Our Very Own is One to Own
Sweet Coming-of-Age Story Now is Available on DVD
In his writing and directing debut, actor Cameron Watson creates a visual love letter to his hometown of Shelbyville, Tennessee.
In “Our Very Own,” Cameron Watson takes his audience back to a simpler time and place where kids worshipped Sondra Locke, a waitress could safely talk with her tongue hanging out of her mouth and dogs were free to ride on top of automobiles.
Watson, a native of Shelbyville, Tennessee, wrote and directed this good-hearted, sometimes heartbreaking story about 5 teenagers in 1978 who desperately want to leave Shelbyville far behind them and head for the promised land of Hollywood. These kids get so desperate at times that they borrow a car and drive to Nashville just to get the heck out of Shelbyville.
Locke, a former Shelbyville resident, was “discovered” and later became well-known in Hollywood for an Oscar-nominated performance in “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” and her subsequent onscreen and off-screen couplings with Clint Eastwood.
When rumors circulate about Locke’s plans to come back home for the annual “Walking Horse Celebration," Clancy Whitfield (Jason Ritter), his impetuous girlfriend Melora (Autumn Reeser) and their friends search for ways to attract her attention while she’s in town. The best way to do that, they figure, is by creating an outstanding act for a variety show held in conjunction with the other Walking Horse festivities.
Clancy, unfortunately, gets distracted by issues with his father Billy (Keith Carradine). Mr. Whitfield has a drinking problem, one so serious that it keeps him from holding down a steady job and paying the mortgage. He keeps these financial problems hidden from his wife Joan (Allison Janey), who finds out the hard way how broke they really are.
Clancy works hard to find a way out of Shelbyville, but with those problems at home, his awkward and growing relationship with Melora and issues with the local bullies, he might just find himself stuck in that small Tennessee town a lot longer than he’d like.
Based on the real-life experiences of director Cameron Watson, “Our Very Own” is a sweet coming-of-age film and a poignant love letter to his home town. Watson makes an incredibly strong directorial debut here and, according to him, the running gags about the dog riding atop the car and Skillett (Dale Dickey), the waitress with the weird tongue, are 100% accurate.
“Our Very Own” also boasts a stellar cast, including the outstanding Allison Janey and Keith Carradine. Janey is part of some truly heartbreaking and embarrassing scenes, in particular one that takes place at a grocery store checkout.
Simple, true-to-life and very profound, “Our Very Own" is a film that most people will surely dentify with. It's now available on DVD.
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