Trailer Park Boys (1999), directed by Mike Clattenburg

Sometimes I'm fast, sometimes I'm slow. When the next entry will be posted I don't really know.

The Trailer
and
The Appropriate Tune: "Liquor And Whores", by Bubbles

     I mentioned previously in my Coffee & Cigarettes entry that I was actually introduced to Jim Jarmusch with the Neil Young rock-doc Horse, which I saw at the home of my friend Big John. Big John, besides being a fantastic friend, has really helped to to expand my horizons past what my normal limited viewpoint would allow, and gain a newfound appreciation for the Macho Man Randy Savage, the music of Pentagram and hard liquor. Occasionally we disagree on things (I’m still not a fan of Limp Bizkit, for example, and he really doesn’t like Primus), but a person who shares every one of your interests and opinions is more a living mirror rather than a real friend, wouldn’t you say? Of course I can’t speak for him, but I’d like to think he feels the same way, and that my constant fear of one-sided friendships is all in my head. Like most of my problems.

     Please note other friends that you are all awesome as well, but far less relevant to the story at this time.

     One of the best things that Big John has ever introduced me too, what has become one of my favorite TV shows ever, is a little program called Trailer Park Boys. Birthed from the mystical fields of Canada , TPB is a comedy series that follows (in documentary form) the trials and tribulations of childhood friends and career criminals Ricky, Julian and Bubbles as commit various illegal money-making schemes in Sunnyvale Trailer Park. Featuring a motley crew of comical characters and a ample bounty of alcohol, marijuana and guns, the TPB franchise has spawned 7 seasons (soon to be 8!), 3 films (soon to be 4!), and a recently launched website (swearnet.com), and it just gets more extraordinary the longer it goes on. I love everything about the show, even that drunk bastard Lahey, so I decided to do something to spread the word about this show I’m so fond of. This being a blog geared towards first impressions rather than Ebertsian criticism, and I having already seen Trailer Park Boys: The Movie and Countdown to Liquor Day some time ago, I either needed to wait what could be months for the new movie to come out, or pull out something I’ve been meaning to watch for a while and get another entry out of it.

     I am not a patient man.

     Trailer Park Boys was the first entry into the TPB franchise, a pilot for a potential series which was originally pitched to Comedy Central but was eventually picked up by Showcase. The film begins by introducing us to Julian (John Paul Tremblay), who has hired a film crew to document his life, in the hopes that he can ‘help people’. Julian is a gruff yet otherwise composed man, a frequent criminal, and a heavy user of alcohol, cocaine and firearms. Julian’s only source of income, aside from selling drugs to his fellow trailer park residents, is a business that can only be described as ‘pet murder’. Literally people put hits out on pets, either their own or someone elses’, the pets are shot in the head and disposed of. Which is pretty fucked, when you get right down to it.

     His partner in these animal killing escapades is the sideburn sporting Ricky (Robb Wells), Julian’s childhood friend. Ricky is rather unintelligent and immature guy when compared to the calculating Julian, but he’s also a loving partner and father to his fiance (former ‘trailer park ho’) Lucy and daughter Trinity (presently 6 years old and on the nicotine patch). Once a trailer park boy himself, Ricky has since moved himself and his family into a new non-mobile home, thanks in part to a lucrative drug deal and Julian. Supporting a family takes money however, and as much as Ricky would love to stay home and spend time with his future wife and kid, he has no choice but to go along with Julian and pop a cap in Rover’s ass. A seemingly foolproof plan, but when you’re a trailer park boy, there’s no such thing as ‘foolproof’.

     There are couple differences between Trailer Park Boys and the show it inevitably spawned. Firstly, most of the characters that appear in the show do not appear here; We have Ricky, Julian, Corey & Trevor, Lucy and Trinity, and that’s it (Patrick Roach and Sam Tabasco also appear in this film, but not as their respective character in TPB). Also the drug of choice here is not weed, as has been so prevalent as the years go by, but good old-fashioned cocaine (Julian especially loves sniffing coke, but Ricky and even Corey & Trevor get in on the action). Obviously the cocaine use wasn’t something that would would carry over to TV, but it’s interesting to see the a proto-TPB world with such a limited cast. Most of what you have to work with here is the relationship between Ricky and Julian, and it works because Tremblay and Wells have a fantastic chemistry together. In hindsight it feels a little empty without Bubbles filling out the ranks, yet if there was nothing comedic there in the first place it would not have reached the point of having characters like Bubbles or Phil Collins in the first place.

     Those of you coming into this blind will find a black comedy about, as I have mentioned, a couple of guys who do coke and murder pets for a living. It’s an outlandish premise, but the characters are always played straight, so that it almost feels like Ricky and Julian actually are real people acrually doing this stupid shit. I may not describe it that well, but if you’re a fan of character-centric comedies, check this one out. Or if the idea of poodlecide gets the bile rising in your stomach, try a couple episodes of the tv show. I can guarantee that you might enjoy it. Maybe.

Result: Recommended