Budding Director
Hendersonville’s Jon Russell Cring keeps on cranking a movie a month
by Jim Ridley @countrylifeblog
After January’s comedy Bernee (which has played at regional festivals) and March’s thriller Ought, Budd comes as something of a palate cleanser—a comedy about an English teacher (D.R. Smith) whose classroom meltdown prompts a round of regression therapy with a psychiatrist (Paige Trewitt). Of special note is an appearance by Valri Bromfield, a veteran film and TV comic who performed on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live and worked early on in a comedy team with Dan Aykroyd. Now a Nashville resident and customer-service rep with the Nashville Symphony, she appears in the film as what Cring calls “Budd’s slightly psychotic, masochistic mother.”
Co-directed with Cring’s wife Tracy, who also serves as cinematographer and editor, Budd is said to be appropriate for ages 14 and up. Next up: the high school romance Too, followed by a nine-day shoot this month for the homeless drama $6 Man. If only Terrence Malick worked at this pace. Tickets for the screening are $5; for more information on this and future films, see extraordinaryfilmproject.com.
