In certain circles of film fans, the movies from Motern Media have a growing, niche audience. Low budget movies produced in the New England area by Matt Farley and Charles Roxburgh and their collaborators. Roxburgh usually directs, Farley stars and scores, and they co-write these opuses, mainly released through their website.
Settling down to watch a Motern Media movie like Don’t Let The Riverbeast Get You! (2012) means overcoming certain limitations such as the uneven sound mix, amateur performers, and cheap special effects. Yet there’s also something disarming and winning about the sense of community here, the peculiar tone of comedy set by Farley’s boyish lead performance, and the writing, which, in this film particularly, has lengthy dialogue that creates an entire world through formal detail and memorable names. Riverbeast has a 1950s B-movie Ed Wood worthy plot with a titular monster plaguing a small, autumnal town; the opening narrator prepares the audience that there will be red flashes on the screen to warn us of the Riverbeast’s scary appearance – basically a guy in a rubber suit. Despite this warning, it’s actually less of a horror movie and more of a small town comedy of manners with the return of Neil Stuart (Farley), “the greatest tutor this town has ever seen,” who left due to being jilted at the altar by his sweetheart and laughed at for sighting the Riverbeast, which no one else believes in or has seen evidence of.
Somewhere between the silly comedy of early Simpsons to the blank satire of Tom Goes To The Mayor, we meet the other citizens of Rivertown USA, everyone from muck-rucking local journalist Sparky Watts to ladies man and big game hunter Ito Hootkins. Also: shout-out to my favourite performer from the last Motern Media movie I’ve seen (Freaky Farley), Kevin McGee as former athlete Frank Stone whose plucky college student daughter Allie (Sharon Scalzo) is being tutored by Neil; McGee has a believably tough exterior, like a football coach you didn’t know could actually act! There’s a wedding, there’s a band reunion, there’s multiple uses explained for kitty litter. This is a lot of fun with big laughs once you get into the spirit of all these weird and wacky shenanigans.
Purchased a copy through Vimeo; I’m looking forward to watching Local Legends, another Motern Media joint. Now if I could only get ‘The River Mud Shuffle’ out of my head! Recommended.
VHS Tracking 