<\/p>\n
\n\tGerman actress Eva Hassmann has crafted an engaging showcase for herself with her debut feature as a writer, producer, director and star. Serving as the opening night film of the Oldenburg International Film Festival, Willie and Me<\/em> is the sort of ramshackle road movie they hardly make any more. Checking your credibility at the door is the best way to experience the film, which serves as Hassmann\u2019s love letter to both Willie Nelson and herself (America, not so much), and features cameo turns by Nelson and the late Peter Bogdanovich in his last screen appearance. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tOpening with a flashback set in 1993 depicting how, as a teenager, Greta coped with her troubled mother by listening to Willie\u2019s music, the film flashes forward to the present, when she\u2019s now married and desperate to attend Nelson\u2019s farewell concert in Las Vegas (as if Willie\u2019s ever going to stop). To that end, she sells her husband\u2019s Porsche for a measly $7,500 to pay for the trip and leaves without telling him, accidentally burning down their kitchen in the process. Needless to say, her abrupt departure is accompanied by Willie warbling \u201cOn the Road Again.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tWillie and Me\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/span> \tA charming if scattershot cinematic mash note. \t\t\t\t\t\t\tVenue<\/strong>: Oldenburg International Film Festival \n\tArriving for some reason in Reno, Greta checks into a motel whose friendly clerk (Bogdanovich) likes to surreptitiously take a nip now and then, and is barely there for five minutes when she runs into \u2014 what else \u2014 an Elvis impersonator, Nick (Blaine Gray), who offers the beautiful foreign stranger a friendly welcome.<\/p>\n \n\tThings only go downhill for Greta from there, as she makes the mistake of getting drunk with a guy who picks her up and wakes up to discover that she\u2019s missed her flight to Vegas and that he\u2019s robbed her. Nick lends her his truck and she sets off on the road again, but doesn\u2019t get far before she falls victim to a female con artist accompanied by three young children who hitch a ride after telling her that they\u2019re \u201con their way to see their dying grandpa.\u201d After instructing her to take a detour in search of a rest stop, they steal her truck and leave her in the desert.<\/p>\n \n\tAs you\u2019ve no doubt figured out by now, credibility isn\u2019t exactly the film\u2019s strong suit (nor would it be likely to be endorsed by the Nevada Department of Tourism), and the narrative only gets loopier from there. \u00a0But much like the songs of Willie Nelson that populate its soundtrack, the film relies on a general uplifting atmosphere as the indefatigable Greta stops at nothing to fulfill her dream. Along the way, she gets bitten by a rattlesnake, is rescued by a mysterious stranger, has a heartwarming up-close-and- personal encounter with her idol and falls for Nick.<\/p>\n \n\tThat the mysterious stranger, whose face seems to be covered in soot, is played by Nelson himself provides an example of the film\u2019s charming playfulness (the episode seems reminiscent of Melvin and Howard<\/em>). Most of the proceedings are too silly for words, but any movie in which you get to see the then-octogenarian singer (he turned 90 earlier this year) exuberantly perform a German folk dance has to be treasured. Formerly a frequent player in films and television movies (he\u2019s terrific in Michael Mann\u2019s 1981 classic Thief<\/em>), Nelson provides such a warm, reassuring presence here that you realize how much he\u2019s been missed onscreen. The concert scenes in which he\u2019s seen performing excerpts of some of his biggest hits are another bonus.<\/p>\n \n\tHassmann, whose film and television credits date back nearly 30 years, proves more accomplished as an actress than filmmaker, with one sequence involving Greta\u2019s car running over a rabbit particularly clumsily handled. But she\u2019s a fine screen comedian, willing to downplay her striking looks with a go-for-broke silliness that proves endearing.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n #Disarmingly #Silly #Slice #Americana #Hollywood #Reporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" German actress Eva Hassmann has crafted an engaging showcase for herself with her debut feature<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1886,1884,1821,1822,1763,1885],"class_list":["post-1339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-news","tag-americana","tag-disarmingly","tag-hollywood","tag-reporter","tag-silly","tag-slice"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WillieAndMe_Still2.jpg",1024,576,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WillieAndMe_Still2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WillieAndMe_Still2-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WillieAndMe_Still2-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WillieAndMe_Still2.jpg",640,360,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WillieAndMe_Still2.jpg",1024,576,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WillieAndMe_Still2.jpg",1024,576,false],"chromenews-featured":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WillieAndMe_Still2.jpg",1024,576,false],"chromenews-large":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WillieAndMe_Still2-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"chromenews-medium":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WillieAndMe_Still2-590x410.jpg",590,410,true],"arpw-thumbnail":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/WillieAndMe_Still2-50x50.jpg",50,50,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Movie News<\/a>","tag_info":"Movie News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Cast<\/strong>: Eva Hassmann, Willie Nelson, Peter Bogdanovich, Blaine Gray, Thure Reifenstein, Darby Stanchfiled
Director-screenwriter-producer<\/strong>: Eva Hassmann
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1 hour 27 minutes\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n