Written by Rummel Medina
Photo courtesy of the Savannah Film Festival
With a budget of $50,000, no lighting and no tripod on set “Dixieland” is a pinnacle of independent filmmaking. In his feature film debut, writer and director Hank Bedford tells the story of Kermit (Chris Zylka), an emotionally unstable ex-con who falls for Rachel (Riley Keough) the girl-next-door trying to make ends meet to pay for her mother’s cancer treatment.
“Dixieland” feels very reminiscent of the 2002 Eminem movie “8-mile,” but rather than freestyling through the streets of Detroit we get a very underground view of Jackson, Mississippi. To break up the film — in lieu of rap battles — there are bits of documentary style interviews with locals from Jackson. “We would come across people and they just seemed, like, eternally interesting,” said Bedford when asked about using the interviews in the film. “They’re, like, really willing to just like bear their souls.” These interviews, as unexpected and unrelated to the narrative as they are, help add a much more honest film to the movie.
People’s stories range from a man talking about the idealization of gang culture to a woman very violently explaining how to properly gut and skin a deer. The interviews themselves are spliced in to mirror the current situation of our characters. As Kermit considers getting back “in the game” we see a man discuss the jail time he did for a petty crime after getting away with slinging coke. And as Rachel decides whether or not she should return to stripping to afford her mother’s medical causes an interview plays of a stripper planning to get out of Mississippi once she has earned enough. Rather than take the audience out of the story, these interviews gave a much more honest feel and kept the pace of the movie steady.
The strongest aspect of “Dixieland” is its characters. Kermit and Rachel’s love story — however rushed it might have felt — seemed genuine in the way the actors connected and their dialogue. Having to fit in all the filming in only 18 days, most rehearsal time was probably left on camera. Instead of feeling faked and under-rehearsed, the conversations feel much more genuine due to in character ad-libbing. The real stand out performance goes to Riley Keough, who as the film develops we see she is the true hero of our story. As Rachel, we see her decent into desperation and her rise to ultimate redemption edged on by the hope she gets from Kermit. As Kermit, Chris Zylka does a perfectly average job. His character’s anger management and rough history with his father could have led to moments where the performance could really shine, but besides the on-the-nose southern accent nothing more stands out. The biggest name attached to this movie is Faith Hill as Kermit’s mother, Arletta. Hill does a perfectly suitable job being the voice of (some) reason for her son, but besides being the reason for Kermit’s arrest and the owner of the trailer he lives in there was no true purpose to her character. This is a very common issue throughout the film. There are several characters and cameos (including Steve Earle as Uncle Randy, and RJ Mitte as CJ the drug dealer) that truly serve no purpose in the overall story. Several characters could have easily been cut out to add more depth and screen time to finish up the arc of other supporting characters.
The downside to “Dixieland” are the several unfinished arcs. There are several characters who we are introduced to that never meet a rewarding end or anything near it. More specifically, Spencer Lofranco’s Billy was introduced as a close friend to Kermit but he turns against him for no reason. There is no explanation as to why, no remorse shown in his actions, and we never see the repercussions of his actions. This is true for most of the other supporting characters including Rachel’s sick mother who was the cause for most of the events of the film.
“Dixieland” is a very quickly put together piece of artistic expression. It could have benefited from having more time to flesh out the story, but on the visual side it is beautiful. Every nature shot, conversation and interview is worth watching the movie. If you’re not a fan of indie movies, though, maybe go ahead and skip this one.
