ethylester

I disagree with the other comment on here. I really enjoyed this film. There are hot car chase scenes, heroin junkies, cute guys (Logan!), crazy gangster power struggles, dumb older brothers, cool music and the greatest awkward wedding night scene I've ever seen in a movie. Perhaps I'm easy to captivate, but I was into the movie the whole time, not bored once! The acting and characters were interesting, too. I loved Frida, who was always playing jokes on her lanky, tolerant boyfriend. Danny Logan just keeps getting crapped on even though he seems to do everything right, and you can't help but cheer him on the whole time. The gangsters are laughably dumb and the heroin junkie Freddy is very entertaining with his obsessive face-covering. I thought it was well directed film and well thought out plot. If you think '50s teen movies are lame, then don't watch this one because it's pretty classic in my book.

I am not sure what to think about this movie. To me, it was just some people talking about their daily, original thoughts. I know people like this. I might be someone like this one day. I guess I don't see the point in it. I felt like the filmmaker was trying to prove something - but what? I couldn't figure it out.

And did anyone notice there are NO WOMEN who tell stories in Vernon, (except the wife at the end)? Why is this? Was the filmmaker only trying to make a movie about old men? Or did the women of Vernon have boring stories to tell? I suppose this could be compared to a folklore collection. The rural folks, telling their stories, with or without a point. I love reading rural folklore because it often seems abstract, simple and enlightening at the same time. Even if you didn't live in that time period or under those circumstances, you can relate it to your life. I am sure I would have loved to talk to these old men about their lives. I could have easily sat at the bench with the opossum/turtle guy for hours hearing his stories. I would have been touched to ride on the boat with the man who talked about God, and he probably would have made some good points. It's not a big deal.

Yes, he cracked me up when he said "I was the only person he knew that knows what to do with a opossum!" and then he held it by the tail and watched it try to walk away, and nothing else. Yes, I laughed when the preacher talked about the word "therefore" forever because it seemed sort of pointless. But, I am just thinking - so what? What's new? Also, what is the filmmaker trying to prove here? am I supposed to be laughing? There are people like this everywhere, and there always has been. Pick up any oral folklore book and you will find this film isn't an idea worth calling "brilliant".

Go outside, talk to people. There are folks like this everywhere. Not just in Vernon, Florida. Maybe the reason people like it so much is that it captures this kind of personality in a raw and visual way. But you could do the same thing if you went outside your city limits and had some conversations with strangers. These people aren't freaks, they aren't even that weird, comparatively. They live their lives and they are happy, for the most part. Isn't that what everyone wants? I just don't think it's that weird and wacky. It's life.

I don't get it. Also, I would have liked to see more women in Vernon. 5/10.

I really enjoyed this lighthearted film about a beard growing contest in Shamrock, Texas. It's entertaining, humorous and unique. You get to see old men try to grow a Donogal beard which they begin on January 1, until St. Patrick's Day. They are then judged for best beard after the St Patrick's Day parade! You also get to see a younger and very hairy man enter the contest to compete with the older men who have been in the contest for years. He is an outsider and first-timer to this contest. He believes he stands a fair chance because of his thick, dark natural hair growth.

There is also a cute old man who claims a mystery person from Ireland mailed him some "chlorophyl pills" that are taken to make a man's beard turn green! Another man, who won 3rd place in the contest last year, already has a place saved on his wall for the 1st and 2nd place plaques, one of which he plans confidently on winning.

Each man has his pride and special rituals about growing his own beard. Like mixing toothpaste into his shaving cream and putting it in the microwave.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone with a sense of humor and to anyone who knows or is a hairy guy or a guy with a beard.

Also, I might add that the 72oz steak 10 minute short on the DVD is worth watching. It's about the contest they have at the Big Texan restaurant in Amarillo, TX, where if you eat the whole thing plus your dinner roll, potato, shrimp cocktail and some other stuff, you get your meal free and your name goes on the wall of fame. If not, you pay $50. It's pretty hilarious and it might even make you never want to eat again!