SOUTHERN GOTHIC NOIR in FILM

I like Southern stuff.

Those of y'all who've been hanging around the Rectory for a while have heard me talking about my favorite hybrid genre - Southern Gothic Noir - for some time now. Give this kid some Flannery O'Connor or some William Gay or some Clayton Lindemuth or Daniel Woodrell and he could hole up for an entire winter, were it not for the fact that Southerners don't really get winters. 

I wrote my own book DIRTBAGS in the spirit of what I call "Southern Gothic Noir," which blends elements of noir with those of Southern Gothic. Dirty people doing dirty things in the Dirty South. 

Well, this summer I decided to up my game a little. I took on a little project called "The HooDoo of Sweet Mama Rosa," a short film based on a short story I had published in ZYMBOL #3 (Currently SOLD OUT). "HooDoo" recruits the elements of Southern Gothic Noir and employs them, same as they would in a book. In our film, Old Poke Billet is a black man who has been mowing yards in a small Southern community for as long as anyone can remember, but little George Sinclair, a 13 yr old white boy, will go to unusual lengths to try and squeeze in on his action. The film stars JW Smith, Rita Gonzalez, Tracey Coppedge, Meredith Sause, Jeffrey Moore and Logan Harrison and is filmed in the Southern town of Durham, North Carolina. It's Southern Gothic Noir through and through.

But I am hardly the first person to do this. Check it out.

TOP TEN SOUTHERN GOTHIC NOIR FILMS

10. GEORGE WASHINGTON (2000, directed by David Gordon Green)

This film takes place in an impoverished North Carolina town. It's gritty and surreal and extremely tragic. What's really tragic is the dude that directed this stunning flick went on to direct Pineapple Express, but I guess we're all just squirrels trying to get a nut in the end. Casting Nick Cage for the title character in Joe probably wasn't a great move, either, but he did a damn good job in George Washington so for that I commend him. 

9. ANGEL HEART (1987, directed by Alan Parker)

Alan Parker made some pretty good flicks, from Midnight Express to Pink Floyd's The Wall and even another great Southern flick, Mississippi Burning, but this hot, steamy flick will forever be remembered as what got Lisa Bonet kicked off The Cosby Show. This movie is Bad Ass. A detective story about a guy who descends into the depths of Hell... er, New Orleans to find the missing Harry Angel and... well, too many spoiler alerts to continue. 

8. SLING BLADE (1996, dir. by Billy Bob Thornton)

It's a strong testament to this film that no human on Earth can watch it all the way through without talking like Billy Bob for the next several hours. The film that gave way to "French Fried Potaters" and "Not Funny Ha-Ha, but Funny Queer" is also well known for its expert use of Southern accents without being farcical. Little Lucas Black kept that accent his entire career and is still working today, bless his heart.

7. THE KILLER INSIDE ME (2010, dir. by Michael Winterbottom)

I've waxed long and hard about how much I love this adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel, especially in this guest post over at Hardboiled Wonderland. This gritty, sociopathic film is steeped heavy in Southern noir tradition. And the darkness and insanity in Lou Ford's head offer a grim hand toward the "grotesque" elements of Southern Gothic. Most folks don't like the movie, but I ain't most folks. 

And neither are you...

6. BLACK SNAKE MOAN (2006, dir. by Craig Brewer)

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Hot, gritty, sweaty, sexy... The music is amazing. Samuel L. Jackson actually learned to play guitar on Highway 61 by Northern Mississippi bluesmen... The title is taken from an old Lemon Jefferson song. The mix of race and religion and sex is a lethal recipe for something dangerous and this fuse gets lit at the very beginning of the movie. 

5. THE APOSTLE (1997, dir. by Robert Duvall)

In one of the stellar acting performances of all time, Robert Duvall is a fucking dynamo as exiled Pentecostal preacher Sonny aka The Prophet E.F. If this flick comes on, I can't look away until well into the ending credits, as this movie refuses to quit. Catch an early performance by Southern stalwart Walton Goggans, and even an excellent turn from former Angel Farrah Fawcett, but don't kid yourself, this movie is all about Robert Duvall.

4. MUD (2012, directed by Jeff Nichols)

I'm calling it now: Go see everything by Jeff Nichols. After the brilliant Take Shelter and then the soon to be classic Mud, this guy is turning out to be my kind of storyteller. Mud is almost color-by-numbers Southern Gothic, and the Mud and Sam Shepard character are straight-up noir. This movie came at the beginning of the "McConassaince," before True Detective and Dallas Buyer's Club, so it's awesome to see him slumming on an indie film again. And bringing it.

3. FRAILTY (2001, dir. by Bill Paxton)

Wha...What? Two movies in a row starring Matthew McConaughey? What did you expect? This film here is one of my all-time favorites. It's got what you need: grotesques, religion, mystical realism... Questioning right and wrong. Dude, if you've never seen FRAILTY, get thee to a Redbox immediately. I don't want to say anything for risk of spoiler alert.

2. WINTER'S BONE (2010, dir by Debra Granik)

This one has everything you need. Early Jennifer Lawrence, a mess of cast members from Deadwood, and a script based on one of Daniel Woodrell's best novels. The entire film oozes despair and the backstory of the Dolly-Jessup feud could potentially fuel fifteen feature films. John Hawkes plays one of the most terrifying Southern characters and I can't say enough about how kickass this film is.

1. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (2012, dir by Benh Zeitlin)

A stunning film and story. I won't ruin it with my words. Go see it and prepare to be blown away.

Eryk Pruitt is a screenwriter, author and filmmaker living in Durham, NC with his wife Lana and cat Busey.  His short film FOODIE won several awards at film festivals across the US.  His fiction appears in The Avalon Literary Review, Pulp Modern, Thuglit, Swill, and Pantheon Magazine, to name a few.  In 2013, he was a finalist for Best Short Fiction in Short Story America. His novel Dirtbags was published in April 2014 and is available in both print and e-formats. A full list of credits can be found at erykpruitt.com. SUPPORT HIS LATEST SOUTHERN GOTHIC NOIR FILM "THE HOODOO OF SWEET MAMA ROSA" BY CONTRIBUTING TO THE INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN: 

Music for your Piehole - Detroit Rock City

Look, it ain't no secret: I got no love for New York City. One thing that really gets my goat is that anywhere you are in America, some transplanted New Yorker (or worse, someone who spent a weekend in New York and now regards themselves more cosmopolitan than need be) will go all up in arms anytime you try and perform one of the most basic American tasks, which is ordering a pizza.

One of my favorites: "Oh, your from Texas so you don't know what good pizza is."

Want to watch a throwdown? Get some asshole talking New York pizza, then throw someone from Chicago into the mix. You know, "The Windy City" did not get its moniker because of the Lake Michigan breeze, but rather because it's a metropolis chock full of braggarts.

Look man, I just like pizza. I like to put it into my mouth and chew it up and swallow it. Why everytime folks try to eat something it has to be turned into some foodie food blog is beyond me. It makes me wonder if there's something in the water up in New York City that turns everyone into a douchebag so they can ruin grinders or knishes or Reuben sandwiches for the rest of the country. But it's pizza goddammit so please, eat it and quit instagramming it.

But I got news for you. There's another kid on the block and he ain't so much about making noise. He's about being cooked and eaten and he knows New Yorkers and Chicagoans and food bloggers and just plain old douchenozzles will freak out at the mere mention of another type of pizza.

I'm talking about Detroit.

Detroit style pizza is some good stuff fella, and it's the revolution that's quietly taking over the country. Originally cooked in auto parts pans, the pizza is crispy and crunchy and a downright pleasure to put into your face. Best I can tell, it started at Buddy's Rendezvous in Hamtramck at 17125 Conant St. (it's still there today). Other pizzerias caught on, including Cloverleaf, Jet's and the Detroit Style Pizza Co. (to name a few).

But the reach is growing. Jet's has put a few shops around the country, including some over in Raleigh. Speaking of Raleigh, you can order Detroit style pizza off a truck at Klausie's Pizza. But the best is probably found in Louisville at a shop called Loui Loui's, where owner Mike Spurlock took and accountant-slash-mad scientist's approach by systematically studying the best Detroit style pizzas and creating his own award-winning recipe. Seriously, Loui Loui's is where it's at.

So there you have it. I could post pictures of my food, or go on and on about what it tastes like by overusing words such as chewy or cheesy or even use made up words like umami or nom nom but I won't because I am not a food blogger; I'm a for-real writer.

What I will do instead is give you some music that will rock your face off. Unless of course you are from New York City. In that case, I have nothing that will help you.

TOP TEN SONGS ABOUT DETROIT

10. "Detroit Rock City" by KISS

Let's just get it out of the way. It's the one you've all heard of and folks will flip their lid if it's not somewhere on this list. So here it is. But I'm sticking to my guns re: Eminem and Kid Rock. Now, let's all join the adults at the Big Table.

9. "Detroit City Blues" by Fats Domino

I double-dog dare you to talk about Detroit and not talk about race. Can't do it. Well, maybe you can, kicking it down in the urban sidewalk beaches of Dan Gilbert-ville, under the watchful eye of the video cameras, sipping on an iced latte or pina colada and saying "Ahh, now THIS is the real Detroit." But as living conditions became increasingly intolerable in the Jim Crow South, more African-Americans migrated northward to urban centers. Where most companies employed discrimination tactics, auto companies such as Ford recruited blacks to assist with labor demands, especially during the periods of World War. Songs such as this from Fats Domino sound as if they had been commissioned by the city to encourage folks to move.

8. "Detroit Special" by Big Bill Broonzy

There's a lot of songs about trains with Detroit in the name. It was a coin flip between this one and "Detroit

GUEST BLOG POST: Gef Fox over at Wag the Fox allows me on his blog!

http://waggingthefox.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-southern-gothic-noir-soundtrack.html

Check it out!

FIVE SUREFIRE AND INEXPENSIVE WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR BOOK

Hey newly published writers! Let's face it: unless you've got a crack marketing and promotions team, it's pretty damn difficult to get your new novel in front of people. Facebook can only do so much, Twitter is what it is, and what the hell is Pinterest anyway?
Ask any agent or publisher and they will really drive home the importance of the "platform." Platform is one of the most overused words in publishing right now, just behind "paranormal romance." The idea behind a platform is that, along with your work, you bring with you enough expertise and automatic sales to successfully sell your book. Like say for instance you are a well-known foodie, then you've got a great platform to sell a cookbook.
But there have to be other ways to get the attention necessary to help you sell a new book. I will give this information to you for only $235. only $65. ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!

TOP FIVE WAYS TO INCREASE VISIBILITY FOR YOUR NEW NOVEL

 

5. A Sex Scandal

Yes, in this day and age, sex still sells. And no kind of sex sells better than the forbidden kind. I mean there sometimes is no better advertisement than getting caught with your dick in something it's not supposed to be in. And even better (for some of you) if there's video proof of said event. But throughout history, there has been no better sales tactic than a good old fashioned sex scandal.

Remember that dude General Petraeus, who fought the Taliban and Al Qaeda and a bunch of other heroic shit? His book did so-so after his tours of duty, but after he got caught with saucy emails... BOOM! That book went off like an IED.

Can you imagine reading Bill Clinton's book had there been no Monica Lewinsky? I couldn't. So if you want to help increase sales and can't afford a top dollar publicist, then go get your fingers in something. But whatever you do, don't forget to get caught!

 

4. An iPhone Video of a Tragedy

Man, these days, no tragedy happens in the world without somebody capturing it on their iPhone or reasonable facsimile thereof. Think about it, if you happen along a burning school bus full of children, whip out your phone and take a picture of it. Better yet, be the ONLY person taking a picture of it. That's right, when Nightline or 20/20 or Al Jazeera show that video on an endless loop, that's your name they have to show in the corner. You can't beat that kind of publicity with a stick. And the bigger the catastrophe, the more visibility you gain from it.

So if you're not lucky enough to wander upon a tragedy, consider creating one. After all, aren't you creative to begin with?

 

3. An Insensitive Tweet or Comment

Think about it. Would you have even known there were Danish cartoonists had they not drawn pictures of the Mohammad? That dude who made the silly video on YouTube got three hundred million more hits than any silly "safe" stuff I'm ever going to produce. No one even remembers liking Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon II anymore, as his later career has totally upstaged the Mad Max days. The sad truth is that one simple insensitive tweet has got legs. It can give you the traction in todays hyperfast world that good, honest work may not be able to generate.

So try it out. There are plenty of pussies out there in the world. Find the group that's right for you to offend. Me, I like going after feminists, because there's usually something stuck up there in the first place. Something like:

"Feminism is just a bunch of silly shit a woman said and did in her past that she's ashamed of now that she's settled down and married."

Or

"Welcome to West Durham, where the women's legs are hairy and the men's aren't."
Or even
"Hey, let's all admit we only fast forward through HBO's Girls to the scenes with Allison Williams."

But that's just for me. You may find it easier to say something insensitive about all sorts of groups. Just make sure you get someone rankled enough to give you the attention you crave.

 

2. Murder Your Wife

This one is tricky. In the state of North Carolina, the wife is technically still classified as your "property," so it is considerably easier to get off the hook for murdering her. HOWEVER, you must be careful, as this is a double-edged sword.

ABC-11 is obsessed with wife-killing murder trials. If you don't believe me, tune in. There's a new one every week. When they can't find one around here, they retry one that got away with it in the past, sometimes three or four times. Lately, there's been a dearth of good wife-killers, so we're borrowing the one in South Africa, Mr. Oscar Pistorius.

But the fact remains: had ANY one of those bastards written a book, it'd be flying off the shelves right now. They wouldn't have to walk into Barnes and Noble, hat in hand, and ask ever so nicely for their book to be carried in stock, placed on the shelf. No, that thing would be on its second or third printing by now.

 

1. A Good Old Fashioned Shooting Spree

 

Eryk Pruitt is a screenwriter, author, and filmmaker living in the woods of Durham, NC with his (still alive for now) wife, Lana and his cat Busey. His new novel DIRTBAGS was just released and he is looking for any way in the world to promote it. Perhaps you can help him. It's available in print, e-formats and hopefully in a tolerant bookstore near you.

LINK TO PUBLISHER: http://www.immortalinkpublishing.com/books.php?id=34

BOOK TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejEmGlhy2PE

GET THE BOOK NOW ON AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JGZHXN2

 

 



THE RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER SUCKS -- And Other Songs about Things Gone by the Wayside

The dinosaurs. The dodo bird. The Polaroid camera. The Twinkie.  Pluto.

In this day and age, perhaps you crave a bit of stability. It's not going to happen. It's a changing world and, in some cases, it changes much faster than you can process. For instance, I sometimes fail to see the necessity to camp out for the latest smartphone because a new one is just around the corner. By the time I get around to upgrading from Vista, I've completely missed Windows 7. And recently I was told "nobody emails anymore."

What???

I look at the speed that things change and I find myself saying the last words a marked man says to the guy come to kill him: "Wait... please wait..."

But there's one thing that is forever and that is music. Since folks first figured out how to record
music, people like Jimmie Rodgers and Lead Belly and The Carter Family have recorded songs that will remain forever and not go away. But while these songs remain, some of the content has faded long ago. And these songs serve as amber encasing these fossilized remains of institutions long past.

Take for example: The Newspaper. Man, nobody loves loved a good newspaper more than me. I grew up in Dallas and watched two daily papers battle it out for business. I even delivered the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald. But since the so-called death of print journalism, I've watched my current paper (The Raleigh News & Observer) get smaller and smaller, while farming content from

THE END IS NEAR: Top Ten Movies about Pandemics, Epidemics, Plagues and the End of the World

Let's face it: We all have to die sometime, so why not at the same time?

Recently a small bout of H1N1 (swine flu) placed me under quarantine at my house and with plenty of time to study the subject in American cinema. I can't help but think we have it easy, perhaps too easy.

Gone are the days of Spanish Influenza (which ended the first World War) and Bubonic Plague (which changed the diet and trajectory of Western Civilization), when a simple sniffle could instantly blank a third of the planet's human population. What we are left with are watered-down illnesses that couldn't hold a candle to their predecessors... the viral equivalent of Kim Jong Un or Raul Castro.

As our planet bursts at the seams due to overpopulation, we must ask ourselves: Isn't it time for a new pandemic? As the burdens of technology and PROGRESS and civilization threaten to smother us, wouldn't a global reset button be nice? With all the blather and rhetoric about end times around the end/beginning of the millenium, shouldn't we be putting the skates on a new world order?

Don't worry, I'm not a virologist or epidemiologist or anyone who made better than a B in any of my science courses. I've not got a master plan to bring about the end of the world. But don't trick yourself into believing that I'm not ready. Whether it be through zombies, nuclear fallout, or a simple strain of some nasty flu, I'm prepared for the end and I repent daily.

So when you feel that tickle in your throat, draw the shades and get thee to a warm bowl of chicken soup. Hit up the Netflix and learn from your predecessors. There are lots of films out there celebrating sickness at the end of the world, and the good right Reverend has them for you right here.

TOP TEN MOVIES ABOUT PANDEMICS, EPIDEMICS, PLAGUES,

and the END OF THE WORLD

10. THE HAPPENING (2008) 

I can see a lot of people getting bent with this choice. Several folks got upset with Shyamalan's lack of explanation, not realizing that we don't care WHAT caused the event, just what happened. If these things were going on, bringing about the end of the world, I probably wouldn't be glued to CNN trying to figure out the science. No, I'd be running for my life. It's called a MacGuffin, y'all.  
The great George Romero never explained what caused the Zombie Holocaust. You know why? It wasn't important. And in the midst of it all, we'd never know either and the not knowing increases the terror. Man, this was a great flick.


9. QUARANTINE / [REC] (2008/2007)
[REC] came first in Spain, then the Americans remade it as Quarantine. Both versions are pretty tight, but if I had my druthers, the fella who made the marketing campaign for the American version would be shot up with SARS. For the trailer, THEY INCLUDED THE FINAL SHOT OF THE FILM. What the hell? Who does that? So throughout the movie, you are waiting for that shot of Jennifer Carpenter being dragged away