Austin Found
Austin Found presents itself as a case of déjà vu. To be sure, the narrative about a pushy stage mom who will stop at nothing to get attention for her daughter in a beauty pageant is all too familiar. For the most part, all the characters are types, which would not matter if the movie did not remind one of so many other stories, both true-life (the JonBenét Ramsey murder, HBO’s Living Dolls) and reality TV (Toddlers & Tiaras and Dance Moms), made for TV movies (The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom) and feature films (Fargo chiefly).
“Austin Found,” directed by Will Raee from a script he wrote with Brenna Graziano, boasts a strong ensemble cast that never gets off into peculiar territory. Leanne (Linda Cardellini) wants her 11-year-old daughter Patty to become a star on the kiddie beauty pageant circuit. Patty (Ursula Parker), however, is an intelligent and rebellious child who has no interest in such matters; she delivers a speech at one pageant indicting our culture’s obsession with outer beauty. Leanne does not take kindly to this.
Trapped in an unhappy marriage to an ineffectual man who cannot stand up to her (Jon Daly), she fixates on another beauty pageant family whose daughter was kidnapped and returned: The family got a multimillion dollar book/movie deal out of it. So Leanne decides to stage a kidnapping she will “find” Patty after about 48 hours hoping that the publicity will bring both mother and daughter (but more mother) fame and fortune. Enter Skeet Ulrich as Billy Fontaine, Leanne’s high-school boyfriend now working at an auto-body shoppe post-prison stint; in full femme fatale mode, she pays him a visit and paints herself as a damsel in distress.
Once she has him hooked, Billy enlists his ex-con buddy J.T. (Craig Robinson), and the two of them, wearing ski masks, “break into” the house and “abduct” sleeping Patty, driving her to J.T.’s cabin out in the boonies. Leanne “discovers” the disappearance in the morning; police and press swarm on the home. Leanne is in her element giving tearful interviews while wearing tight clothes and stripper heels. Nancy (Kristen Schaal), a local TV reporter assigned to cover the case, was bullied by Leanne back in high school; she squints at those tears with personal and journalistic skepticism.
The only thing anywhere near this setup that feels like its own story is the surprisingly tender relationship that develops between J.T. and Patty, whom he has “kidnapped.” After serving her pancakes through a terrifying mask that hides his identity (talk about not being able to see what’s right in front of you), they bond over music and video games; Robinson’s presence is always welcome, but here it is especially so he seems to be playing the only adult within a 20-mile radius who possesses a moral compass. The quiet, sweet scenes between Parker and Robinson are full of little surprises, small moments of tenderness and recognition. They recognize each other as kindred spirits it’s an Eden.
Linda Cardellini was Kristen Wiig’s sidekick in the very much underappreciated “Welcome to Me,” and here she plays the “Kristen Wiig role” again one of those women with no psychology whatsoever, for whom the entire world is a mirror, for better and worse. She just wants to see herself reflected back in a way that she feels she deserves. It’s nice to see Cardellini front and center like this.
“Austin Found” is packed with actors it’s always good to see: Cardellini, Robinson, Patrick Warburton, who shows up as the police chief, his performance a lampoon of vanity from beginning to end. It’s really good to see Skeet Ulrich again; he was supposed to be the new Johnny Depp back in the mid-’90s (and now that he’s lost the boy-band looks, he’s getting leaner and meaner), and Jaime Pressly is amazing in her one scene as a woman who has it all exactly the kind of woman Leanne despises. (Kristen Schaal is such a funny presence but is mostly underused here as the roving “girl reporter.”)
In some ways “Austin Found” is about people for whom high school never really ended. Billy Fontaine is still furious over Leanne breaking up with him in high school. Leanne was one of those people who “peaked” at 17 and has been disappointed by life ever since. Nancy still hates Leanne for what happened in high school. High school betrayals, high school disappointments, high school cruelty run the show for these people still. It’s interesting but it’s not really developed; besides Eden in the cabin we’ve seen it all before.
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