Townies (1999) – Wayne Alan Howard.

'The Captain of America would NOT approve!!!'

Wayne Alan Howard's Low-fi indie schlock-com presents the appreciably grungy, quirkily off-beat antics of the multiform nutballs that populate dog-fart Schlarb, Ohio. There's a jolly good reason polymath film-maker Howard didn't call his eccentric, morbidly-inflected comedy Normies, as these entertainingly maladjusted misfits would require their very own ward at Bellevue! My tolerance for films like Townies has been greatly tempered by early exposure to John Waters, Lloyd Kaufman, Nick Zedd, George Kuchar, Andy Milligan, and Richard Kern etc. Is this a good thing? I have absolutely no idea. While I'm not completely in love with all the tweaker-jackanapes presented herein, it is entirely safe to say that Townies Psychotronic credentials are bona fide! Are monochromatic indie flicks artier than their more garishly technicoloured brethren? I tentatively believe, yes, yes, that could well be the case. Slacker-schlock lore suggests that if you film a posterior on video it appears despicably porny, but the VERY same sit-upon, when exposed to Super-8 is mythically transposed into hot-shit cinema verite, dude! Ultimately, I dug most of this, but I'm a remorselessly listless chode who still believes Tiramisu is Latin for a baby Tsunami. Final thoughts, husky dreamcake Caduceus (Shane Koltnow) got me in the mood for some enthusiastic oral gymnastics, Dickie's (Toby Radloff)isolation made me feel horribly sad, as I could manifestly feel his pain, and The Licker (Jeremy Maes) had erotic potentialities worth investigating!