Marc Menchaca made one of the best Texas films
Marc Menchaca is known to TV audiences for his turns as shady Russ Langmore on “Ozark” and alcoholic police detective Jack Hoskins in “The Outsider.” He also plays Vaughn, a man who simply wants what’s owed him, in the Houston-shot movie “Playing God,” opening Aug. 6. But they may not know that San Angeloborn Menchaca is also a director and writer who, along with Josh Barrett, made the littleknown “This Is Where We Live,” a 2013 film set in the Hill Country that ranks alongside the best movies to come out of the state.
The story of a hard-scrabble family dealing with dysfunction and disappointment, it’s an absorbing ensemble piece in which Menchaca, who also co-wrote the script, plays a visiting handyman who befriends the adult son with cerebral palsy. Though it received some film-festival attention — winning prizes at the Nashville Film Festival and the Heartland Film Festival, nominated for a jury prize at SXSW — it sank without much of a trace upon release. It’s still available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
But Menchaca, 45, says he’s happy with how things turned out. “I think the majority of the response that we got from the film was great, and I occasionally get a message or run into somebody that says something about the film, and that means more to me than most anything anybody else will say,” he said in a phone interview. “I’m proud of what we did.”
These days, he’s more likely to get recognized in public as Jack from “The Outsider.” “I always find it funny when people recognize me from ‘The Outsider,’ ” he said. “I mean, I love meeting people, so I’m fine with it.”