Pottersville (2017)

Pottersville is like a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie that has been drinking moonshine. I say 'drinking moonshine' because that is what Michael Shannon's character Maynard Grieger does after the mild mannered small town shop keeper catches his wife (Christina Hendricks) having an affair with the sheriff (Ron Perlman). What makes the whole thing worse, or at least weirder, is the couple were snuggling in Furry costumes when he caught them. A drunk Maynard improvises a Furry costume of his own and runs through town at night where he is mistaken for bigfoot. The bigfoot sightings bring curious tourists who bring money to the town, hard hit after the closing of the local mill. So Maynard keeps going out at night in his bigfoot costume, eventually attracting the attention of a cable TV monster hunter (Thomas Lennon) who teams up with a famed local hunter (Ian McShane) to try and capture bigfoot, putting Maynard's strange but good natured scheme, and possibly his very life, in danger.

Pottersville is delightfully weird for its first third or so, but the filmmakers aren't able to sustain the concept, more strange twists were needed I think to keep the film sharp and surreal, instead it loses steam and becomes a more conventional comedy/ redemption tale. Shannon plays his character straight, which is really the right choice here. Judy Greer is charming as Maynard's loyal assistant at the general story, and the only person in town who truly seems to appreciate what a good and charitable guy he is. The supporting cast is an interesting mix, they give it a good go, Ian McShane probably being the standout, but again the stories payoff just can't live up to its inspired set up. **