Steelyard Blues

Perhaps the best American comedy since The President's Analyst, mainly because its humour is never imposed, but allowed to develop from the situations in which the characters find themselves. Demolition derby fanatic Sutherland teams up with a gang of junkyard misfits, including Boyle as a nut who dresses up and takes off movie actors, plus Fonda as the inevitable hooker, and they set about resurrecting an old seaplane with the idea of flying away from it all. Humour and paranoia go hand in hand, before the film spirals off into fantasy. There's enough to suggest that it considers itself an allegory on dark America, but this remains sufficiently deadpan to take or leave. Otherwise it's just very funny, full of moments of irrelevant humour. Good soundtrack too, from Nick Gravenites and Paul Butterfield. An impressive first film.