BRANSON St. Louis Beacon Review

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:21:58 -0800

At the Festival on Nov. 14

By Robert Hunt

BRANSON
Directed by Brent Meeske 1 p.m., Tivoli  (with Meeske and Jackson Cash in attendance)
Posted 6 p.m. Fri., Nov. 13 - I've been to Branson, the clean-cut, God-fearing, traffic-congested, America-firsting Fantasyland in the Ozarks, and I always say if you're forced to choose between it and Hell, go with the one that has the fewer Yakov Smirnoff billboards.
Brent Meeske's fascinating new documentary offers a hard look at the town Bart Simpson described as "Vegas - if it were run by Ned Flanders" and finds a more down-to-earth and slightly depressed place than that suggested by the lights of their star-studded strip. We all know that Branson is home to a unique collection of aging or semi-forgotten performers - Andy Williams, Jim Stafford, several generations of Osmonds - but what about the shows that struggle to stay open and the dozens of aspiring singers and dancers who hit the stage every night but have to take day jobs just to pay the rent?
Meeske's film reveals the less romantic side of living in a town where show business - and show business of a very particular nostalgia-and-family-values sort - is the core of the local economy.
"Branson" steps behind the scenes to look at two struggling shows, "#1 Hits of the 60s" and "Blast." The first has an enthusiastic cast and loyal producers who work hard to keep the show running, despite a lukewarm audience. (They may have had a change in luck since the film was made; they're currently in their seventh season.) The second closes down as the filmmakers watch, leaving two of its performers, a married couple, wondering why they left six-figure salaries in New York for the promise of Midwestern family values.
The real story of "Branson," however, is that of "Jackson Cash," a talented Johnny Cash impersonator with a turbulent past who arrives in Taney County with little more than his guitar and a handful of self-produced CDs. His rapid rise and fall - and rise again - quickly provide a dramatic center for the film.
When the filmmakers first meet Cash, he's facing eviction, going into Mall salons to borrow hairspray and hawking CDs for gas money, but a series of fortuitous events turns him into an overnight sensation, and just as quickly brings him back down to earth. In a few short months, Cash finds a theater, is "born again" on national TV through the efforts of Jim Bakker (another celebrity who has found a second life in Branson) and then nearly loses everything in circumstances that recall the early years of the original Man in Black. Cash, to his credit, is astonishingly frank in discussing his career and his faults with the filmmakers, creating a searingly open portrait of a gifted but troubled artist with more than a fair share of personal demons.
"Branson" is an excellent documentary, not because it pokes holes at the All-American-Country-Hillbilly-Jubilee facade of a town that (to quote "The Simpsons" again) "took 'Nick at Night' and made it a town," but because it illustrates the many dilemmas - from the small struggles of the gung-ho casts of "Blast" and "Hits of the 60s" to the personal turmoil of Mr. Cash - facing anyone who hopes to tap or strum their way to a decent living. Meeske manages to pull out open and honest portrayals of his subjects and, without exploiting their honesty, tells a powerful story.
The trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhnS1pJkaJ8

BRANSON Variety Review

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:00:12 -0700

Though the chintzy stage shows and eccentric performers it documents often seem ripped straight out of a Christopher Guest mockumentary, Brent Meeske's wonderful chronicle of Branson, Mo., performers is something else entirely -- a very funny, very sincere testament to the immense dedication, faith and personal sacrifice that goes into creating forms of art most cultural arbiters would dismiss with a smirk. In many ways a kindred spirit to Sacha Gervasi's recent "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," "Branson" is a pitch-perfect, tremendously affecting documentary that could go far with the right handling.