OxfordPress.com

Verdict: A passable, boot-scootin' mockumentary.

Details: Starring Billy Burke, Lauren Graham and Henry Winkler. Written and directed by Jordan Brady. Unrated. 1 hour, 31 minutes.

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Review: Here's a country music spoof that might cause your achy breaky heart to flutter.

The twangy "Dill Scallion," a hit at the Slamdance Film Festival, takes a big, satirical swipe at the Nashville music business. You know, the industry that helped make a one-hit wonder out of Billy Ray Cyrus.

Partly reminiscent of Robert Altman's superior "Nashville," "Scallion" stars Billy Burke as a dumb-as-dirt school bus driver from tiny Muleshoe, Texas, who rockets up the charts with the hit song "You Shared You" and takes the country by storm with a broken-foot dance step dubbed the Scallion Shuffle.

It's a freewheeling tale laced with garish Nudie suits and long sideburns and told in tattered mockumentary form like "Spinal Tap." And though its main star is virtually unknown, the film is packed with familiar faces in supporting roles and cameos, including Kathy Griffin, Henry Winkler, Peter Berg, Jason Priestley, Robert Wagner, Willie Nelson, LeAnn Rimes and Travis Tritt. Grammy winner Sheryl Crow wrote the score.

With so much name talent, it's a shame that "Scallion," made on a shoestring budget of $500,000, never becomes more than it is: a jokey, frilly bit of renegade moviemaking fun. For his mockumentary, writer-director Jordan Brady and crew crashed several concerts and autograph sessions, putting the fictional Dill Scallion in real-life spotlights and letting the crowds roar.

Brady drenches his movie in kitsch — Scallion records one song at an emu ranch — and overloads the script with sometimes witty, sometimes corny one-liners: Speaking of another fictional country star, Scallion says that he's "a great guy and I really like all his hair products." The visual and verbal zingers never let up, from a video rehearsal for the bouncy "Tube Top Boogie" to talk of a benefit performance for "victims of gingivitis."

At one point, a glassy-eyed Willie Nelson shows up at a crowded, real-life festival that's serving as "Scallion's" fictional We Fest. When Burke, clad in full Dill Scallion regalia, asks for an autograph, Nelson mostly just looks confused. Apparently, getting Nelson on camera was more important than what having him on camera would mean to the story.

It's a scene that pretty much sums up the movie's impact.

Kicky? Yes. Deep satire? Not really.

— Bob Longino, Cox News Service

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