"Iowa", the movie, premiered in New York City at the TriBeCa Film Festival on Monday night. The movie addresses the scourge of the methamphetamine (aka crystal meth, crank, speed) plague that is ravaging Iowa and many rural states; however, in no way does the movie glamorize crystal meth or its users, abusers, addicts, or manufacturers. Iowa graphically shows the horrors of the dead-end street named crystal meth. Iowa should be mandatory viewing for all high school seniors, who would certainly be "scared straight". At the same time, Iowa makes a powerful statement against the so-called War on Drugs, where Draconian punishments have only fostered the growth of a fungal industry of private prisons, drug-testing companies, and other parasites.
Iowa was filmed on location in Centerville, Iowa, and environs. In his youth, Farnsworth visited Centerville to see his grandparents, the late Beryl and Thelma Farnsworth, and was stunned witnessing the hellish degradation crystal meth had wrought on the bucolic community. The movie features many scenes from the Centerville Square ("the world's largest square"), the streets and alleys of Centerville, the reservoir, Lake Rathbun, Mystic, and the countryside, as well as the appearance of many local denizens as extras.
The TriBeCa Film Festival was created by Robert Di Nero and associates in 2002, primarily to bring life back to lower Manhattan after 9/11. "TriBeCa" refers to the triangle below Canal Street, and lies near the southern tip of Manhattan. The movie theatre sits catty-corner from the old World Trade Center site. Walking west on Vesey Street, one passes a huge hole, several square blocks in area, the remains of the WTC towers and the place where 3,000 innocents were slaughtered on September 11, 2001. The sky was spitting some frozen pellets of precipitation on April 25, as a cold wind blew off the water. A few gin martinis followed by a steak dinner helped to ward off the chill.
Yet no bracer in the world could prepare a viewer for the full-bore assault that is Iowa, the movie. Quentin Tarantino, move over; there's a new sheriff in town. Matt Farnsworth, the writer, director, and star of Iowa, makes Quentin Tarantino look like a little girl dressed in pink ribbons and bows with frilly ruffles on her underpants. The comparison most often heard after the movie was to Tarantino, director of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and the Kill Bill flicks, but there is far more depth to Farnsworth's work, and this makes it soar high above Tarantino's.
While comparisons were also made to David Lynch, especially in his symbolism and his ability to frame pictures of idyllic small-town life interspersed with scenes of dystopian debauchery and depravity, Farnsworth's closest similarities lie with a New Yorker. Farnsworth is something of a Plains Woody Allen, both in his multifaceted roles (multitasking, in the current lingo) and in his abilities to capture the zeitgeist of a certain place and time and to delineate characters of the momentbut only if Allen had testosterone oozing from every pore, snorted a quarter-ounce of crank up his nose, and sported the handsome visage of wholesome milk ad model.
Farnsworth stars in the movie as Esper Harte, a young Iowa man struggling to keep food on the table and a roof over his head. Esper, whose father has died recently, is the beneficiary of a $200,000 life insurance policy that he will receive if his father was not on drugs at the time of his death. Esper is dating Donna (Diane Foster), whose father is the insurance agent responsible for investigating Esper's father's death. Esper hopes to take the money, marry Donna, and, together, leave Iowa to find greener pastures. Esper and Donna's labors to protect their love form the core of the plot of the movie.
Farnsworth, who may be known to some viewers from his TV work on 7th Heaven, gives a performance that is tour de force; he clearly is the "next big thing" to come from Hollywood. Foster shows a luminous presence that captures a viewer's full attention whenever she's on the screen, yet she is not just a pretty face, and displays the full gamut of emotions through her facial expressions. Michael T. Weiss is outstandingly evil as Larry Clarkson, a corrupt and sadistic parole officer. Amanda Tepe is a bewitching drug-and-sex fiend. Other notable performances include those of Rosanna Arquette as Esper's mother and John Savage as Donna's father. Andrew Parke, the director of photography, deserves special mention for his loving pictures of southern Iowa.
The audience in New York City, a "tough" audience if any ever were, audibly gasped at the movie's shocking denouement, and then applauded enthusiastically at the movie's conclusion. As the lights went up, we saw that Farnsworth and Foster were in the audience, and they were soon swarmed with well-wishers and glad-handers.
Iowa is a movie that will haunt your daydreams and nightmares for years to come. Every scene, every word, every note, rings true. Iowa is a movie you must see.
Iowa was filmed on location in Centerville, Iowa, and environs. In his youth, Farnsworth visited Centerville to see his grandparents, the late Beryl and Thelma Farnsworth, and was stunned witnessing the hellish degradation crystal meth had wrought on the bucolic community. The movie features many scenes from the Centerville Square ("the world's largest square"), the streets and alleys of Centerville, the reservoir, Lake Rathbun, Mystic, and the countryside, as well as the appearance of many local denizens as extras.
The TriBeCa Film Festival was created by Robert Di Nero and associates in 2002, primarily to bring life back to lower Manhattan after 9/11. "TriBeCa" refers to the triangle below Canal Street, and lies near the southern tip of Manhattan. The movie theatre sits catty-corner from the old World Trade Center site. Walking west on Vesey Street, one passes a huge hole, several square blocks in area, the remains of the WTC towers and the place where 3,000 innocents were slaughtered on September 11, 2001. The sky was spitting some frozen pellets of precipitation on April 25, as a cold wind blew off the water. A few gin martinis followed by a steak dinner helped to ward off the chill.
Yet no bracer in the world could prepare a viewer for the full-bore assault that is Iowa, the movie. Quentin Tarantino, move over; there's a new sheriff in town. Matt Farnsworth, the writer, director, and star of Iowa, makes Quentin Tarantino look like a little girl dressed in pink ribbons and bows with frilly ruffles on her underpants. The comparison most often heard after the movie was to Tarantino, director of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and the Kill Bill flicks, but there is far more depth to Farnsworth's work, and this makes it soar high above Tarantino's.
While comparisons were also made to David Lynch, especially in his symbolism and his ability to frame pictures of idyllic small-town life interspersed with scenes of dystopian debauchery and depravity, Farnsworth's closest similarities lie with a New Yorker. Farnsworth is something of a Plains Woody Allen, both in his multifaceted roles (multitasking, in the current lingo) and in his abilities to capture the zeitgeist of a certain place and time and to delineate characters of the momentbut only if Allen had testosterone oozing from every pore, snorted a quarter-ounce of crank up his nose, and sported the handsome visage of wholesome milk ad model.
Farnsworth stars in the movie as Esper Harte, a young Iowa man struggling to keep food on the table and a roof over his head. Esper, whose father has died recently, is the beneficiary of a $200,000 life insurance policy that he will receive if his father was not on drugs at the time of his death. Esper is dating Donna (Diane Foster), whose father is the insurance agent responsible for investigating Esper's father's death. Esper hopes to take the money, marry Donna, and, together, leave Iowa to find greener pastures. Esper and Donna's labors to protect their love form the core of the plot of the movie.
Farnsworth, who may be known to some viewers from his TV work on 7th Heaven, gives a performance that is tour de force; he clearly is the "next big thing" to come from Hollywood. Foster shows a luminous presence that captures a viewer's full attention whenever she's on the screen, yet she is not just a pretty face, and displays the full gamut of emotions through her facial expressions. Michael T. Weiss is outstandingly evil as Larry Clarkson, a corrupt and sadistic parole officer. Amanda Tepe is a bewitching drug-and-sex fiend. Other notable performances include those of Rosanna Arquette as Esper's mother and John Savage as Donna's father. Andrew Parke, the director of photography, deserves special mention for his loving pictures of southern Iowa.
The audience in New York City, a "tough" audience if any ever were, audibly gasped at the movie's shocking denouement, and then applauded enthusiastically at the movie's conclusion. As the lights went up, we saw that Farnsworth and Foster were in the audience, and they were soon swarmed with well-wishers and glad-handers.
Iowa is a movie that will haunt your daydreams and nightmares for years to come. Every scene, every word, every note, rings true. Iowa is a movie you must see.