AFF09–American Cowslip (2009)

Directed by: Mark David
Written by: Mark David/Ronnie Gene Blevins/Christopher Morrison

A few years back I saw a film that a co-worker of mine, Mark Spacek, was in. He was only in it for a few seconds, but I figured I would support him anyway. (He also co-wrote the film.) It was called Sweet Thing and it was about as melodramatic as they come, with lots of pregnant pauses and drug issues.

A few years later, Spacek and the director, Mark David, co-produced and had small roles in a prequel to Hamlet called Yorick. I didn’t see that one. It was a few years in production and, apparently, finally played SXSW in 2002. I don’t remember that.

Now comes American Cowslip. The Marks David and Spacek are no longer working together. This is a Mark David production all the way. Whether this is good or bad is left up to the reader.

Honestly, I thought that Mark David had disappeared. I hadn’t heard anything about the guy in years. But here he is with a new comedy about (drumroll) drug addiction! It’s like the comedy version of Sweet Thing!

Ethan (co-writer Ronnie Gene Blevins) is a heroin addict. He also happens to be agoraphobic, narcoleptic and an incredibly gifted gardener. At the beginning of the movie he plants an American Cowslip in his front lawn as if it was the most delicate thing on Earth.

Then he goes in a shoots up.

His neighbors are just as crazy as he is. Next door there’s Trevor O’Hart (Rip Torn), an ex-high school football coach who thinks that Ethan is the biggest fuck-up on the planet. He also happens to be Ethan’s landlord. (Since he grew up in the house I guess Ethan’s parents never owned their own house.)

Across the street is Samantha (Priscilla Barnes from the last year of Three’s Company). She’s a hooker, but Ethan firmly believes that she works at the local burger joint. Her son also believes this…kinda. But he has Downe’s syndrome.

Next to them are Cliff (Bruce Dern) and Georgia (Hanna Hall from Virgin Suicides–hence her similarity to Kirsten Dunst–and Halloween). Cliff is a curmudgeonly old man and Georgia is his 17 year old daughter who fall in love with Ethan.

Todd (Val Kilmer showing us that he, once again, has a sense of humor) is Ethan’s brother. He’s a cop, complete with moustache. He also has Jesus in his heart and wants Ethan to come with him to church. In fact, that seems to be his answer to everything.

Then there are Ethan’s poker buddies. Roe (Diane Ladd), Lou Anne (Lin Shaye) and Sandy (Cloris Leachman). Lou Anne thinks she’s Barbra Streisand. Sandy is…well, she’s Cloris Leachman and that’s good enough. Roe is basically Ethan’s adoptive mother. She takes care of him and worries over him constantly. But she has some secrets of her own.

When Ethan enters himself into a Garden Of The Year contest (Roe has to turn the form in for him), he’s hoping to make enough money to pay Trevor off and get him off his back. But Trevor has other ideas because he’s won that award every year.

If you think all of this sounds crazy, it’s even crazier than it sounds. Basically, Mark David and Ronnie Gene Blevins have made an 80s comedy, complete with chaotic ending where everything comes to a head. And when I say everything, I mean everything. Every issue that could come from any of these people suddenly shows up with the two cops (comedian Blake Clark and star of Road To Moloch Erik Fellows) who come to take Ethan away.

Is this a bad thing? No, not really. The movie is pretty fun, even if the laughs don’t come as often and hardily as Mark and Ronnie would have liked them to. There are a lot of good lines, actually. (For some reason I particularly liked it when Kerry, the local paper boy/drug dealer, came out of a house yelling, “Thanks for the trim!”)

But, for an 80s comedy, there are some really disturbing parts that I’m not so sure were meant to be as disturbing as they were. We all know that a lot of junkies will do anything for drugs. But are we really supposed to feel for a guy who would lick his 13 year old drug dealer’s feet? (Although, it is pretty funny when Kerry asks Ethan, “This doesn’t make me a fag does it?” “No. Does it make me a fag?” “Yeah, it does, you fag!”)

As funny as the movie could be, there was something kind of empty about it. The feel of it was a little…off. It’s hard to explain, really. I understand the point that they were trying to make (junkies aren’t the only people with problems in suburbia), but it’s a point that’s been made before and better.

Would it have been better if Ethan hadn’t been a junkie? I don’t know. That’s where a lot of the comedy comes from. Without that there wouldn’t have been a bunch of people trying to ignore it and there wouldn’t have been Kerry, who was pretty damn funny. (IMDb doesn’t seem to know that this character exists.)

Would it have been better without the pedophilia? Yeah, probably. The Ethan/Georgia relationship, while supposedly sweet, is a little disturbing. And the less said about the request to “toss my salad” the better.

If you’re not easily offended, I could think of worse ways to pass a couple of hours. It’s not a bad film. You just won’t think too much about it later. At least, not about the things that Mark and Ronnie wanted you to think about.

Oh yeah. Watch for Peter Falk at the end. GodDAMN, he’s gotten old. I still love him, though.