A TRAILER PARK FULL OF TALENT

A Video Review of "Mule Skinner Blues"

Copyright 2003 Glenn Walker

Mule Skinner Blues is the story of Beanie Andrew and his quest to make a horror movie in his Florida hometown using the talent pool of his neighbors to put it all together. His efforts are documented by director Stephen Earnhart.

Inspired by a film crew that came to his town to shoot a music video Beanie found an old video camera and became a self-taught movie director. Together with peculiar hometown writer Larry Parrot he comes up with "Turnabout is Fairplay" in which Beanie gets to live out his fantasy of crawling through the mud in a gorilla costume. I'm not making any of this up.

The cast is rounded out by Miss Jeannie who is a aspiring yodelling country singer and two rival guitarists Steve Walker and Ricky Lix. Mule Skinner Blues takes us inside their lives and those of many more trailer park residents as the horror film comes together. Most of them seem like they have sprung live from the heads of either John Waters or Richard Linklater but believe it or not they are real.

The movie travels the road from amusement to sadness to triumph as we follow these folks over a few years and finally see the debut of "Turnabout is Fairplay." This must be seen to be believed and it's pretty entertaining too. Proof positive that anyone can make a movie.