An ode to small-town joys
Rated R. On Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play and other platforms. 108 minutes.
“Phoenix, Oregon” is a film of forbidden pleasures, and by that I mean that it features people mingling socially, in close quarters, over food and drink. In normal times, Gary Lundgren’s charming if slight drama (available on demand), in which a man overcomes a midlife crisis by reviving a defunct bowling alley, might not register as much more than feel-good entertainment. But during our current pandemic, the film’s ode to small-town camaraderie and the joys of a local hang is rather poignant.
Bobby (James Le Gros) lives in a trailer and, when he’s not bartending at a failing Italian restaurant under a cheapskate boss, is working morosely on a sci-fi graphic novel about his divorce and mother’s death. Then his high-school friend and co-worker Carlos (played with crackling enthusiasm by Jesse Borrego) pitches him an idea: What if they revived their beloved old bowling joint and served Carlos’ world-class Neapolitan pizzas?
A few too many threads emerge for a film of such muted, low-key realism to tie together satisfactorily: Bobby’s bowling artistic ambitions, his romance with a wine dealer (Lisa Edelstein), the betrayals of a slimy investor (Reynaldo Gallegos). On occasion the movie detours into Bobby’s graphic novel, illustrated beautifully by Vince Rush, but for the most part “Phoenix, Oregon” is plainly made with wide shots and talky scenes. The victories of its characters are humble, and their setbacks resolved fairly easily. It’s all a bit uneventful, but it works as an endearing portrait of average life: sometimes up, sometimes down, but moving steadily along.