OKIE
(director: Kate Cobb; screenwriter: Kevin Bigley; cinematographer: Wojciech Kielar; editor: Joseph Ettinger; music: Mikal Cronin; cast: Josef Bette (JJ Calhoun), Kevin Bigley (Travis Young), Janet Ulrich Brooks (Wilma Gambie), Scott Michael Foster (Louie Mulgrin), Kate Cobb (Lainey), Michael Waller (Kevin Miller), Dan J. Johnson (Steve Harris), Rochelle Therrien (Bridgette Walker); Runtime: 86; MPAA Rating: NR: producers: Mark Glassgow; Gravitas Ventures; 2024)
“The story is a familiar one and nothing fresh is uncovered.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Kate Cobb in her film debut directs and Kevin Bigley scripts this decent indie drama. They are a husband and wife team.
The story is about the lost soul Louie Mulgrin (Scott Michael Foster), a big-city author who returns as a success to his unnamed rural hometown (filmed in rural Illinois) to collect his late father’s stuff. His novels are about his hometown, and not all depictions of the locals are flattering or true. He used the locals to profit off the stories he manufactured about them.
His old friend Travis (Kevin Bigley), now the town butcher, and his old high school girlfriend, now a struggling single mom, Lainey (Kate Cobb), convince him to stay longer than he intended, and he parties with them and with other old friends.
Despite his success as an author and his upcoming marriage, all’s not right with him. He wonders if he took the right path and would have been better off being true to himself by remaining in his small town.
A solid performance by Foster, but the pacing could have been better and it deserved a better ending than its jarring one which changed the direction of its story. The story is a familiar one and nothing fresh is uncovered. It’s the often told story about a prodigal son returning to his roots and, this time, not finding where he belongs in the world.
