A ChucksConnection Film Review

 

Carson MacCormac wears black high top Converse “Chuck Taylor” All Stars in the film.

East of Middle West

 

by Hal Peterson

Chris is a troubled teenager on the run after tragic accident he caused kills a mother and daughter.

 

East of Middle West takes us to a couple of small towns in rural Iowa. There we meet seventeen-year-old Chris (Carson MacCormac) a seemingly normal teenager who already has one strike against him. He lives with his now single mother Diane (Bridgette Bassa) because his father is serving a life sentence in prison. Chris tries to get along in his community. He plays on his high school football team, although he isn’t a starter. The football team is the lifeblood of the town in many ways. It is implied that the team isn’t very good as we don't see plays from the game, but rather the post-game handshakes. Chris wants to be a part of the local football team culture which involves getting drunk on beers at post-game parties and doing pranks around town, like throwing objects out their vehicles to trash property. Chris wants to be accepted as part of the players scene but he is somewhat awkward in his social skills and is only a follower rather than a leader within the team. When someone from that leadership group says to do something, like going out to the supermarket to get a case of beer, Chris goes along because he wants to be accepted. When he is told to throw a heavy object out of the car he follows the order. And this leads to the tragic event that the plot is based on.

 

Chris waits for his mom after the football game.

On the fateful evening, the guys are out on their beer run but as they are leaving the supermarket, one of them has shoplifted a frozen turkey, which turns out to be a very deadly weapon. Chris is ordered to toss the turkey out of the window while he and a teammate are driving on the main highway. He doesn’t want to but is ordered to. A family also returning home from the game is following a distance behind. When Chris throws the turkey out, it picks up a deadly trajectory and smashes into the front windshield of the family’s car causing a fatal accident in which the father Denny (Joris Jarsky) survives but his wife and daughter are instantly killed. When Chris gets out of the car and sees what has happened because of what he has done, it changes his life forever. And his so-called football brother refuses to take any responsibility for what happened. Denny’s life is also changed forever. As the days and weeks go by he cannot deal with what happened. The police don't have any suspects and Denny’s life spirals out of control into depression and heavy drinking.

 

Chris with his uncle Bill.

 

Eventually Chris decides he must leave town. He can’t handle the guilt of what he has done along with his worries that the authorities will eventually catch up with him. And what could he say if they did? There is no way to avoid his responsibility no matter how many times he tells himself that the accident was just that, and he had no intention of harming anyone, especially the killing of a mother and her daughter. He takes off out of town and decides to go to his Uncle Bill’s (Scott McCord) place in the next county. At first Bill thinks he is an intruder, then tell him to leave when Chris won't tell him why he is on the run. But later as Chris is on the highway leaving town, Bill pulls over and tells Chris he has had a change of heart. He brings Chris back to his place and has him do clean up chores to earn some money and says he will help him avoid the authorities. Later he pitches a scheme to Chris, a way to make bigger money, through shoplifting and theft. He tells Chris he only will take from people who deserve it, like he is some modern day Robin Hood. The plan works like this: Bill finds the target, drives Chris there, Chris takes the haul, brings it to the local pawn shop, and they split the cash. For a while things seem to work out. Chris has a place to stay and has cash in his pocket. He even has time to start dating Amy, (Sophie Hoyt) an independent thinker and someone with a no nonsense personality, ironically the daughter of the local sheriff. They can hit it off because she has no idea of Chris’s past, and she sees him as he was prior to the accident, a normal nice teenager. Inevitably all normalcy gives way as the threads of this story rejoin each other in an ending that is filled with many surprises, betrayals, and ultimately tragedy.

 

Amy is the first person Chris can actually connect with.

 

East of Middle West is a very powerful film and its ending will remain in your head for a long time after you view it. Comprised of simple elements and characters, you do not expect this. The film stood out in such a way that it was like a sardonic story by Ambrose Bierce where you think things are going one way until all the threads of the story reconvene and take you back to the cruel realities of life. There are no happy endings here but instead a true American tragedy. There is a lot of great work in this film, starting with the screenplay by Mokotsi Rukundo and the direction of Brian Lucke Anderson. The no name cast is also excellent, led by Carson MacCormac as Chris, a role he portrays with a wide variety of emotions as a teenager who’s life is changed forever by the tragedy he caused and his desire for escape and forgiveness. Kudos also to Scott McCord as Bill, Chris’ con man uncle with his own hidden agenda and Joris Jarsky, the troubled father who lost his family and wants some sort of retribution for the loss he is experiencing. Another tragedy is that this film hasn’t received any major promotion. There is some major talent here going unnoticed. As I post this review, it is only the second one on IMDb. Where are you film critics? Luckily viewers can see this for free on Tubi, although you do have to put up with commercials in jarring places.

Best Chucks Scene

 

The sheriff tackles Chris to take him in custody.

 

Carson MacCormac (Chris) wears black high top chucks throughout the film. Chris is a very troubled character and his chucks remind us that before the tragedy of his current situation, he was a typical teenager dressed in a tee shirt, jeans and a pair of black chucks. Throughout the film they are part of the few possessions he still has — the shirts on his back, jeans, his chucks, and a red bandana. There aren’t a lot of close up shots of his chucks in the cinematography. The two shown here are about the extent of those. These scenes occur at the end of the film, where there are many surprising twists and turns in the story line.

 

A close up of Chris’ chucks after his encounter with Denny.

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