It
is time to kick it analog style with a detective who does not own a cell phone. Frankly, Murphy Dunn does not care how people
take his throw back style. He just isn’t
in a customer service frame of mind throughout Steve Hicks’ Fuzz Track City (trailer here), which screens
during this year’s Dances with Films.
Donning
his leather jacket amid the Southern California summer, Dunn is suffering from
serious “June gloom.” Still grieving his
late mentor-partner “Shakey,” Dunn has also recently separated from his
suddenly pregnant wife, Al Jackson. Dunn’s
veneration of the old school Shakey has him stuck in the 1970’s, but in way,
that makes him the perfect gumshoe to track down a mysterious 45 single. It is not exactly a case he formerly
accepts. However, it is apparently
intertwined with the disappearance of his former high school guidance counselor’s
son. In retrospect, Dawn Lockwood might
not have given Dunn the best counseling, but he still has a school boy crush on
her.
Just
knowing one-hit-wonder Zack Lee and his British New Wave thugs are desperate to
find the privately pressed garage rock McGuffin is enough to give most of the
game away. Nonetheless, FTC’s retro vinyl love is pretty cool,
as are the frequent nods to 1970’s era action movies. Dunn clearly owes a debt to “The Dude,” but
he is more of a loser than a slacker, which at least makes him a fairly
distinctive protagonist.
Indeed,
Todd Robert Anderson is rather engaging as the shaggy dog detective, playing
the born-loser part scrupulously straight.
He also serves as the film’s heart, convincingly pining for Jackson,
mourning Shakey, and sort of-kind of taking not-as-tough-as-she-thinks-she-is
aspiring musician waitress Jo under his wing.
It is also nice to see Dee “E.T.,
Cujo” Wallace [formerly Stone] as Dunn’s mature fantasy client.
