Drunkboat: Never Heard of it? It’s Amazing.

 I just finished watching this movie, and it was incredibly great. The characters were small characters—some were kids from an unnamed suburbia, others were down-and-outers who con and wander their way through life. Somehow I was drawn in to their worlds and it mattered to me despite the fact that these characters were the type that would usually be peripheral. It has been a long time since a work of art has made me feel this way. The last time was when I read Denis Johnson’s Jesus Son. There was a movie made that was based off that book, but it didn’t hold a candle to the original. But writer/director Bob Meyer has made me feel that way again with his film Drunkboat, which is in limited release this week.

It begins with a hitchhiking drifter kid. He’s picked up by Mr. Fletcher (John Goodman) and Morley (Jim Ortlieb). These two are the working stiff odd couple equivalent of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Mr. Fletcher and Morley are lugging a big boat behind their truck, on their way to Detroit. Once they get there, they offer to pay the kid some cash to bring a couple cases of bootleg liquor into a bar. And here is where we meet Mort (John Malkovich). Mort is a drunk who gets free rent and booze for mopping up around the place. Mort and the kid recognize each other, but a fight breaks out before they can say anything to each other and Mort wakes up the next morning in the trash-strewn alley out back, staring at a chicken and holding the kid’s dental retainer.

This opening sequence makes us wonder, what’s up with the boat, and the chicken, and the retainer? And the film lets us keep wondering as it continues along at its own pace. Next we see Mort standing outside of a suburban home. The woman inside, Eileen (Dana Delany), is watching him watch the house. Her son Abe (Jacob Zachar) comes down and informs her that there is a man watching the house. She explains that it is his uncle, Mort. And it is clear that she is not planning on letting him in. “Why don’t you invite him in?” Abe says. “Why doesn’t he knock!?” Replies Eileen.

And there we are, right in the thick of another mystery. What’s up with Mort’s insistence on standing in front of the house? Why won’t Eileen let him in? Why won’t he knock? Abe mentions that Eileen used to read him Mort’s book before bed every night, how is Mort such a messed up drunk weirdo if he was such an accomplished writer?

We follow this story along as it goes, and it’s slow, but in a good way. It’s the sort of slow that you experience when you’re on a day out, adventuring into some close-to-home nature path where the mid-day sun courses through a dappled glade to glow pinky-orange behind your closed eyelids. And your imagination takes you into its arms and the cares and worries of what’s next have shrunk away to nothing so that only thing that exists is the Tom Sawyer afternoon. It’s that kind of slow.

And of course, Mr. Fletcher and Morley come back, and we learn about boats and dreams and chickens. And we learn why Mort is Mort. And all of this is given to us in the most charming way. Like a paper boat down a stream.

The characters are great, with dialog that is just right and performances that are subtle yet pretty astounding. Sometimes films that are a little cerebral or that discuss serious things can get a little snooty or pretentious with the dialog or the underlying message—that meh Edward Norton movie about growing weed comes to mind—but there is none of that in this one and it is such a relief.

Bob Meyer seems to be pretty new on the scene, but I will definitely be keeping an eye out for what he does next. I thoroughly enjoyed his rich and muted story, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Malkovich and Goodman utilized to their full capabilities. (So thanks Bob. You rock.)

If Drunkboat is playing near you, but a ticket and watch it.