“Country Gold” (2022) Film review
By: Joseph Perry (Uphill Both Ways Podcast)
Mickey Reece is an independent-film auteur who makes genre-blending, or perhaps genre-defying, features. After turning his attention to exorcism in Agnes and to vampirism and aging in Climate of the Hunter, he gives the world a peek at the last night before country music singing legend George Jones has himself cryogenically frozen in Country Gold.
An offbeat comedy with decidedly surreal elements, Country Gold finds self-proclaimed good old boy and modern country music star Troyal Brux (Reece) receiving a letter from his hero Jones (Ben Hall), inviting Brux to meet him in Nashville without specifically telling him why. Full-of-himself Brux leaves his wife and two young sons and blows off a high-paying gig to meet Jones, and what he thought would be an evening of two country stars forming a friendly bond turns out to be Jones’ confession of wanting himself to be frozen for future thawing out, and a night too wild for family man Brux to cope with.
Reece’s films are dialogue driven, and Country Gold is no exception. Thankfully, this dialogue — Reece cowrote the screenplay with John Selvidge — is intriguing, ranging from the odd to the insightful as characters discuss Star Trek at odd times and Jones reminisces about such exploits as reluctantly performing a hit for organized crime members. Reece and Hall turn in engaging lead performances, with fine work from the large supporting cast. Samuel Calvins’ cinematography — much of the film is in black-and-white — wonderfully captures the unconventional proceedings.
You don’t have to be a country music fan to get a kick out of Country Gold. Viewers who give themselves over to its weird world should find plenty to enjoy. It’s not a film for everyone, but if you have never seen a Mickey Reece film before, it’s a fine place to start. If you have, you know to expect the unexpected.
Country Gold is currently streaming exclusively on Fandor.
Joseph Perry is one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast (whenitwascool.com/up-hill-both-ways-podcast/). He also writes for the websites Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), B&S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com), Uphill Both Ways (ubwpodcast.com), The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict (gbvreviews.com), and Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom).
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