Get Low Review: Oscar Contenders Make the Magic

Folks: this isn’t just makeup.

Some of Hollywood’s stalwarts are fast approaching the prime of life…Man.

Get Low is the directorial debut of contemporary “Mad Men,” Aaron Schneider.

Schneider hits the filmic pavement hard with a shortlist of some all-time Oscar-worthy heavyweights that may, honestly, leave viewers longing for whatever Golden Age there is to speak of this side of 1970. The nostalgia brims at the sight of a very aged Robert Duvall, who plays lead character, Felix “Bush” with no less grand austerity and composure than in his “Godfather” heyday.

The real life “Bush” is responsible for the 1930s kick-the-bucket legend set in rural Tennessee. According to the tall tale, “Bush” emerged from his self-appointed solitary confinement after 40-plus years to throw himself a funeral party. What begins as a strange request from an unknown (therefore frightening) enigma becomes the event of the century.

The nostalgia nearly runs over when Bill Murray appears, exquisitely pictured by Schneider’s DP, and gracefully aged: the latter point proving the soberest moment of all. Wasn’t yesterday just “Groundhog Day”? Murray plays Frank Quinn, funeral home director whose dead business ain’t booming. “Everybody loves to die in Chicago.”

Lucas Black plays the very reluctant and noble-hearted Buddy Robinson—partner to Quinn and the conscience of the Quinn Funeral Home. When “Bush” brings a wad of balled up money to the town minister as a down payment for his funeral request, Robinson happens to overhear the rejection…and witness the legend in action: Duvall’s character pummels a heckler…with his mule.

After a sales pep talk from Quinn and the spotless execution from the well-seasoned Murray—Robinson goes cavorting to Bush’s front door, just barely missing the bullet that flies through the front window. (Yeah. Bush is something like an old-fashioned Madea if Madea were an ornery old man minus the punch lines, the dress…the melanin…I guess…)

But the tenderhearted Buddy convinces Bush to buy his funeral fiesta from the Quinn service—a moral dilemma choice Quinn has no problems overseeing for the sake of dollar signs.

Sissy Spacek arrives on the scene as former flame—and oh-what-a-flame—Mattie Darrow. The hottentot elder who has moved back to the Tennessee town is newly widowed, and searching for answers that may or may not lie in the relationship she and the ballyhooed Bush once had.

*Spoiler Alert!* The truth that has everyone vested in their own rumor mills is buried in the opening scene. The people closest to Bush–the only “funeral guests” who haven’t supported the gimmicky $5 raffle for his land–come to find out that his chosen seclusion is all the result of deeply-ridden shame. Bush had an affair with Mattie’s sister while the two were an item–and while the sister was married. On the night they planned to run away together, Mattie’s brother-in-law put up an awesome fight leaving the house in flames, and leaving no one but Felix to tell the tale.

Not surprisingly, Get Low wins at every well-acted turn. Schneider can’t lose with this quality cast, and, oh, by the way: cinematographers, stand up.

While the setting may seem to lend itself to the muted color scheme of the countryside, prepare to be astounded by just how beautifully photographed this movie is. If you’re anything like me, you’ll pride yourself in watching a not-your-average Hollywood picture, and you’ll, likely, brush your shoulder off one’mo’gain for collecting yet another ticket stub from your local indie theater. But let’s be serious. There is something missing here.

Like how Bill Cobbs, who plays Rev. Charlie Jackson–Bush’s only willing eulogizer–manages to sneak into the BACKWOODS of RURAL TENNESSEE in the 1930s (read: that is, the FORMER PART OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY) without an explanation. (In case you’re lost, the better portion of the 20th century did NOT, repeat, DID NOT, fold out so gently for Black people. Please refer to Jimmy Crow.)

There’s also the matter of how and why this love affair constituted a good enough reason to become the kind of hermit that draws folks like a haunted house tour. Bush is a complex figure, but we don’t get a real chance to understand him as his critics do.

Nevertheless, Schneider’s flick is worth your watch. These O.G. actors may remind you of pending supernovas, but Aaron Schneider is a rookie well on his way toward the same beautiful destiny.