Ever been clothes shopping, slipped on a shirt or some boots, and they feel like you’ve worn them before? Even in the crisp newness, there’s a comforting familiarity. That’s how it feels watching Accidental Texan, the first feature in 25 years from Austin filmmaker and veteran storyboard artist Mark Bristol.
His first film, 1999’s media satire Natural Selection, was dragged at the time for being a little too arch and broad. Accidental Texan is broad, too, and relies on every cliché in the Big Book of Texas Tropes, but that doesn’t matter. It’s the familiar story of the city slicker stuck in a small town and befriended by the local rednecks with their rough ways and hearts of gold that we’ve seen before. This here film’s greenhorn is Erwin Vandeveer (Pankow), a rising actor whose star falls real fast after getting canned from his big break. Kicked out of showbiz, he finds himself in West Texas: most specifically, in a little oil town in Taylor County. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows everyone, the local garage is closed until Monday, and the only people who’ll help him are Faye (Moss), the waitress at the local diner, and Merle (Church). The walking embodiment of “aw, shucks, ma’am” old school Texas good ol’ boyism, Merle is the local wildcatter who dubs his new young friend Harvard and pulls him into a desperate scheme to strike it rich before his loans are due.
As a dusty drama with a comedy edge, Accidendental Texan may seem like Doc Hollywood in the oil patch. Yet there’s that twist about none of these characters having anywhere else to go. Pankow gives Harvard a charming “fake it ’til you make it” edge as a man who has just seen his life’s dream go up in smoke, so it makes more than a little sense that he’d stick around to protect the threatened hopes of this grizzled oil man who has shown him some kindness. There’s a touching subtext about fathers and sons in their relationship, and it even gently informs the will-they, won’t-they dance between Merle and Faye.
In adapting Cole Thompson’s 2007 novel Chocolate Lizards, first-time scriptwriter Julie B. Denny makes some entertaining and sensible updates. So, rather than Harvard’s instigating incident being the hoary old gimmick of a bad hand of cards, this time it’s an absurd but plausible and very contemporary on-set screwup that turns him into a pretend wildcatter. Such minor switches only add to the feeling of Merle as a man out of time, a blue denim frontiersman for whom a handshake means more than a paper contract. That makes Church the perfect casting for this kind of old man of the range (although still not as old as the delightfully cranky Dern as a foul-mouthed rancher). Moreover, Denny’s script uses Merle’s experience and Harvard’s naivete to guide the audience through the life of an independent oil prospector, both the technical details and the camaraderie between Merle and his oddball crew that runs as deep as any drill shaft.
There’s an earnestness about Accidental Texan that can only warm your heart. Every moment is predictable, but in Bristol’s capable hands that becomes a strength. Having become so easily invested in this ramshackle found family of drifters – both literal and emotional – even the remotest possibility that they may miss that deadline will leave you rooting for these lost, sweet souls.
This article appears in March 8 • 2024.