Volume 131: The Neon Highway
The Voice of Energy Vol. 131
Good day, my lovely subscribers. I hope you are doing alright. Weather looks to be wonderful out here in my neck of the woods, which is lightening my spirit immensely.
I have one review for you this week and another FTA recommendation, but before we get to that...
As I believe I've mentioned already, I'm going to be spending part of St. Patrick's Day at the PAM CUT's Tomorrow Theater, introducing screenings of Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan and Nothing Compares, the documentary on Sinead O'Connor. I'm more excited than nervous about it right now and do have a bit to say about each film, so do feel free to attend if you are able. As well, I'll be on hand to sell some records by the artists in question as well as some other Irish LPs.
The Neon Highway (2024, dir. William Wages)
The beats of The Neon Highway, the first directorial effort by longtime cinematographer William Wages, hit like an old-school country song. A talented artist on the brink of the big time (Rob Mayes) loses it all after a car accident that cripples his brother (T.J. Power) and winds up with a crummy job, a broken washing machine, and bills piling up. But a chance meeting with a former country music legend (Beau Bridges) inspires a partnership that takes the two men to Nashville and potential chart-topping glory.
Tales of country music strivers and old timers looking for another shot at success like this have been told in various permutations since Nashville earned the "Music City" appellation. See, for example, the Oscar-winning turns by Beau's brother Jeff in Crazy Heart or Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies or the underappreciated Peter Bogdanovich-directed The Thing Called Love. The Neon Highway doesn't quite hit those peaks. Wages and co-screenwriter Phillip Rob Bellury drip some treacle around the edges of the story and their meager budget meant subbing in Columbus, Georgia for Nashville and working with some actors that visibly strain under the weight of their few scenes.
The ace up the filmmakers' collective sleeve is landing Beau Bridges as their lead. The veteran actor settles into the role of Claude Allen, a former cohort of Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard who spent much of his career pissing off record execs and session musicians, like a favorite recliner. He looks to be relishing the chance to play an irascible boozer taking another big swing at success in aid of a greenhorn songwriter. In doing so, Bridges helps lift up the other actors in his character's orbit. Mayes, already bringing a gruff determination and soft heart to his performance, plays well off of Bridges. The two find a tart chemistry that only makes their eventually falling out in the second act feel appropriately heartbreaking.
There aren't many other surprises to be found in The Neon Highway beyond seeing some faces familiar to country fans pop up in small parts (Lee Brice, Pam Tillis). But that could be the very reason the film finds its audience. A little comfort food cinema might be just what a moviegoer needs to help reset their bearings and get them ready to take on some more high-minded fare.
The Neon Highway is in select theaters now.
FTA Pick of the Week
Our regular feature — a recommendation of a movie to watch that is hiding below the fold on one of the major streaming services. In other words: fuck the algorithm.
The Thing Called Love (1993, dir. Peter Bogdanovich)
As mentioned above, this charming little trifle from celebrated filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich slipped into and out of the consciousness of Hollywood in 1993, making the slightest blip only because it was the last feature that River Phoenix made before his death two months after its release. It flopped hard at the box office and found some cult favor in the home video market, but it still seems unjustly forgotten. Bogdanovich brings a spritely energy to the story of a group of songwriting hopefuls, played by a motley crew of future stars like Sandra Bullock, Samantha Mathis, and Dermot Mulroney, scrabbling away in Nashville as they wait to be noticed. And he wisely rounds out the cast with some folks with actual skin in the country music game like Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Trisha Yearwood, and Jo-El Sonnier. Like The Neon Highway, it's no masterpiece, but the charm of the actors and their willingness to dive into the music with aplomb smooths over the occasional rough spot.
The Thing Called Love is currently streaming on Paramount+.
That's what I have for you this week, friends. I hope you enjoyed it. I will see you again on the 22nd. As always: Do no harm. Take no shit. Ceasefire now. Free Palestine.
Artwork for this edition is by Katherine Bradford. American Odyssey, an exhibition of her work, opens today at HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark in Austria.
This newsletter was written on the unceded land where once stood the traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River creating communities and summer encampments to harvest and use the plentiful natural resources of the area.