Flickchart Road Trip: Tennessee
Welcome to the latest installment of Flickchart Road Trip, in which I’m starting in Los Angeles and “driving” across country, watching one movie from each state and posting about it once a week. The new movie I watch will go up against five movies from that state I’ve already seen, chosen from five distinct spots on my own Flickchart. Although I won’t tell you where the new movie actually lands in my chart (I don’t like to add new movies until I’ve had a month to think about them), I’ll let you know how it fared among the five I’ve chosen. Thanks for riding shotgun!
At the border to Tennessee I was hit by a wall of music. Didn’t know that’s what happens when you cross over from any of the eight states that border Tennessee? Well, it is. I crossed over from North Carolina, and indeed, I suddenly felt like I was sitting in the front row of the Grand Old Opry. Just for five seconds, and then it was gone.
It strikes me that it may be time for another map, especially because Tennessee shares a border with more states than any other state:
It’s true indeed that Tennessee is one of the country’s most significant musical locales, possibly second only to Motown in Detroit — or maybe not even second. You’ll see that reflected in my choices of Tennessee movies. Both Nashville and Memphis contain significant musical landmarks, so I figured I would make them both stops on my trip — even if getting to Memphis (in the southwest corner of the state) would require driving a couple hours out of my way before heading back north toward Kentucky. I used Interstate 40, which I picked up in North Carolina, to hit both cities.
I decided to make this detour back down near the Mississippi border first. Memphis is of course home to one of the United States’ most obligatory tourist stops, if you’re even remotely in the area: Graceland, home to Elvin Presley, and now basically a museum. The place was pretty much as I expected it to be. As I was standing in front of the King’s grave stone, I couldn’t help but think of that tone deaf version of “Heartbreak Hotel” that the guys sign as an impromptu tribute to Elvis in one of my favorite movies, This is Spinal Tap. Retracing my steps back to Nashville in the middle of the state, I arrived in town for the weekly Saturday night show at the aforementioned Grand Ole Opry. Figuring I had to watch whoever was on the bill, even though I’m no country music fan, I plunked down the money to see Bucky Covington take the stage. He’s a former American Idol contestant, and I thought he was fine.
Of course, anyone I could have seen at the Grand Ole Opry would have paled in comparison to Good Ole Elvis, who will also be the topic of my Tennessee movie. Jim Jarmusch‘s Mystery Train (1989, ranked #1111 globally) uses the King as a throughline on three semi-intertwined stories. I’ve always been intrigued by Jarmusch’s movies, even if I haven’t always loved them, and I’d heard this was supposed to be one of his best.
What it’s about
The film is structured as three individual stories that take place in a run-down Memphis hotel on the same night. In “Far From Yokohama,” two hip Japanese music fans (Youki Kudoh and Masatoshi Nagase) arrive in Memphis to see Graceland and Sun Records, where many famous recording artists got their start. They ponder the differences between Memphis and their home town while unable to agree on whether Elvis or Carl Perkins is better. In “Ghost,” an Italian woman (Nicoletta Braschi) is stranded in Memphis while escorting her husband’s coffin back home. She shares a room with a transplant from New Jersey (Elizabeth Bracco) and thinks she sees the spirit of Elvis visit them during the night. In “Lost in Space,” a British transplant nicknamed Elvis (Joe Strummer) is on unstable ground after his girlfriend breaks up with him. Two friends (Rick Aviles and Steve Buscemi) try to prevent him from doing anything stupid, but Elvis is drinking and has a gun, so that’s going to be difficult. The hotel’s night clerk (Screamin’ Jay Hawkins) and bellboy (Cinque Lee) look on wryly from the lobby as the three stories play out.
How it uses the state
Mystery Train presents a stylized version of Memphis that is almost totally devoid of people. The streets are empty, the shops look like they were abandoned years ago … yet the film’s whimsical tone keeps this from being depressing. Jun, the male Japanese teen, observes “Memphis is like Yokohama if you removed 60 percent of the buildings.” In the next story, a character observes “Everybody in Memphis has picked up Elvis’ ghost hitchhiking.” In the third, one character comments “Almost everybody in this town is out of work.” I suppose it’s not a loving portrait of Memphis in the traditional sense, but the city is definitely a character of its own. The characters seem to believe this is a mythic place that was once very important, even if it may only be a shadow of itself now.
What it’s up against
Before we get to my thoughts on the film, let’s duel it against five other Tennessee movies I’ve already seen, shall we? As you know if you’ve ever added a film to Flickchart using the “By Title” feature, the new movie goes up first against the movie in the exact middle of your rankings. The outcome of that duel determines whether it faces the film at the 75th percentile or the 25th percentile, and so on, until it reaches its exact right place. With five movies, that means at least two and as many as three duels. Here are the films Mystery Train will battle:
1) Hustle & Flow (2005, Craig Brewer). My Flickchart: #132/3493. Global: #1688. There may be some places where it’s hard for a pimp, but my list of Tennessee movies isn’t one of them. My favorite movie of 2005 was an invigorating breath of fresh air due to a variety of exciting factors, among them: Craig Brewer’s stylish production design and opening credits, a throwback to the 1970s; a terrific lead performance from Terrence Howard as the menacing but paternalistic pimp trying to become a hip hop artist; an authentic-seeming glimpse of the boom and gristle involved in making hip hop from scratch; the overriding sense of the heat and sweat of a Memphis summer. If you ask me, the surprise wasn’t that Hustle & Flow won an Oscar for a song that stodgy Academy members were unlikely to acknowledge, but rather, that this original gem didn’t win a statue or two more.
2) Walk the Line (2005, James Mangold). My Flickchart: #1129/3493. Global: #916. Two thousand five was a pretty good year for Tennessee-theme movies at the Oscars, as Walk the Line also took home one statue for the performance of its lead actress, Reese Witherspoon. Witherspoon’s June Carter Cash makes a great duet partner — both in the movie and in the acting department — for Joaquin Phoenix‘ Johnny Cash, and Walk the Line made for a rousing, memorable look at their lives together and apart. James Mangold’s film may not deviate from the standard biopic format in important ways, but it’s one of those movies that stands as a very solid inside-the-box example of its genre. Cash was born in Arkansas, but he got his start at Memphis’ Sun Records (which also appears in Mystery Train), and began touring as Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two.
3) Nashville (1975, Robert Altman). My Flickchart: #1491/3493. Global: #304. I’m a sucker for Robert Altman’s trademark brand of ensemble dramedy with its overlapping dialogue throughout — except when music is involved. I didn’t love A Prairie Home Companion, and I also didn’t love my #3 Tennessee movie, which many consider one of his greatest. The story involves 24 main characters navigating the country and gospel music landscape in and around Nashville, leading up to an outdoor concert held in honor of a presidential candidate from the Replacement Party. With so many characters, it’s inevitable that we’d be held at arm’s length from them, but that sense of distance lingered with me more than anything else about the film. I suppose that its many songs, often shown in their entirety, also cut into the potential for character development.
4) The Blind Side (2009, John Lee Hancock). My Flickchart: #2456/3493. Global: #2389. Speaking of best actress winners, Sandra Bullock won hers for a movie that likely only earned a best picture nominee because the field was expanded to ten for the first time that year. The story of a talented young football player and the wealthy woman who saved him from foster care definitely struck a chord with certain audiences, though not necessarily audiences comprised of critics. The good intentions of Leigh Anne Tuohy (Bullock) toward Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) were somewhat compromised by what many consider a simplistic story of a white savior rescuing a saintly black character — a regrettably common Hollywood dynamic that’s also got its roots in good intentions. The action takes place in and around Memphis.
5) An American Haunting (2006, Courtney Solomon). My Flickchart: #3321/3493. Global: #33912. Movies about haunted houses can be broken down into two basic pleas from the audience: “Don’t go in the house!” and “Get out of the house!” I screamed the latter until I was doubled over in absurd laughter while watching An American Haunting, in which a young girl is allowed to remain in her house for days, nay, weeks after being tormented to the brink of insanity by spirits. As if her being slapped around, levitated out of bed and actually raped by these nefarious forces were not compelling enough evidence to motivate them, all her family can manage is false starts getting her to safety. This 19th century witch tale is pretty false alright. The story is based on Southern folklore about the Bell Witch, who supposedly haunted the Bell family in its Adams, Tennessee home.
First duel: Mystery Train vs. Nashville. In the epic grudge match between the state’s two biggest cities, even an empty Memphis beats a very full Nasvhille. Mystery Train wins.
Second duel: Mystery Train vs. Walk the Line. In the epic grudge match between legendary Tennessee musical acts, Elvis Presley beats Johnny Cash. Mystery Train wins.
Third duel: Mystery Train vs. Hustle & Flow. In the epic grudge match between music born out of the African-American experience, hip hop beats rock n’ roll. Hustle & Flow wins.
Mystery Train finishes second out of the six movies.
My thoughts
I don’t generally think of Jim Jarmusch as a writer-director with a well developed sense of humor, even though there are elements of comedy present in three of the other four of his movies I’ve seen. I also tend to think of him as a little too fascinated with an aesthetic of indie cool that takes itself too seriously to consider comedy as one of its goals. Perhaps this is why I was so pleasantly taken aback by Mystery Train.
Simply put, there’s pitch perfect comedy throughout this tale — or, these three tales, I should say. I was damn near tickled pink by the opening story of the incredibly hip Japanese teenagers, which shows just how Jarmusch can laugh at himself by way of laughing at those who share the aesthetic he’s cultivated. Jun, the young man, expresses those priceless contradictory qualities of being so blase that you’d think he could barely get off his couch, yet so passionate about American rock music that he’s traveled all the way from Japan to visit Graceland. His girlfriend, Mitsuko, is a bubbly sprite, in many ways Jun’s opposite, who adorably hauls out her limited English with great enthusiasm (“Hi! Good night!” she cheerily greets the hotel staff, instead of “Hello! Good evening!”) Their oil-and-water chemistry is good for plenty of laughs on its own, but the subtle physical comedy involving a Zippo lighter — he can flick and light it like a magician, then flip it expertly into an open pocket, while she can pick it up with her toes — just takes the humor to another level. At the same time, Jarmusch is definitely not laughing at these characters — he finds their various passions, expressed in their various ways, to be simply delightful, and their earnest love of American music to indicate their good taste.
“Far From Yokohama” is a tough act to follow, and true enough, neither “Ghost” nor “Lost in Space” can match it. However, each also has its own divine pleasures, one of which, for me, was seeing a younger Steve Buscemi than I had ever seen on screen before. Buscemi has similarly good chemistry with Joe Strummer and Rick Aviles in the third story, which features them trying to corral in Strummer’s character after he goes on a post-breakup bender with violent potential. There’s great deadpan humor as the trio goes through a series of absurd yet never-too-tragic mishaps. “Ghost” is also born out of semi-tragedy, as it begins with a woman signing documents to accept her husband’s remains. However, this sequence also contains one of the most non-Jarmuschian moments of outright comedy, with a briefly visible Elvis ghost materializing in the hotel room and pronouncing that he has arrived in the wrong room. It’s also got a priceless cameo from Tom Noonan as a guy trying to sell the Italian widow on a tall tale about the King’s hitchhiking ghost.
Perhaps the movie’s funniest single element is the one that underpins all three stories, which is Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Cinque Lee (Spike‘s brother) as the overnight staff of this hotel/flophouse. They’re kind of like the most passive Greek chorus ever, engaging in rich little exchanges of meaningless dialogue as one of many attempts to pass the long overnight hours. The absurdity of the fact that this seemingly empty hotel has not one, but two overnight staffers, who must stay awake and busy despite a total lack of occupancy, is not lost on the audience.
That’s a lot of humor for a movie that may not even be primarily interested in being funny. The best movies are those that accomplish many moods and agendas at the same time, hitting you over the head with none of them. Mystery Train is such a movie.
Up next
Arriving in the home state of fellow Flickchart blogger Travis McClain, I can think of no better way to honor this dedicated James Bond fan than to watch possibly the only Bond movie with scenes in Kentucky: Goldfinger.
Now that song is in your head. You’re welcome!
I had to stop reading when I got to Nashville and saw how low you had it ranked. That went straight into my Top 100 on a first watch, which is really unusual, and hasn’t budged. One of my favorites from the New Hollywood marathon I did a few years ago.
I definitely thought that one might ruffle a few feathers. I owe it another watch. Thanks for commenting, Jandy!