Touch Me in the Morning (1999)
Directed by Giuseppe Andrews
In the midst of starring in studio movies and Oscar bait (Pleasantville, American History X, The Other Sister, Detroit Rock City), twenty-year-old Andrews directed his first feature, which defies every filmmaking convention and breaks all the rules of good taste. Working with residents from his local trailer park, Andrews’ approach to cinema is deliberately awkward and primitive—think early John Waters by way of Bumfights. Touch Me in the Morning’s threadbare plot, in which young drifter Coney Island (Andrews) re-unites with his ex-con father, serves as a framework to explore every atrocity plaguing America’s underbelly—poverty, racism, drug addiction, misogyny, it’s all here. Presented as an absurdist comedy with no one but Andrews appearing to be in on the joke, the final product is a terrifying slice of Americana that predicts and predates Tim & Eric, Trash Humpers, and mumblecore, but exceeds them all in audacity and authenticity. Zach Clark (Jan 16, 22, 7:30pm; Jan 19, 10pm at Spectacle’s Andrews series; this week, the documentary Giuseppe Makes a Movie receives a run at Anthology Film Archives, along with two additional Andrews films)