Ellington

In "Glorious Mail," Mississippi natives J.D. Evermore and co-writer/co-producer Alice Walker tell the story of Cesar Nutley Willingham IV, an antiques dealer, community theater actor and flamboyantly green-eyeshadowed homosexual from Sinnaville, Miss. Willingham's good friend and artist, Kymeleon Cockerham, has given him a special birthday present: a mailbox.

Therein lays the problem. The artful piece depicts a man bending over, hands on knees, with his bare butt at the mailbox's business end. In mockumentary style, Jewish New York film student Morris Farbstein II, played by Turner Crumbley of Laurel, records the town's reactions to the controversial art.

It's New York meets small-town Mississippi, with everyone getting a dose of farce. Sinnaville's residents, from Willingham's fellow thespians to Bible-thumping preacher Oral Buchanan of the First Church of Divine Righteousness, all have their opinions: The mailbox is art, or it's the devil's work. It is "just" a mailbox, or it has the power to corrupt the innocent. One of the funniest scenes in the movie is a radio segment with Willingham and Buchanan, where the preacher implodes in righteous indignation and fundamentalist tongues at "sissy boy" Willingham's unapologetic defense of his lesbian friend's art.

Crossroads Film Society screens "Glorious Mail" in Hal & Mal's Red Room on Wednesday, July 11, at 7:30 p.m. Call 601-948-0888 for more info.

CORRECTION: Morris Farbstein II was not played by J.D. Evermore. It was played by Turner Crumbley of Laurel.

Previous Comments

ID

84935

Comment

Actually, Farbstein is played by Turner Crumbley of Laurel, not Evermore.

Author

thespis

Date

2007-08-19T22:09:56-06:00

ID

84936

Comment

The correction has been made. Thanks, thespis.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-08-21T07:53:17-06:00