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Jake's Corner
Reviewed by RaeAnne Marsh
(from the 2008 Sedona International Film Festival, where it world-premiered)
Writer/Director: Jeff Santo
Starring: Colton Rodgers, Richard Tyson, Diane Ladd, Danny Trejo, B.J. Thomas, Tony Longo Cast and credits for this movie include Jake's Corner as Jake's Corner. Writer/director Jeff Santo discovered the town, in Arizona's high desert, through a fundraising effort inspired by his earlier film, This Old Cub (Santo's tribute to his father, Chicago Cubs third baseman Ron Santo): "Wild" Bill Holden set out on a 2,000-mile walk (!) from Prescott, Arizona, to Wrigley Field to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. His route took him through Jake's Corner, where the townspeople not only fed him but put him up for the night. The charm and heart of their generosity kindled a creative as well as emotional response in Santo, and he wrote Jake's Corner to reflect those qualities. |
Jake's Corner has charm and heart aplenty. The town is basically a roadside stop, comprised of a market, a bar and the transient abodes of trailers. It is peopled by misfits who fit together in the family bond called friendship. In typical small-town setting, everyone has idiosyncrasies that are magnified in exactly contrasting proportion to the size of the town - Fran is the quirky recluse who never leaves her trailer, played with gusto by Diane Ladd; Gus is the slightly dim-witted, kindly bouncer, played by Tony Longo; Doc is the bar philosopher, played by B.J. Thomas (Grammy award-winner who also performs five original songs in the movie).
Johnny Dunn, who owns the town's only businesses, brings his 12-year-old nephew, Spence (Colton Rodgers), to live with him in Jake's Corner when the boy's parents (Dunn's sister and brother-in-law) are killed. While trying to figure out how to help Spence deal with the loss of his parents, Dunn is again faced with the earlier loss of his own parents that he never came to terms with. |
The characters are all very familiar. So there is an almost immediate sense for the viewer that we know them. This makes it comforting to the young audience it is aimed at, especially as the story deals with a painful emotion.
The movie has a lot to offer: a moral (two, in fact: family is what you create with people you love, regardless of kinship, and people may be different but they still deserve respect), positive role models (including ex-football star Johnny Dunn, played by Richard Tyson) and obstacles to overcome (from the small challenges like dealing with frat pledges playing nasty pranks to larger ones like dealing with the loss of a close relative). Not to mention a setting that would be enticing to a child of any age looking for the freedom of wide-open spaces. |
Parents looking for an enjoyable entertainment to share as a family could do well to keep this one on their radar. -MPM
Photos by Sylvia Vidaurri; courtesy of the filmmaker.
Filmography links and data courtesy of Internet Movie Database. |
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