A quirky little film, Grand Theft Parsons is the story of what happened when country-rock originator Gram Parsons died of a drug overdose in September, 1973. He and his pal Phil Kauffman (not the film director) had pledged that if one died before the other, the survivor would take the other’s body out to the Joshua Tree desert and set it free with fire.
Kauffman went through some shenanigans but eventually made good on his promise. The movie tells of the day, more or less, between Parson’s death and the pyre. Johnny Knoxville does an intersting turn as Kauffman, with Marley Shelton as his girlfriend, Mike Shawver as a druggie with a yellow hearse used to transport the coffin, Robert Forster as the dead star’s dad, and Christina Applegate as Parsons’ uberbitch ex-girlfriend.
Irishmen David Caffrey directs from Jeremy Drysdale’s script and neither really brings much to the party. Honestly the facts of the situation don’t leave them much room to maneuver and in hindsight one wonders if there’s really enough material to justify a 90 minute movie. Sure Parsons was a rock star but by ’73 drug overdoses had taken many greats, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Mama Cass, and he was more of a star to other musicians than the listening public.
not recommended
BillSaysThis 