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      The Guatemalan Handshake

      2006 1h 37m Comedy List
      71% 7 Reviews Tomatometer 52% 250+ Ratings Audience Score A large power outage affects the lives of eccentric residents (Will Oldham, Sheila Scullin) of a small town. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

      View All (34) audience reviews
      Audience Member Gummo meets Napoleon Dynamite. If you are ready to quirk it up, this has many charms. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member After her boyfriend goes missing a pregnant woman with dozens of sisters all from different mothers enters a demolition derby against her Guatemalan father... and that's just one of many plotlines running concurrently in this bizarre rural community. How to describe this unique movie: maybe it's like what would happen if Wes Anderson rewrote GUMMO as a quirky comedy? Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member boring indie crap, can't wait for the next Transformers. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member I was quite surprised at this movie. I was hoping for something like George Washington, but with humor. Instead, I got something like a light-hearted David Lynch film. There is nothing really provocative in this movie other than the fact that it's lack of purpose leaves the viewer frustrated at having invested so much time in a story that never really pays off. At the end of the film I felt nothing for any of the characters, despite some of them ending up in slightly better situations than those in which they had started the film. The only real thing this film can be merited on is the occasionally wonderful cinematography, but even that must be scored down for the lack of consistency. I'm no prude, but I hate this movie. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review walter m In "The Guatemalan Handshake," Donald(Will Oldham) disappears during a power outage. Two weeks later, his girlfriend Sadie(Sheila Scullin) asks to stay with his father(Ken Byrnes) when she shows up with a broken arm and pregnant after her father(Ivan Dimitrov) kicks her out of the house.(She is not lying when she says she has dozens of sisters as the family car is a school bus.) Wanting to move on, Sadie is introduced to Stool(Rich Schreiber) at the local roller rink where she accidentally breaks his nose. "The Guatemalan Handshake" is an odd comedy with a sense of humor that is occasionally unkind towards its peculiarly named characters. Otherwise, it does tend to celebrate these outsiders' uniqueness. In the end, the movie is salvaged by its offbeat charm. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Although this indie starring Will Oldham starts off interesting enough, adept visuals setting up the more bizarre aspects of a small town's inhabitants, the let down is only moments away. That kind of letdown that some American independent films pride themselves on, it's straining of content for it's surrealistic comedic elements that seem uncommercial but what you end up with is simply a film that excels at being quirky for quirky sake. It's character's so one dimensional they lend nothing to it's paper thin storyline. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The Guatemalan Handshake

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      Critics Reviews

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      Bill Stamets Chicago Sun-Times On the index of quirk, this winsome indie scores quite high. Rated: 2.5/4 Jun 8, 2007 Full Review John Hartl Seattle Times Although Rohal's goal seems to be a rich character study, the movie works best as a celebration of small-town Americana that persists well into the 21st century. Rated: 2.5/4 Feb 9, 2007 Full Review Robert Koehler Variety A frustrating example of convention-defying filmmaking that tries too hard to be different. Jan 31, 2006 Full Review Sean Axmaker Seattle Post-Intelligencer This sweet nothing has invention and personality to spare, not to mention marvelous mysteries, quirky connections and cockeyed running gags. Rated: B Feb 8, 2007 Full Review Rich Cline Shadows on the Wall Deliberately quirky almost to the point of distraction, this offbeat comedy is an enjoyably puzzling film. Rated: 3.5/5 Jan 10, 2007 Full Review Doug Brunell Film Threat An entertaining and visually exciting film. It has an oddly meandering pace that is riddled with quirky characters in weird situations. Rated: 3.5/5 Nov 21, 2006 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A large power outage affects the lives of eccentric residents (Will Oldham, Sheila Scullin) of a small town.
      Director
      Todd Rohal
      Producer
      Nick Panagopulos
      Screenwriter
      Todd Rohal
      Genre
      Comedy
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Apr 17, 2020
      Runtime
      1h 37m