It's Just Movies

— by SEAN GERSKI —

“Humble Pie” has an easy sort of charm about it that grew on me as the trailer unfolded.

While I was watching it, one movie came up in my head as a distant relative: “Napolean Dynamite.” The connection isn’t obvious, but there was just something in “Humble Pie” that reminded me of that movie.

So it wasn’t a great surprise when the words “from the producer of Napolean Dynamite” flashed across the screen right at the end.

Here is the movie’s plot: Tracy Orbison (Hubbel Palmer — who also wrote the screenplay) is a dopey Midwestern guy who excels as a food-stocking professional. He politely and passively passes his days scribbling poems in a notebook during shift breaks and day-dreaming of making something more of himself. He enrolls in an acting class taught by a pompous Z-list has-been (William Baldwin). Things don’t quite go according to plan, though, as a chain of mishaps leads Tracy to take a more active role in his life by mentoring a young thug while fending off his obnoxious mother (Kathleen Quinlan) and indifferent sister (Mary Lynn Rajskub), all the while awkwardly attempting to conquer the elusive driver’s exam and trying to lose “about 10 lbs.”

The movie (which also is known as “American Fork”) has been playing the festival circuit since January 2007. Its release date currently is listed as “TBA 2009,” which obviously isn’t set in stone. It’s a shame, though, because I would actually like to watch the movie.

Click here to see the movie’s review.

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