwitz. Despondent after two of his young fans commit suicide, Cheyenne retreats to his Dublin mansion and begins living off of his royalties alongside his down-to-earth wife Jane (Frances McDormand). Later, he receives word that his father is dying in New York City. Although they haven't spoken in 30 years, he boards the first available flight to bid his dad farewell. Unfortunately, Cheyenne arrives too late. Upon reconnecting with his cousin Richard (Liron Levo), however, the morose musician learns that his father, a Holocaust survivor, had been tracking Auschwitz guard Aloise Lange (Heinz Lieven) around America for decades. Filled with ennui yet determined not to let Lange escape unpunished, Cheyenne vows to pick up the mission his father left uncompleted. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sean Penn, Judd Hirsch, (more)
Old Joy director Kelly Reichardt crafts this intimate tale of Wendy, an alienated Indiana woman who packs up her car and sets her sights on Alaska, but finds herself stranded in a small Oregon town with no money and only her faithful dog, Lucy, to keep her company. When Wendy realizes that there's nothing keeping her in her home state of Indiana, she makes the decision to relocate to Alaska and seek out work at the local fish cannery. With her four-legged friend Lucy in the passenger seat next to her, Wendy stops off to get some rest in a small Oregon town. The following morning, when Wendy attempts to start her car, the engine fails to respond. But this is only the first in a series of snowballing events, because as Wendy waits for the local garage to open she heads to the supermarket to pick up some dog food for Lucy. Opting to shoplift the puppy chow since she doesn't have much cash to speak of, Wendy subsequently finds herself in the local jail thanks to an overzealous employee. By the time Wendy pays her fine and gets back to the supermarket, Lucy is gone. Unfortunately the dog pound doesn't open until the following morning, and after receiving some help from a kindly local, Wendy gets some particularly bad news about her car. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michelle Williams, John Robinson, (more)
A demolition derby driver (Will Oldham) has vanished into the darkness following a massive power outage, setting into motion a bizarre series of events that will profoundly effect everyone from his pregnant girlfriend to a troupe of roving boy scouts and a ten year old girl named Turkeylegs. Later, as Turkeylegs sets out to track down her missing friend, cars kick-up dirt while driving in circles, a woman attends her own funeral, and an orange vehicle repeatedly changes owners. The one night, at a massive demolition derby, the lives of everyone involved are sent spiraling in different directions. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Will Oldham, Katy Haywood, (more)
Old Joy is writer/director Kelly Reichardt's long-awaited follow-up to her revered but underseen 1994 feature debut, River of Grass. (She directed a couple of shorts in the interim, including Ode, a Super-8 film inspired by the song "Ode to Bill.") Daniel London and cult folksinger Will Oldham star in the film as two old friends who go on a camping trip to a hot springs in the Cascade mountain range of Oregon. London's Mark is the responsible one with the modest house, the wife (who resents his gallivanting off), the dog (who comes along), and the baby on the way. He listens to Air America, and makes all the right liberal noises. Oldham's Kurt is the free-spirit type with the untamed facial hair and the junker car that looks more lived-in than vehicular. Kurt suggests the trip, and they take Mark's car. Kurt has the directions to the place, and they get lost ("I think we're somewhere...in the area") and spend the night at a garbage-strewn campsite, where they discuss their lives, and Kurt laments the apparent dissolution of their friendship. In the morning, they have breakfast in a diner, and Mark apologizes to Tanya (Tanya Smith) over the phone, explaining that he'll be home later than expected. In the daylight, they find the hot springs, and spend the afternoon quietly unwinding. Reichardt co-wrote Old Joy with Jonathan Raymond, adapting his short story, which was originally written as a collaboration with photographer Justine Kurland. It was shot (on Super-16) by Peter Sillen and features a soundtrack by Yo La Tengo. The film was selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art for inclusion in the 2006 edition of New Directors/New Films. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel London, Will Oldham, (more)
- 2002
Travis Wilkerson makes his directorial debut with the experimental documentary An Injury to One. This austere project investigates the exploitation of the Anaconda Mining Company workers in the city of Butte, MT, during the early 20th century. The battle between management and labor led to the still-unsolved murder of Frank Little, organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World. Employing both video and filmed archive footage, the images are accompanied by superimposed intertitles and lyrics to traditional mining songs. With no direct sound, the audio consists of a single narrative voice and the music of Will Oldham, Jim O'Rourke, Dirty Three, and Low. An Injury to One made its U.S. premiere at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
In his second directorial effort, writer/director Harmony Korine embraces the hyper-realist aesthetic of Lars Von Trier's Dogma 95 film movement, which mandates handheld photography using only available lighting, among other restrictions. As in the controversial Gummo (1997), Korine abandons traditional narrative for a series of vignettes about bizarre characters, in this case centered on Julien (Ewen Bremner), a schizophrenic who works in a school for the blind. Julien lives at home with his pregnant sister Pearl (Chloe Sevigny); his brother Chris (Evan Neumann), who wrestles in his spare time; and their violent father (Werner Herzog), who slaps his children around, hoses them down with water, and offers to pay Chris ten dollars to dress up in his late mother's clothes and dance. Eventually Julien escapes from his home and interacts with people on the street (some of whom, reportedly, were not professional actors and had no idea that Bremmer was an actor playing a scene). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ewen Bremner, Chloë Sevigny, (more)
- 1999
Musician Michael Galinsky of the group Sleepyhead co-directed (with Suki Stetson Hawley) this look at one music fan's troubled life. Unai (Unai Fresnedo) is a young man from Spain who lives for rock and roll, spending his days listening to "music about problems" and bringing notable bands from America and Europe to his country for tours. However, things start going bad for Unai one day -- a club owner refuses to pay Unai for shows he booked, his drug dealer wants cash and wants it now, and Come, an American band Unai is bringing to Spain, are waiting to be picked up from the airport. Stuck on all sides, Unai opts to blow off everyone and hits the road with his friends Ignacio (Ignacio Fernandez) and Mary (Katy Petty) in hopes of finding something better down the highway. Radiation features concert footage from Come, Stereolab, Will Oldham, and El Inquilino Communista. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Unai Fresnedo, Katy Petty, (more)
- 1998
Dutch Harbor is one of the largest fishing ports in the United States, located on the small remote island of Unalaska, part of the Aleutian Island chain. Trawlers each day head to sea to fish in the oceans off the Pacific Northwest or up into the Bering Sea some 300 miles away. This documentary is the story of the small town where Dutch Harbor is located and the men and women who call Unalaska and the sea their home. This 80-minute film, shot in black-and-white, shows a village in transition, from a remote place on the earth to one of the most active international commercial-fishing communities. Stunning photography and an equally captivating soundtrack brings together the story of these people who live on the western shores of Alaska. ~ Forrest Spencer, Rovi
This independently produced film, The Broken Giant, depicts the almost affectless life and loves of an eccentric, unpopular preacher in a very remote Maine country community. Ezra Caton (Will Arnett) is the minister with a somewhat drab life, and he is not unhappy to see it disrupted when he grants a young woman, Clio, "asylum" in his church sanctuary. She is on the run from her father for reasons which are unclear. What is clear is that she diverts the preacher's affections from his waitress girlfriend to herself. The two of them then go back to Clio's father's house, where they then have a marathon discussion with her aggrieved father. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1991
- NR
Produced on a shoestring $2 million budget, documentary director Nancy Kelly and her husband, editor Kenji Yamamoto created this romantic western based on a true story. Rosalind Chao stars as Lalu Nathoy, a young woman sold into marriage by her impoverished father in late 19th century China. Lalu is transported to the U.S. by a slave trader, Jim (Dennis Dun), on whom she develops a crush. Although conflicted, Jim fulfills his professional obligation to deliver Lalu to Hong King (Michael Paul Chan), a saloon owner in a rough Idaho mining town. Refusing to participate in Hong King's plan to make her into an exotic prostitute, Lalu keeps her dignity about her and wins the adoration of Charlie (Chris Cooper), Hong King's white, alcoholic partner. Despite the prejudice of the locals, Lalu becomes a cleaning woman and a successful laundress. Though she dreams of marriage to Jim or escape to China, she recognizes Charlie's admirable qualities after a violent incident that casts him in a different light. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rosalind Chao, Chris Cooper, (more)
- 1989
Those who think that you can't make a suspense movie out of a true-life story wherein everybody knows the outcome are referred to the made-for-TV Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure. Jessica, of course, was the 18-month-old Texas girl who fell down an abandoned well in October of 1987. As the world looks on in anguish, the local fire chief (Pat Hingle) and police chief (Beau Bridges) supervise the efforts to rescue Jessica from her 22-foot-deep prison. The film effectively squeezes the 58 hours of the original incident into two, allotting plenty of time for a surface-level subplot involving the efforts of a Victim's Assistance Program volunteer (Patty Duke) to reassure Jessica's parents. In keeping with Hollywood child-labor requirements, little Jessica McClure is played by twin girls, Laura and Jennifer Loesch. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Independent filmmaker John Sayles creates one of his more artistic works with this period feature about a volatile 1920s labor dispute in the town of Matewan, West Virginia. Matewan is a coal town where the local miners' lives are controlled by the powerful Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company practically owns the town, reducing workers' wages while raising prices at the company-owned supply and grocery. The citizens' land and homes are not their own, and the future seems dim. When the coal company brings immigrants and minorities to Matewan as cheaper labor, union organizer Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) scours the town to unite all miners in a strike. As the crisis grows, strikers and their families are removed from their homes by two coal company mercenaries (Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp, both also featured in Sayles' Eight Men Out (1988)), and the situation heads toward a final shootout on Matewan's main street . Sayles' simple but telling screenplay brings to light the treatment of immigrants and minorities in the early 20th century South, and it draws sharp parallels between the Matewan labor battle and the Civil War some 50 years earlier. The visual feel of the film is real West Virginia backwoods, with much of the credit going to legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler, whose warm, rustic lighting belies the anxiety and terror felt by the oppressed townspeople. ~ Norm Schrager, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chris Cooper, Will Oldham, (more)
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