Get Low
Get Low is a backwoods colloquialism for putting ones affairs in order before casting off this mortal coil. Here the backwoods is in 1930’s Tennessee and feeing it’s time to get low is Felix Bush (an almost unrecognizable Robert Duvall) a recluse with a reputed short fuse. The film is based on a true event of a hillbilly hermit buying himself a fancy funeral that he wants to attend while still alive. Where that reality ends this one is embellished with Bush harbouring a dark past. Unsatisfied with the funeral arrangements offered by the clergy through Rev. Gus Horton (Gerald McRaney) he contracts the somewhat shady funeral director Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) and his family man assistant Buddy (Lucas Black) who may in days gone by been one of a litany of kids who tormented Felix at their own peril. They’re hired to stage the funeral and have it open to anyone who has a story to tell about Felix. Feeling that his scary personally might make partygoers literally gun-shy about sharing their stories, Felix offers to raffle off his large acreage of prime timber to someone in attendance. Through the process of arranging the funeral the truth dribbles out about a long ago relationship between Felix and Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek) and the terrible secret that’s kept him in a self imposed prison for decades. Get Low gets high marks for the superb telling of an interesting scenario.