Search - Grand Theft Parsons on DVD

He's Not There

Kevin Killian | San Francisco, CA United States | 12/05/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I don't know about Robert Forster, but when he's on, he's on, and when he's overworked, he acts like he's been hit over the heat with an anvil. That's the mode we find him in as he speaks his lines as Gram Parson's father, apparently stricken by grief when his son dies of an accidental overdose of drugs in Southern California in the 1970s. When he arrives at the airport, he discovers that his son's corpse has been commandeered by road manager Phil Kaufman (Johnny Knoxville) in a psychedelic yellow hearse, and the chase begins. Forster can barely even pretend to be interested in this strained road farce, but such is his gravitas that for awhile, we read his pained features as the earnest and moving performance of a man doubled over by the pain of surviving one's own child. Since the real Parsons Senior died in the 1950s, he's playing a part that didn't really exist, and something of that unreality is perhaps affecting his weightlessness here. Jack Lemmon did it all much better in Costa-Gavras' Missing, and I don't even like Jack Lemmon, but he was risking something emotionally, whereas for Forster, the draw seems to be the next paycheck over the horizon.

Christina Applegate is playing someone fictional too, but at least she seems to have read even the other parts of the script. But gee, Christina, all I can think of, get a new agent. Even Marley Shelton is getting the better part in this movie, and who is Marley Shelton? (Well, everyone knows her as the girl whose strange resemblance to Heather Graham made people think she was Heather Graham's stunt double.) Here Shelton plays the girlfriend of Johnny Knoxville and winds up with a strange understanding of Christina Applegate's greedy gold-digger survivor. The two women undergo a unique bonding while the grand chase is on. And who gets to play the late Gram Parsons? None other than Gabriel Macht--soon to leap across the world's multiplex screens as the embodiment of Will Eisner's pioneering comic super-hero The Spirit. He's great here in a very tiny part and let's hope he does The Spirit with half of the spirit he brings to this very misbegotten, yet entertaining indie potboiler.
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Grand Theft Parsons

Mark Murray | San Diego | 09/12/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This movie surprisingly had great cinematography, screenplay and was well carried-through by all cast members. While it succeeds in being subtly humorous, the main plot of a corpse being transported by stolen hearse from LA to Joshua Tree, CA is perhaps too morbid to begin with, especially since it's based on the actual death of the `70's `Alternate Country Western' singer Gram Parsons, September 1973. But overall, I believe these offbeat, low-budget, independent film-makers often present interesting stories, otherwise not available. Unfortunately, without the budget for studio voice-overs, the audio fades in some crucial dialog points. However, this film includes actor summaries and is well acted by the primary 3 players, Johnny Knoxville (Phil Kaufman), Christina Applegate (Barbara) and Marley Shelton (Susie). And it soon delivers as a true, picturesque, hippie `road-trip' style flick, which I automatically enjoy."

GRAND THEFT PARSONS

Robert Robertson | Portland, ME United States | 02/13/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"THIS MOVIE WAS AN OK COMEDY; NOT REALLY BUYING THIS DVD FOR YOUR COLLECTION. THE STORY LINE IS WEAK AND SOME PARTS I FOUND MYSELF LOST."