Product Details

• Actors: Will Oldham, Ken Byrnes, Cory McAbee, Katy Haywood, Sheila Scullin
• Directors: Todd Rohal
• Format: Anamorphic, Subtitled, Widescreen, Color, Surround Sound, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Benten Films
• DVD Release Date: April 29, 2008
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0012Z368A
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,232 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Guatemalan Handshake (Two-Disc Special Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Surreal, wholly inventive and more than a little eccentric, this debut feature from Todd Rohal doesn't have a traditional narrative structure, though it tells a story of family, loss, loneliness, and friendship with humor and sweetness. A massive power outage in a small Pennsylvania town leads to a series of strange events, starting with the vanishing of resident Donald Turnupseed (Will Oldham, Old Joy). Donald leaves behind a pregnant girlfriend, his aging electric car enthusiast father, and his best friend – a young girl named Turkeylegs (Katy Haywood). The Guatemalan Handshake is masterfully shot and a beautiful film to watch, with richly saturated color and lots of interesting, thoughtful images. While the casting of musician Oldham (Bonnie "Prince" Billy) may bring a certain level of interest to this film, the real star is young Haywood, whose performance provides the emotional core of the movie. Rohal gets lumped in quite a bit with the burgeoning "mumblecore" movement in independent film, but this movie has a lot more in common with David Gordon Green (All the Real Girls) and David Lynch than it does with Andrew Bujalski (Mutual Appreciation). -- Kira Canny

Product Description

One of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film, writer-director Todd Rohal charts strange new cinematic waters with his madly innovative feature debut, The Guatemalan Handshake. Winner of Special Jury Prizes at Slamdance and Torino, Rohal's vivacious feast for the senses "bristles with his anarchic visual language, offbeat humor, ephemeral sense of narrative, circuitous character sketches, and freewheeling sense of mirth" (Baltimore City Paper).

In the confusion following a massive power outage in small-town America, human doormat Donald Turnupseed (actor-musician Will Oldham, OLD JOY) suddenly vanishes, setting in motion a surreal series of events affecting his hapless father, his pregnant girlfriend, a pack of wild boy scouts, a lactose-intolerant roller rink employee, an elderly woman in search of her lost poodle, and his best friend: a ten-year-old girl named Turkeylegs.

Narrated by young Turkeylegs as she pieces together Donald's puzzling disappearance, Rohal's rural tapestry explodes in unforgettable widescreen surprises: a woman attends her own funeral, a childhood TV legend leaps from a cliff, the sun rises sideways, and a bright orange, wedge-shaped electric car changes hands again and again. Chaotically absurd with an underlying poignancy, these droll vignettes come crashing together in a climactic demolition derby that marks the exhilarating debut of an adventurous storyteller.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Freshman Film from Rohal, April 24, 2008

By 

Michael L. White "impossiblefunky" (Westland, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Guatemalan Handshake (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD)

Winner of the Grand Jury prize at Slamdance, this much-anticipated film by wunderkind Todd Rohal fulfills the promise of the writer/director's potential. Picking up where his short films, KNUCKLEFACE JONES (1999) and HILLBILLY ROBOT (2001) left off, THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE serves as another voyage into the creative and colorful mind of Rohal.

Starring Will Oldham as Donald Turnipseed, the singer/songwriter is absent through a good deal of the film, though his presence haunts nearly every scene. Donald has gone missing after an accident at a local power plant. All that's left of him is his father's funny little electric car--which changes hands more often than a novice poker player--memories of him, and his unborn child. Sadie (Sheila Scullin) is the baby's momma. She's going into her third trimester as an outcast from her family after her father, the off-kilter Ivan (Ivan Dimitrov), kicks her out of the house for being a slut. Never mind that Ivan has to use a short bus to transport his fourteen illegitimate daughters.

The film goes back and forth in time, focusing on a wide array of eccentric characters that live in anticipation, or dread, of a big demolition derby. Will Sadie drive Donald's father's car to victory? Will Ivan defeat her? Will Turkeylegs (Katy Haywood) ever be reunited with her friend Donald? Will Ethel Firecracker (Kathleen Kennedy) ever find her lost dog? These questions and more are woven into the rich fabric of THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE.

As to be expected from a Rohal film, nothing can be expected--with the exceptions that any boy scouts in the film will be malicious little punks and that the plot will follow logic of its own. THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE does not disappoint. It's a pleasure cruise of an independent film.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quirky? More like inventive, warm, and unlike anything else!, May 10, 2008

By 

M. Hulot (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Guatemalan Handshake (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD)

Todd Rohal's strange and hilarious THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE played on the festival circuit for a couple years (where I first saw it and let me say it's one of the most out there indie films I've seen), earned a loyal cult following, and yet now that it's on home video as a wicked awesome 2 DVD set, it's still an underground surprise nobody knows about!!! I Googled what the the pros are saying about Benten Films' new DVD.

"One of the most inventive, most poetic, most disarmingly authentic indies of the last few years... Why was "Napoleon Dynamite," with its relatively stereotypical uber-misfit, a hit, while this 2006 daydream foundered out of sight?"
- Michael Atkinson, IFC NEWS

"We meet people with funny names and see images that make us laugh and snap the elastic of our underpants, but the root of this film's strength is the sad beauty of loneliness and loss that sneaks inside our heads when we lose our power... Subject now for discovery by ancillary markets, alternative distribution, word-of-mouth recommendation and happenstance exposure, I predict that this film will not only endure the savage b**** of festival rejection and media neglect, but will find itself the harness of inspiration for artists to come."
- David Gordon Green, director of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS

"Rohal manages a tone of vague melancholy (and a few laugh-out-loud offhand bits), and it's possible to see all the weirdness as an honest, sideways grasp at magic... a gorgeous 2-disc DVD from the new label Benten Films."
- Mark Asch, THE L MAGAZINE

"Here is a film that operates on the same logic that compelled Benjamin Franklin to recommend the turkey, rather than the eagle, as a symbol for the newly formed United States; it holds no illusions about itself, and its idea of majesty is decidedly against the grain."
- David Lowery, DRIFTING

"A revelation! THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE holds a place in my heart that is normally reserved for Easter candy."
- Jared Hess, director of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quirky fun, June 18, 2008

By 

Josh Rothman (Montclair, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Guatemalan Handshake (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD)

I saw this at the South Side Film Festival in Bethlehem, PA, and I've loved it ever since. I was so excited to see it come out on DVD, I had to get it right away!