Teenage Tupelo

I’m keeping this short, since there’s really not a lot to say, but don’t get me wrong, this is excellent! A few weeks ago I sang my praises to the films of John Michael McCarthy, a modern sexploitation filmmaker with films like Superstarlet AD (reviewed here) and Sore Losers. I’ve been trying to hunt this one down for a while, since it was his first which looks like it was shot on really low 16mm. The story deals with a beautiful woman named D’Lana Fargo (D’Lana Tunnell) who is madly in love with a rockabilly musician. When the musician breaks his heart, she escapes from him and her maddening mother and meets three really hot chicks, obviously modeled after the three in Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, who are convinced that D’Lana is a famous star named Topsy Turvy. Meanwhile, the manhunt goes on, driven by her musician lover and her mother, who’s quite an insane woman, trying to get her baby back.
McCarthy was obviously influenced by Lynch’s Wild At Heart for the basis of his story, replacing Cage with the three tough women. But this doesn’t need comparison to a more pretentious movie. Like his previous films, McCarthy is able to inject each of his interests into this picture: rockabilly, sexploitation, hot babes, go-go dancing. He’s a true auteur, and he makes his movies fun by refusing to compromise and making them his way and nobody others. Some of the sound and budget might be on the low, but trust me, this film is one cool, wild ride and doesn’t disappoint.