October 7–14, 1999

movie shorts

Happy, Texas

recommended

Although touted as a buzz-heavy Sundance entry, there’s nothing independent about Happy, Texas — not that that’s a drawback. With both feet squarely in the mainstream, the film might have been directed by a less saccharine Garry Marshall; if you squint your eyes just right, you can probably make Ally Walker look like Jodie Foster — least if it weren’t for those creepy eyes. Jeremy Northam and Steve Zahn — playing parts that go at least as far back as We’re No Angels — are a couple of prison escapees who pose as gay beauty pageant organizers and hide out in the tiny titular town. Although Illeana Douglas (above) is miscast as a nutty schoolteacher — stylized comedy is not what she does best — most of the cast underplays enough to make this vision of small town wackiness go down like a Cherry Coke. William H. Macy is a touch too stolid as the town sheriff, and Zahn’s clenched-jaw accent doesn’t do him any favors. But Zahn (a Philadelphian) is a marvelously likeable actor, so guileless he can actually pull off the moment where he accidentally offers a cigarette to a 9-year-old.

—Sam Adams