“Do you wanna drink, hey do you wanna party?
Hey, this is old Hank, ready to get your summer started
I cooked a pig in the ground, we got some beer on ice
And all my rowdy friends are coming over tonight”– Hank Williams Jr. via “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight”
Growing up a stone’s throw from the Moonshine Capital of the World, Franklin County, Virginia, you learn a few things about the types of beverages and party supplements that will make an appearance at a high school party. Though I’ve basically been a teetotaler all my life, one never forgets opening the kitchen refrigerator and seeing at least four types of fruit-based moonshine, the stories of classmates who got so drunk they lost their dentures somewhere in the field of their property, or any number of other adolescent shenanigans. For some, though, the party never really quits, even when they proclaim to possess the ability to shut it down whenever they want. This is the world that director/co-writer Jacob Hatley (Ain’t in It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm) invites audiences to experience in his latest project, the drama Rowdy Friends, having its world premiere at the New Orleans Film Festival 2024. Disorienting at times due to a cinema verité-style approach, the raw performance from the lead actor J.D. Cranford, making his cinematic debut, keeps one locked in as plans, best laid and chaotic, lead to unexpected resolution.
After a recent altercation results in arrest, J.D. (Cranford) is bailed out of jail and put into a halfway house. Self-aware enough to admit that he’s only going to stay as long as fits into his whims, J.D. doesn’t exactly bond with his housemates, yet, when one goes missing, that doesn’t stop him from teaming up with housemate Brian (Brian Maynor) to track down the missing man. Neither, of course, realize how this act of compassion may just turn them down a path from which recovery is no longer an option.
Shot in Asheboro, North Carolina, Hatley’s Rowdy Friends features a mixture of experienced and first-time performers, giving the whole of the production a different level of vulnerability. Cranford and Maynor are making their debuts here. The duo differing significantly in age and world-experience have the kind of on-screen chemistry which feels perpetually volatile. J.D. is driven by his temperament, his immediate need; whereas Brian views today’s action as valuable to get him clear of his time and back to his kids. Each man is full of the kind of vinegar that doesn’t do well with challenges, making some of their early interactions as schoolyard as it gets. Thus, when the two unite to go in search of their housemate, the audience believes in Cranford and Maynor’s sincerity as they’re given a shared direction in which to point their aggression and frustration. More than that, though, the script by Hatley and co-writer Thomas Vickers (February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four) blatantly demonstrates their willingness toward violent action (J.D.’s being part of what got him thrown in jail; Brian’s a past he’s trying to get away from), there’re enough moments of gentleness where the audience can truly believe that these two would care enough about their fellow to partner in a quest to find him. Truth be told, the film, though simple in summary, is about far more than what is suggested, taking a turn that’s simultaneously surprising while also directly in line with what the script lays out thematically regarding the three central characters — J.D., Brian, and Carla (Shay Walker (Wendy)) — and their penchant toward addictive behavior.
J.D. Cranford as J.D. in ROWDY FRIENDS. Photo courtesy of New Orleans Film Festival.
It’s no coincidence that Hatley and Vickers titled their film Rowdy Friends and set it within a rural part of North Carolina tucked between Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raliegh. Nor is it a coincidence that the characters that make up the film engage in drinking and drugs with little regard for the law or their own responsibility. Though there’re no press notes available at the time of this review, the title appears to be inspired, at least in part, from the 1984 Hank Williams Jr. song “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight,” a song famously retooled into a Monday Night Football theme. That song features lyrics speaking of women, hot tubs, drugs, and drinking, with a music video that includes comedians Cheech and Chong, and outlaw country stalwarts Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings. Outlaw country as a subgenre of country music was rebellious, pushing back against the style of more produced artists of the 1970s and 1980s, and became beloved in “redneck” circles. In this way, Hatley and Vickers are tying the anti-establishment heroics of Nelson, Kristofferson, Jennings, and Williams Jr., to that of J.D., Brian, and Carla, who desire to give in to their baser instincts without penalty. Unlike these musicians who possess even introspection to address their shortcomings, even if merely through their art, our central three more often speak of their problems as the result of someone else’s action and less their own. Because of this, the place where Hatley and Vickers end the story feels like it should be uplifting in the framing utilized to capture these characters in their final moments, but there feels a shroud of inevitability placed over them, a ticking clock, if you will, of a return to form rather than actual freedom, given their fondness for rowdy behavior.
A singular element that does create struggles with engagement is Hatley’s cinematography. Not the look or color tones, those are natural and absent obvious tweaking to convey thematic tone, but the movement of the camera as it captures the events following J.D.. From start to finish, Hatley keeps Cranford in tight shots, rarely much farther than a mid-range shot, which conveys a sense of intimacy between the audience and the character, but it’s really a tether. Especially when Hatley shoots Cranford from behind, it’s as though we’re trying to catch up with J.D., his movement too fast for us to close the gap. While this means a great deal of attention is given to Cranford and the roadmap of a face he has, it’s truly remarkable what Cranford can do with a look, it means that the camera is freely moving as though Hatley himself wasn’t aware of what J.D. is doing rather than the sequence being staged. This type of camerawork does thematically support Rowdy Friends’s realism, evoking a documentary out of this traditional narrative, but it does make those sensitive to motion a little on the disquieted side due to the frequency of visual turbulence throughout the film. This combined with shifts from one scene to another that rely a little too much on context (like why J.D. is suddenly cutting down trees) results in a general sense of unease as the audience grapples to hold on. It’s not enough to make one disconnect fully from the tale, but it may reduce some audiences’ ability to fully grasp what the storytellers seek to accomplish.
Risk and reward. At first, this is what Rowdy Friends appears to boil down to —what J.D. and company are willing to risk and whether the reward is worth it. Each time they take a drink, do a bump, take a gamble, they risk any number of consequences that range from their health to their freedom and, each time, their reward varies. But, if one turns the film over in their mind awhile, a different notion emerges wherein the film really seems to be about personal satisfaction and internal peace. What does it mean to get the thing you always dreamed of, to be free from whatever perceived shackle you think is placed upon you? Being an outlaw comes at a cost, progressive or transgressive; one cannot live life without paying something to someone, even if it’s to oneself. To that end, Rowdy Friends is as much an exploration of a few days in the life of J.D. as it is what it means when the party stops.
Screening during New Orleans Film Festival 2024.
For more information, head to the official New Orleans Film Festival 2024 Rowdy Friends webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
Amazing movie. Me being in recovery in a halfway house for the first time was reminded why I have to leave my rowdy friends behind in order to recover from addiction. I give it 5 stars