Pottersville
Dir: Seth Henrikson
2017
***
The best way to break into the Christmas film market these days is to make the film you want to make, make it snow a little and stick a Christmas tree somewhere in the background. In 2017’s Pottersville we are told that Christmas is approaching and are shown a Christmas tree in the final scene but apart from that, it’s about as far from a Christmas film as you can get. Needless to say, it was already doing something right. Pottersville is actually about a gentle shopkeeper called Maynard who, after discovering his wife is a ‘Furry’, gets drunk and dresses up as Bigfoot. Maynard finds his wife in their bedroom (dressed as a bunny) with the local sheriff (who is dressed as a wolf). For those that don’t know, a ‘Furry’ is a person who dresses up in an animal costume of choice and humps other people who are also in animal costumes – although I have been advised that it is more of a fandom thing, rather than a sex thing. I don’t believe that but that’s okay, it’s actually rather sweet in my opinion, although my wife disagrees unfortunately. While stumbling around drunk and dressed as Sasquatch, Maynard (played by Michael Shannon – who is also an executive producer) is spotted by some locals and soon Bigfoot mania hits the sleepy town. When a hack television presenter called ‘Monster chaser’ arrives in town, Maynard feels the pressure but cannot ignore the happiness and profit the situation is bringing to the financially troubled town. The film reaches peak excitement when Maynard sets out to disrupt Monster Hunter Brock Masterson’s (Thomas Lennon) late night hunt, where he, the Sheriff (Ron Perlman) and local hunter Bart (Ian McShane) camp out with the intention of being the first people ever to capture Sasquatch. Things go wrong, someone gets shot and a late night furry meeting gets disrupted. It’s no masterpiece but it is extremely likable. Apart from the Christmas tree, it is only the dreadful 1950s Tom & Jerry music that link it to the awful seasonal film genre. I think it could have been an awful film, had it not been for the rather colourful direction and the more than capable cast. Shannon, Perlman, McShane and Lennon are on fine form and I really liked Christina Hendricks when she was in bunny mode. It is definitely a light-comedy but nothing is forced and all the lovely subtleties that are generally missing from Christmas films come through rather nicely. While I didn’t laugh out loud, there were more than enough funny moments and the whole furry thing was a lovely touch I thought, certainly an unexpected plus and unpredictable delight.