The Beaver Trilogy (2000) User Reviews

An Actor Prepares

[cherry-flavored-pez · 6/10 · 6 October 2005]

True, the trilogy is no spectacle (the way most commercialized Americans would like to see a director handle a trilogy), but that's no reason to write it off as unworthy cinema.

Of course, I'm a little biased (being a huge Crispin Glover fan), but I thought this film served a unique and ultimately wonderful purpose...but if you're not studying acting, you may not see the same study material that I do.

Sean Penn and Crispin Glover both do an amazing job inhabiting the skin of this wayfaring Olivia Newton-John enthusiast, and seeing these two progressive talents picking and choosing tidbits of personality detail from the documentary, and then adding their own experience is something that any avid cinema fan should enjoy. A look into the psyche of the actor as well as the portrayed.

Plus there's the irony of impersonating an impersonator, which really just makes me smile.

In short, it's great study material...and entertaining.

This time "unique" really is the right word

[rgcustomer · 7/10 · 10 September 2010]

Whether you mean the star of the show, the two actors who portray him, or the concept of a trio of shorts that are variations on the same sequence of events, this is a unique experience worth watching.

I found the original Larry to be instantly lovable, and I would have been happy had the film ended right there with that single short.

It's probably too late for Owen Wilson to give his rendition of this role. I think it would have been great. It's funny: before I knew Sean Penn was in the second film, I was thinking how like Sean this kid was.

And you do get Sean Penn in an excellent portrayal of him, and Crispin Glover with a darker version of the character. And I'm sure that's Carrot Top in the bathroom, until someone tells me why it isn't.

I read a review (on another blog) by Katherine Follett. I liked her perspective on how the dramatization of events can drift away from reality, at least as perceived by different people. Speaking of one big change, in the fictionalization, I really missed the car. It was a delightful aspect of his personality with the plush interior and etched windows. I guess budget constraints prohibited its inclusion in the subsequent shorts, because it was fascinating, and his floral window engravings of Farrah Fawcett and Olivia Newton-John shed light onto his choice to do drag. I don't buy that it was just for comedy or impersonation, but something deeper.

I found the Kid's repeated protestations that he wasn't crazy to be protesting a bit much, and indicative that something deeper was going on. I suspect that in Beaver, Utah, a person's desire to do drag, or indeed identity as transgender, might be something the good people force deep into the closet. It certainly wouldn't be the first time. Also, an aspiring TV star might not be willing to freely admit if some of the townsfolk disapprove. Getting made up by the mortician suggests a lack of options. Also, the final performance (not in drag) is just awful, and felt forced. Could it have been a way to compensate for the drag act that preceded it, to prove his non-crazy cred? I'm curious whether the second and third films represent the cameraman's genuine feelings at the time, or whether they form a sort of political viewpoint he sought to expose in the audience. Perhaps he added material from the life of someone he knew. Maybe his own life.

Still, I found both fictionalizations unnecessary and inferior. The reality is so much more captivating, and by unfolding chronologically, it doesn't give away its secrets too quickly. In my view, the truth is best revealed in documentary form. You just can't do better than real people doing what they do. Why would you want to?

Unintentional voyeurism

[jp-powell · 10/10 · 8 December 2004]

This is how i felt while watching this film. I loved it. It was hilarious. But i did feel a like i was getting sneaky view into somebody's psyche and then laughing as it got twisted around to make an interesting point. A friend put it this way:

"I feel like we broke into somebody's house and are now watching their awful home videos without their knowledge".

Another one of those fact is stranger than fiction pieces of film. "Groovin' Gary", the original "Beaver Kid", is a small town guy who turns up at a nearby TV station in the hope of getting on film - and he certainly does, though not, perhaps, as he initially expected. With high hopes of fame and significance he invites Harris to come and film a truly awful talent quest that he has organised in his home town - headlined by his own drag act "Olivia Newton-Don".

Director, Trent Harris, does a brilliant job with this slowly evolving story. Some footage of an awkward kid who wants to be someone morphs, over two subsequent reinterpretations, into the story of freedom from repressed sexual identity in small town America. Harris simultaneously critiques the attitudes of small town America, the cult of celebrity, and the exploitative practices of the film and television industry.

Both Sean Penn and Grispin Glover pull out stunner performances. a young Sean Penn is the most evocative - so closely does he follow the actual 'Gary footage', but with strong nuances given to push the sense of the interaction the way Harris wants it to go.

In the end the wide-eyed naivety the original Gary is what moved me - when contrasted against these possible interpretations of his situation.

A film not to miss. I have not seen anything else like it.

Jacob.

I like it.

[frontastic · 10/10 · 30 March 2004]

This movie is amazing for several reasons. Harris takes an extremely awkward documentary and turns it into a relevant social commentary. Groovin' Gary is a small-town kid who is (assumed) well-liked for his many impersonations. When he decides to play Olivia Newton John in a local talent show (for whom he is very passionate), Gary's actions show that he is at odds with the conservative social environment in which he lives. This results in him making various justifications for his actions so that people will not think that he is in fact a transvestite or other such social outcast. In the second installment, Harris exploites the struggle between Gary and Beaver in a novice attempt to make a narrative out of the original documentary. The third and final installment to the trilogy is truly amazing for Harris' extreme sensitivity with the subject. Unlike the second installment, "The Orkly Kid" shows Gary as a truly troubled character. He struggles to gain acceptance within his own community to no avail. His secret passion for dressing like Olivia Newton John distances him even further from the people that already consider him a social outcast. The movie is depicted so realistically that, like reality, it lends itself to many reactions. Surely, one can see Gary as a ridiculously pathetic character, but may also identify with him as an outcast.

Genius!

[badMike · 10/10 · 13 December 2001]

THE BEAVER TRILOGY is, without a doubt, one of the most brilliant films ever made. I was lucky enough to catch it, along with a Q&A session with director Trent Harris, at the NY Video Festival a few years back and then bought a copy off of Trent's website. This movie HAS to be seen to be believed! I sincerely recommend searching for Trent's name on the web and then buying the film from his site. He's an incredibly nice guy to boot. Don't get confused: The cameraman in the fictional sections of THE BEAVER TRILOGY is NOT Trent!

After having seen the TRILOGY a few times, I do have to admit that I could probably do without the Sean Penn version. It's like a try-out version for the Crispin Glover "Orkly Kid" section and is interesting more as a curiosity item if you're a Penn fan than it being a good video. Penn is pretty funny, though, and you can see the makings of a big star in this gritty B&W video.

This is probably also one of Crispin Glover's best roles and I would just love to see an updated documentary about the original Groovin' Gary. Once you see this film, you'll never get Gary's nervous laughter out of your head ever again.

Brilliant

[youaresquishy · 10/10 · 14 February 2006]

If you are a Crispin Glover fan, you must see this. If you are a Sean Penn fan, you must see this. If you are a movie fan in general, you must see this. If you have no idea who Crispin Glover is and you have no idea who Sean Penn is, this film will probably still have a lot of value, but the more work you've previously seen by Crispin or Sean, the better.

This movie is so funny, but it is also pure genius. There is nothing that I know of that resembles this film. It is its own genre. I doubt that anything like it will ever be made again. I cannot say anything more about exactly why without partially spoiling it, and some of the other reviews here have already done a good job at doing that.

In response to any of the reviewers here that gave it a bad review, I ask that you view the film again. In reality, there is no point at which this film could fairly be called "boring." This is possibly the funniest, most entertaining, and least boring film ever made. And it only gets better with age and repeated viewings. A timeless classic that, unfortunately, very few will be able to claim to have seen.

Beaver Trilogy is the brilliant work of director Trent Harris, also responsible for the amazing Rubin and Ed, which Crispin Glover also stars in.

Unfortunately, copies of this film are rare and hard to find. I managed to find a VHS version after some diligent searching though, and there are a couple of ways to find it that I know of. But I really wish someone would put this onto a DVD.

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighly recommended.....

[afkeegan · 10/10 · 9 December 2009]

Yes, this gets the full ten stars. It's plain as day that this fill is genius. The universe sent Trent Harris a young, wonderfully strange man one day and Harris caught him on tape, in all that true misfit glory that you just can't fake. Too bad it ended in tragedy for the young man, if only an alternate ending could be written for that fellow's story. The other two steps in the trilogy do retell the story, with Sean Penn and Crispin Glover in the roles of the young men, respectively. The world is expanded upon and the strangeness is contextualized by the retelling, giving us a broader glimpse into growing up weird in vanilla America. Recommended for anyone and everyone!

A truly excellent film

[daryncash · 30 March 2004]

I became interested in Trent Harris' work because of my interest in Crispin Glover, so I managed to get ahold of a copy of The Beaver Trilogy thinking that even if the film itself wasn't any good, at least it would have Crispin dressed as Olivia Newton-John.

And I was happy to find that the film as a whole was so awesome and stands on its own. Though I can see where some people with small attention spans and/or a complete lack of taste might have a problem sitting through its more quiet moments at the beginning, I find that the mark of a person with respectable taste can be found in their capacity to enjoy Trent Harris films.

This collection also makes a wonderful companion film to Rubin and Ed. Trent Harris is a great filmmaker who is completely underappreciated. I love The Beaver Trilogy.

A broken Record

[gib00 · 2/10 · 9 June 2005]

So, I got a hold of this as an assignment for Trent Harris, who teaches occasionally in the film dept at the U of U. I guess this is his only real way to get anyone to see his film...

The documentary section at the beginning dragged on. Yes, the kid is a nut-job from no where, but that's not good enough to keep it interesting.

Seeing Sean Penn dressed as a ONJ is the only highlight... and after about thirty seconds it loses all humor.

When Crispin Glover takes on Larry, the story-telling was better, but I just couldn't take anymore...

the eighth wonder of the world

[jonathan-577 · 9/10 · 18 May 2009]

There has never been anything like it, that's for sure. This episodic, seemingly redundant trilogy only really makes sense taken as a whole, and as such it is not a movie about Groovin' Gary, Utah cross-dressing sensation. It is very self-consciously a film about how the filmmaker REACTS to Groovin' Gary. For Harris the entire project is clearly an extended and spectacular contortion of guilt and repentance. He's trying to atone for his sins - yes, Gary did attempt suicide after the initial doc was aired - through correction, commentary, and convention, reclaiming such Hollywood-narrative standbys as the best friend and the defiant happy ending (two different ones, with a telling adjustment in the Glover version) and turning them to his own very personal uses. So while thematically it remains a movie about gender and difference, the structure ensures that it is also a movie about MOVIES - but on an almost unprecedented level of complexity. There is just so much going on; in telling and re-telling this story Harris is in the right place at the right time three times in a row, and he doesn't miss the opportunity to make something of it. Immensely moving, and as profound as camp ever gets.

A trilogy like no other.

[Toyer · 9/10 · 26 December 2000]

The short that starts this film is the true footage of a guy named Gary, apparently it was taken randomly in the parking lot of a television station where Gary works in the town of Beaver. Gary is a little "different"; he is an impersonator and drives an old Chevy named Farrah (after Fawcett). Lo and behold the filmmaker gets a letter from Gary some time later inviting him to return to Beaver to get some footage of the local talent contest he has put together, including Gary's staggering performace as Olivia Newton Dawn. Oh, my. The two shorts that follow are Gary's story, the same one you just witnessed only the first is portrayed by Sean Penn and the second by Crispin Glover titled "The Orkly Kid." If you are in the mood for making fun of someone this is definitely the film to watch. I was doubled over with laughter through most of it, especially Crispins performance which could definitely stand on it's own. When it was over, I had to rewind the film to once again watch the real Gary and all his shining idiocy. Although Olivia was the focus, I would have liked to have seen one of the "fictitious" shorts take a jab at Gary's Barry Manilow impersonation, whic h was equally ridiculous.

A Cult Gem With A Young Penn & Glover.

[meddlecore · 9/10 · 17 January 2014]

Three words can best describe this collection of 3 short films- one documentary and two dramatic re-enactments- by Trent Harris, of Rubin and Ed fame: SHEER F**KING BRILLIANCE!!! OK so here's the story...

The first film "The Beaver Kid" (1979) kind of fell into the lap of Channel 2 news cameraman and future filmmaker Trent Harris- you just can't write sh*t like this!! One day while doing a camera test in the Channel 2 parking lot in Beaver, Utah, Harris came across a man who was outside the station shooting photos. When the man, who would turn out to be our protagonist Larry Huff, noticed he was being filmed, he approached Harris and told him that he does impersonations. Harris humoured the man, and got him to do a John Wayne impression for the camera. The tape ended up becoming tangled in the camera, and they had to cut the interview short, but before leaving Harris asked Larry whether there were any other exciting stories in Beaver...and if he knew of any ...to get back to him.

It turns out (as revealed in the subsequent two dramatic re-enactments of the two men's relationship) that Larry had gone to the station that day to try and get on TV; on some expose on locals. Larry was turned down, but fate was in his favour that day and he would achieve the mediated immortality that he so gravely sought- as a result of his happenstance meeting with Harris.

A few months later Harris received a letter from Larry asking him to cover the Beaver talent show- with the headliner being him impersonating Olivia Newton John (with who he is absolutely obsessed). Knowing comedic brilliance when he sees/hears it, Harris quickly agrees and heads back to Beaver to meet Larry.

Harris and his soundman meet up with Larry the day of the talent show as he is getting his make-up done....by the local mortician (the best/only aesthetician in town). As he is getting made up Larry reflects on his adoration for Olivia and discusses what he hopes to achieve with his performance. What he wants most isn't really clear- to become famous...or to become Olivia...

Next we are shown the coverage of the talent show, from which it is revealed how talentless the town of Beaver really is. The act culminates with Huff's rendition of an Olivia Newton John ballad in full dragged out garb. Truly the most embarrassing performance I have personally ever witnessed (except for Crispin Glover's re-enactment in the third film- "The Orkly Kid"). The first film ends here with a final performance by Larry (no-longer in Olivia form) and his band.

The second film, "The Beaver Kid 2" (1981), is a low-budget dramatic re-enactment of the story behind the filming of the original documentary, shot in black and white and starring Sean Penn as "Groovin' Larry". In this film we are provided with a little bit of a back story (which has been incorporated into the above paragraphs) as well as a bit of follow-up information. I don't want to give away TOO much, because it's just way too f**king funny. But I will say this...it is roles like this that have made Penn the infamous actor that he is today!

And Harris wasn't finished yet... Still obsessed by his experience with Huff, he decided to re-make the re-enactment, but this time with a little bigger budget, better equipment, and a young Crispin Glover cast as Larry. This third film is called "The Orkly Kid" (1985) and is a little closer to how the actual events and dialogue are portrayed in the first film, but again with the back and follow up elements of the story included.

The performances by both Penn and Glover in the latter two films are nothing short of hilarious....but Glover's performance as Larry as Olivia Newton John in the talent show is so atrocious that it nearly had me pissing my pants!

You may not be able to write brilliance like this...but you sure as hell can adapt it, as Harris proves!! Sure it's cheese, but who said cheese couldn't be artistic gold. This is a must see....especially if you are die hard Penn or Glover fans.

9 out 10. For both the concept and execution on a budget.

The worst movie I have ever seen

[eklein · 1/10 · 1 March 2001]

It's amazing that this movie turns out to be in one of my hitlists after all. It is by far the number 1 worst movie I have ever seen.

Not only have I ever been this bored before (luckily not for more then 1,5 hours), the pre-adolescent attempts at humor that feature it are not even close to getting but one of the corners of my mouth slightly tilted. After the first very awkward part, you tend to hope that the other parts will be at least slightly better. You hope in vain, it only goes downhill from there.

The movie has no story worth telling whatsoever and repeats this non-story three times. One can only hope that by some miracle all remaining copies of this movie are lost forever and Trent Harris never lays his hands on a camera again...