Bury Me in Kern County
No one has been able to recapture the raunchy outrageousness of John Waters's
films of the early '70s, least of all John Waters. Many, though, have imitated
the squalid characters and milieu, affectless acting, and minuscule production
values. For most, the trash has been willing but the spirit has been weak, as
is the case with Julien Nitzberg's debut feature.
"Timid" Sandra (Mary Sheridan) and rawboned Dean (Judson Mills) are a couple
in a redneck town trying to make ends meet by selling drugs. Their lives are
ruined when they're busted by the local sheriff and their arrest is broadcast
on a Cops-like TV show. Dean's mother kills herself under the strain,
and the lovers are hard-pressed just to come up with Dean's bail, never mind
the funeral money. Their struggles are wearisome and noisy. Injecting tension
and comedy is Sandra's flaky sister Amanda (Mary Lynn Rajskub), and at times
the two siblings do create some of the loopiness of the sisters in the
brilliant Australian comedy Love Serenade. Nitzberg's humor is of the
grave kind, however -- in keeping with the title, two attempted burials are at
issue, but Kern County never digs deep enough to uncover anything new or
worthwhile.
-- Peter Keough
|