Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

The Guatemalan Handshake

Play trailer Poster for The Guatemalan Handshake 2006 1h 37m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
71% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 52% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
A large power outage affects the lives of eccentric residents (Will Oldham, Sheila Scullin) of a small town.

Critics Reviews

View More
Bill Stamets Chicago Sun-Times 06/08/2007
2.5/4
On the index of quirk, this winsome indie scores quite high. Go to Full Review
John Hartl Seattle Times 02/09/2007
2.5/4
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. Go to Full Review
Robert Koehler Variety 01/31/2006
A frustrating example of convention-defying filmmaking that tries too hard to be different. Go to Full Review
Sean Axmaker Seattle Post-Intelligencer 02/08/2007
B
This sweet nothing has invention and personality to spare, not to mention marvelous mysteries, quirky connections and cockeyed running gags. Go to Full Review
Rich Cline Shadows on the Wall 01/10/2007
3.5/5
Deliberately quirky almost to the point of distraction, this offbeat comedy is an enjoyably puzzling film. Go to Full Review
Doug Brunell Film Threat 11/21/2006
3.5/5
An entertaining and visually exciting film. It has an oddly meandering pace that is riddled with quirky characters in weird situations. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
11/13/2015 Gummo meets Napoleon Dynamite. If you are ready to quirk it up, this has many charms. See more 08/28/2011 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? See more 03/15/2011 boring indie crap, can't wait for the next Transformers. See more 05/14/2010 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. See more walter m @Harlequin68 05/14/2010 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. See more 01/24/2010 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. See more Read all reviews
The Guatemalan Handshake

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW
Mobsters and Mormons 75% 76% Mobsters and Mormons Watchlist Monkey Warfare 71% 61% Monkey Warfare Watchlist Going Shopping 41% 40% Going Shopping Watchlist Jiminy Glick in Lalawood 23% 33% Jiminy Glick in Lalawood Watchlist Mutual Appreciation 86% 72% Mutual Appreciation Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

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
Marissa Ronca, Jason Orfanon, Todd Rohal
Screenwriter
Todd Rohal
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 17, 2020
Runtime
1h 37m