‘Accidental Texan’ Review: Amiably Old-Fashioned Dramedy Showcases Appealing Performance by Thomas Haden Church
variety.comJoe Leydon Film Critic The next time you hear someone complain that they sure don’t make them like they used to, point them in the direction of “Accidental Texan,” an unapologetically old-fashioned feel-good dramedy that, with a few minor tweaks, could pass as a newly rediscovered family-friendly feature from the mid-1970s.
Back then, the lead roles probably would have been filled by the likes of, say, Brian Keith and Kurt Russell. Here, Thomas Haden Church (“Sideways”) and Rudy Pankow (Netflix’s “Outer Banks”) do the honors, and they’re at the top of their game, along with supporting players Bruce Dern and Carrie-Anne Moss.
Undemandingly entertaining, director Mark Bristol’s well-crafted indie can be savored as a heaping helping of palate-cleansing sherbet, best enjoyed between viewings of bigger and louder but by no means better movies.
And yes, that’s meant as a compliment. Things begin with a bang — several bangs, to be entirely accurate — when twentysomething Harvard dropout and budding actor Erwin Vandeveer (Pankow) turns his first big break into a total disaster by failing to silence his cellphone before a dramatic movie scene, thereby triggering explosions of multiple squibs meant to indicate his being on the wrong end of gunplay.
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