Black, White and Blues: BOSTON FILM FESTIVAL 2010, Kiele Sanchez

Kiele Sanchez stars: Black, White and Blues

Jefferson Bailey (Morgan Simpson) has more or less reached the end of the line in Austin. He came out there to start a blues band, but right now, he’s behind on rent, freezes up when he goes on stage, and drinks until he blacks out. Plus, he’s not only borrowed some money from a local tough (Luke Perry), but he’s been sleeping with his wife Jackie (Taryn Manning). Even still, he’s not interested in going home when a man (Michael Clarke Duncan) shows up, saying his grandfather died six months ago and he has to collect his inheritance personally. At least, not until Jackie’s husband gets wise and decides to extract his pound of flesh – then traveling back to Huntsville, Alabama with this Augy fellow starts to sound real good.

Jefferson likes the blues, while Augy goes for country, and while that’s a bit amusing considering their respective skin colors, it’s not long before the pair are commenting on how, though the two styles of music have different sounds, they often amount to the same thing. The movie itself plays like the blues and country – a recitation of sorrows set to a simple beat, but with a wry humor and open heart that helps to drive sorrow away. Augy and Bailey have both had troubles with the bottle and some bad luck in love, but this is far from being a movie about sad, irrevocably broken people; it’s often funny, with the pair becoming good buddies fairly quickly.

Also, framing a movie around a road trip with blues at the center means that the filmmakers have a built-in safety valve against the film being boring. Running out of conversation for the two leads? Have them drop into a roadhouse with live entertainment, or find a church with a gospel choir, or meet a blind old blues-man and play music for a few minutes. You can get the music to mean something to the characters, and the filmmakers have put together a nice roster of musicians for the soundtrack. The incidental music is good, too, a real help in setting the mood. (more…)