"Tankhouse" - Film Review
Tucker (Stephen Friedrich) and Sandrene (Tara Holt) are two avant-garde theatre actors who live in New York City. They have dreams of creating art that is so radical it will cause a worldwide revolution. Their plan is derailed when an elderly audience member passes away during one of their interactive Shakespeare performances. They’re subsequently banned from performing anywhere in New York City. Without funds to stage their next show, Tucker and Sandrene are lost. Sandrene’s mother (Joey Lauren Adams) tells them that the theater in Sandrene’s hometown of Fargo, North Dakota, is holding a contest to find someone to take over ownership.
Sandrene and Tucker pack up and make their way to Fargo. Most of the people in town who are interested in the performing arts have already joined The Red River Players led by Morton Mortensen (Richard Kind). Tucker doesn’t want to join forces with Morton because Tucker believes theatre must be immersvice, radical, and evocative. Instead, Sandrene and Tucker scout for talent at the local bar where they find a group of oddball locals who want to try their hand at acting.
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Tankhouse attempts to balance absurdism and realism, with less-than-successful results. The film has an artificiality about it that’s hard to shake. It’s supposed to be about a scrappy upstart theatre group, but it lacks a sense of humanity. The script and performances aren’t eccentric enough on their own to be pure comedy. The characters are paper-thin caricatures whose over-the-top mentalities become grating as the movie progresses.
It seems unlikely that two films would premiere in the same year about ragtag theatre groups in North Dakota, but here we are. Tankhouse and Glob Lessons both take pride in filming on location in North Dakota. The films also share a desire to celebrate the absurdity of small-scale theatre productions and the heart that goes into making art a reality. However, there’s a depth to Glob Lessons that elevates it to a touching rumination on human connection, art, and what it means to be passionate.
Tankhouse doesn’t go far beyond the basic concept of poking fun at the oddity that is community theatre. The lack of humanity is the film’s complete downfall. Stories about the ragtag dedication of people making art simply for the sake of creativity must have humanity as the backbone. Without it, the film becomes a series of strange over-exaggerations made simply for the sake of quirkiness.
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