The Alexander City Outlook

20 years of sore ribs paying off

I was driving down the road listening to NPR last week and I heard my up-the-street neighbor George Hardy being interviewed about “Best Worst Movie,” a film that stars him.

NPR stands for National Public Radio. If you say it out loud, please put a little extra umph on the “National” part.

I was sitting in bed last week when ABC’s “Nightline” came on. There was George Hardy’s movie, again. I jumped out from under the sheets, got my camera and took pictures of George on national TV – again with an emphasis on “national.”

Just a minute ago, I checked in with the New York Times’ online movie reviews. There was a photo of George laughing and facing a whole bunch of people who were looking at him and clapping. One guy in the front was shooting video of George.

I know George pretty well. We seem to always be going to the same place at the same time and I’ve spent a fair amount of time talking with him about this movie.

I’ve always had the feeling that George takes his first movie role in “Troll 2” like a high schooler takes a jab in the ribs – he laughs it off in a good natured way, while rubbing his side.

I’m sure George really wanted a movie career.

I can’t blame him. Who doesn’t dream of being a movie star?

Just getting the chance to be in a movie, and to have the starring role, must have been terrifically exciting. Then imagine what it would feel like to have your first big chance universally panned as the worst movie ever made.

That’s a stout rib jab.

So I’m happy for George that his second role is getting so much national attention.

The New York Times movie reviewer Jeannette Catsoulis calls “Best Worst Movie” a “funny-sad documentary about the 1990 horror movie disaster “Troll 2” that “tries to pin down the alchemy that transports a film from reject bin to cult favorite.”

She goes on, “When that goal proves elusive, the director, Michael Paul Stephenson, settles for one closer to home: a touching and at times uncomfortable portrait of people making peace with an unwanted past.”

Think 20 years of sore ribs.

She goes on again, “… Pained in another way is George Hardy, the father in “Troll 2” and this film’s genial anchor. An Alabama dentist overflowing with folksy bonhomie, Dr. Hardy has so fully embraced his belated celebrity that the discovery of an adulation gap prompts a rare moment of mean-spiritedness. ‘There’s tons of gingivitis around here,’ he snips, when attendees at a horror convention fail to recognize him or his movie.”

I think she described George perfectly: funny, passionate and ready for his time in the national spotlight.

Twenty years is long time to walk around with sore ribs.

It sounds to me like that bruise is just about healed up.

Congratulations, George.