Last Sunday on Tubi, I watched Get Low, a 2009 drama directed by Aaron Schneider and co-written by Chris Provenzano, C. Gaby Mitchell, and Scott Seeke. The story is loosely based on a true story about Felix Bushaloo "Uncle Bush" Breazeale. The film stars Robert Duvall as Felix Bush, a man in 1930s Tennessee who has lived as a hermit in a cabin in the woods for 40 years, and the townspeople don't really know him, so they've spread rumors and stories about him for years, saying they've "heard" that he killed in cold blood, or that he's in league with the devil. One day, Felix comes into town in the local church, with a large roll of cash, and asks the preacher if he can have a funeral for himself, but while he's still alive, not after his death. The preacher refuses, finding it sacrilegious, but the local funeral home director Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) is facing financial troubles, and offers to arrange Felix's "living funeral." Felix wants to have the funeral to hear what everyone would say about him after he dies, and to hear what kind of stories they've been telling about him.
As the funeral party is being planned, Frank's assistant Buddy (Lucas Black) is uncomfortable with the arrangements, feeling it isn't right, but goes along with Felix' wishes. He too finds Felix to be a mystery, and as others express skepticism over Felix' reasons for the party (one man [Scott Cooper] thinks that Felix wants to arrange everyone in one room for a mass shooting). Felix sweetens the deal, offering a $5 raffle with his property as the prize.
Things get more complicated when an old story from Felix' past resurfaces, involving a local widow Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek), who was Felix' girlfriend 40 years prior in the 1890s, and her deceased sister, Mary Lee, who she accuses Felix of having been in love with and using Mattie to get to her. With a preacher friend Charlie Jackson (Bill Cobbs), Felix wants to use the funeral party not just to hear what others think of him, but also to tell the truth about something that happened decades prior, for which he feels immense guilt and built his cabin like a prison to sentence himself in all that time.
It's a small film that feels personal and intimate, and like a folk tale that one would tell their children or grandchildren many years later, a story that would turn into a local legend. Robert Duvall was 79 at the time, and delivered one of his best performances late in his career, as this stubborn old man who secretly carries a lot of humanity in his heart. Bill Murray, Lucas Black, and Bill Cobbs were all good, but Sissy Spacek was fantastic, in a supporting role where she challenges Felix on his hardheadedness and makes him confront the past to get out of his self-exile. Spacek has always been such a naturalistic actor, with subtle performances in her senior years that can get taken for granted, and she was great in this film.
I really liked Get Low. I had heard of it when it came out, and it got some critical acclaim, but didn't become a big mainstream hit. But with Duvall's recent passing at age 95, it's gotten some long overdue love, and I'm happy it's getting rediscovered nearly twenty years after its initial release.
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