Trailer Park Jesus by Sean Gerowin (Let's Rob the Cheese Shop) is an 80-minute light-hearted romantic comedy set in present-day rural Mississippi, although at times you feel as though you've been transported back 20 years. When New Orleans college student Jessie (Garrett Smith) makes an unexpected detour on his way home to Missouri he becomes immersed in a culture that must have been as alien to him as the transition from the Show-Me State to the Big Easy. These serendipitous encounters prove to reinforce his belief in love while serving as a conduit of enlightenment for the park residents.
The screenplay was inspired by true events and is believable without much willing suspension of disbelief. The menagerie of characters epitomize quirk and camaraderie, with Mary (Shanna Forrestall) seeming to have the most sense of the motley cast, as well as the most experience as an actor. What's most impressive is the ease of storyline flow, enabling the viewer to effortlessly enter the lives of lovable misfits who soon experiences their own epiphanies.
Also praiseworthy is the cinematography and location selection. And while the audio is not the strongest technical aspect of the film, the computer graphics frolic gracefully while the few and selective jump cuts, sparse but appropriate aged filter hues, and artfully racked focus is reminiscent of works by Terry Gilliam (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) and David Lynch (Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks). A bit more time could have been spent on editing consistency, but the overall feelings evoked were hit home by the solid directing of such an ensemble of character studies.