LAST NIGHT AT THE ALAMO

In just a handful of films, Eagle Pennell lionized those laconic dreamers balanced between ambition and nostalgia who later became Austin, TX’s civic identity.

Eagle’s woozy testament to the comically disenfranchised is a self-medicating rodeo where the heroes ride barstools and pray they can hang on until last call. This legendary dog-eared hangout movie is from a script by Kim Henkel (co-writer of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE), and was filmed in B&W by Eric Alan Edwards (MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO.)

"Written and performed with such verisimilitude and swagger that it seems impossible that director Eagle Pennell, writer Kim Henkel and most of the cast weren't, at least on some level, culling from their own lives and experiences when creating this unvarnished slice of Americana. I don't think it's possible this movie exists without its creative staff having spent more than a few nights bullshitting until last call, crying in their beers, and having barely motivated punch-ups in saloon parking lots. Hard to say whether it works as a deconstruction of rugged Western (toxic) masculinity because of deliberate intent or because its so unflinchingly honest, but either way the myths melt away, the whiskey sets in, and at the end of the night there's nothing but never ending conflict, loneliness and sadness. Nobody gets laid, everyone is fucked. It's also hilarious, and is great to see with a crowd laughing their assess off at the Mike Judge meets David Milch salty dialogue." - Laird Jimenez