The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico

This is a very funny film and I highly recommend it. It's beautifully written and the actors are priceless. It's a pleasure to see an independent film of such high quality. If you're like me, and never much cared for country music, you'll still love this film because it contains the key elements of a good story that everyone can relate to and can appreciate. Oh, and did I mention that it's stinking funny?

This was a feature pick at the Toronto International Film Festival for a good reason. The original music, the characters and love that the writer had for his material makes this a classic must see mockumentary that rivals Spinal Tap.

In the early 1970s Canadian country/rock legend Guy Terrifico was gunned down at a concert and vanished on his way to the hospital.

Recently some unreleased tapes have surfaced sparking a new recording project and prompting rumors he may still be alive.

Why would Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Colin Linden and other musical luminaries appear on an album of duets with a man who supposedly died 30 years ago?

"I loved Guy Terrifico," Kristofferson says with a craggy grin. "He was the only guy back in the early 70s who drank more than I did. He made me look like a choirboy."

Indeed the musicians interviewed for this "honky tonk-umentary" seem more interested in talking about Terrifico's excessive lifestyle than his music.

Linden recalls playing at the club Guy bought after winning the lottery.

"As soon as you'd get there for soundcheck he would start plying you with drinks and whatever else he had kicking around. By the time he'd get ready to play a lot of the bands would be too messed up to play. Normally this would be a bar owner's worst nightmare but for Terrifico it was like a dream come true. Guy just wanted to hang out with the bands, that's all."

Haggard recounts an incident at a post gig party when Terrifico got in his face once too often. ("He was an a----hole so I knocked him out.")

The film also includes reminiscences by Ronnie Hawkins, Levon Helm of The Band and Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo.

So how come you have never heard of him? Simple. He's entirely the product of freshman filmmaker Michael Mabbott's feverish imagination.

A composite of Jerry Jeff Walker, Gordon Lightfoot and Gram Parsons, Terrifico is played with woozy verisimilitude by Halifax musician Matt Murphy.

Playing himself is Parsons' former road manager, Phil Kaufman.(Parsons' real life story was more bizarre than any fictional film.)

Simulated studio and concert footage add to the illusion. "Home movies" of late night jams at the Vancouver apartment Guy shares with wife Mary Lou (Natalie Radford) will strike a responsive chord with survivors of the era and those who are still "living the dream".

Admittedly this mock doc will be best appreciated by a niche audience. So if you're not familiar with Parsons' legacy, you don't have anything by Kris, Merle or The Band in your collection and you've never seen a boomer folk in concert you may not "get" it (or want it).

However, if you can check one of the above, the sly inside humor and musical references will have you chortling with delight like a senior at a rest home who has just realized its Saturday night and there is chocolate pudding for dessert.

I had high hopes for this one going in but soon became disappointed, then bored, then disaffected--frankly, couldn't finish it. The faux rockumentary premise sounded promising ('Spinal Tap' was a hoot) but despite a few mildly amusing lines, gags, and pratfalls this film mostly recycles clichés about how dissipated and reckless rock musicians can be (yawn). Yes, it's good-natured in a goofy sort of way. Still, I couldn't help but feel that my intelligence was being insulted with simplistic, unoriginal, and very predictable material about a fictional Guy who was inherently uninteresting. Granted, comedy is the hardest thing to do but when it's bad, it's really bad.

"The life and hard times of Guy Terrifico" is the funniest film I've seen all year. I checked it out at Austin's South by Southwest film fest and have been laughing ever since. This crazy little Canadian film is about a mad man country rock star in the 1970's who disappears at the height of his career. 30 years later, an album of duets called "Retribution Honkytonkus" is apparently about to be released with new Guy Terrifico recordings so this documentary crew interviews all his old buddies to see if they think he is alive or not. Did he die or didn't he? I won't spoil the ending but you won't be disappointed. I would describe this film as "This is Spinal Tap" in the country music world. It features Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Phil Kaufman, Levon Helm & Ronnie Hawkins along for the ride. Lots of funny moments but "Hump the Drum" is my favorite. GUY ROCKS!

Being an overly ridiculous Gram Parsons/ 'traditional country' fan, I unfortunately purchased this less-than-god awful "honkey-tonkumentary" for five bucks after noticing the names of some of Bakersfield's' best shouting out at me in large font on the front cover. Obviously a smart move, most likely on the part of the distributors of this "turkey" to entice a sucker like myself to give it a look.

I should have known better by the photos of what looked to be a welfare throwback of the great Nudie suits of the sixties and seventies. Seriously, a blind retard would have been a better choice in the set and wardrobe department.

As far as the 'plot' or, lack thereof is concerned it seems as if scenes were just being made up on the spot, reducing what little of a back story that may have at one time existed to laugh less dick and fart jokes(literally) we now so often hilariously see in such blockbuster gems as those one-hundred plus straight-to-DVD new Lampoon movies.

Overall, I could write a funnier and far more entertaining script on what I can only name as a place where this movie belongs-THE TOILET.

Sorry...Go Cry About It.

~G.C.