The Heroics of Nate and Company

The Heroics of Nate and Company

Bruce Von Stiers

Nate Skoog is a bit of a loser. He spends his free time hanging out with another loser type of dude named Will Luna. The two of them shoot off fireworks in the park and fantasize about being badass mercenaries.

Nate is the lead character in a new comedy film titled Tapawingo. It deals with issues that are common in films like this. That is friendships and family, leaving small town life and traveling to unknown places and being courageous under the most obscure and abject circumstances.

Nate works part time as a mail boy for an insurance company. A job that his mom got for him. But Nate is not very ambitious. This sort of changes when his boss has him pick up his son from school and take him to a doctor's appointment. Nate gives the kid, Oswald, a ride, and upon dropping him off, meets the badass but beautiful Gretchen.

Later, Nate and Will see Oswald being beat up. They rescue him and then that sets up a whole sequence of events. Nate and Will think that they can become bodyguards/ mercenaries. But would anyone actually hire them?

It seems that the two guys that Nate rescued Oswald from are two brothers, Nate and Noble Tarwater. Why they are hassling Oswald is revealed later in the film.

There are a lot of pieces and parts in the film. There is Nate' s mom, Ramona, and her new boyfriend Tom. It seems that Tom is a pretty good softball player. And he's a bit suspicious of Nate. Maybe Nate is dealing drugs or something? There's Nate's boss, Mr. Eubanks, who only boosts Nate up in order to have him pick up Oswald at school.

And then there's Dot, a secretary at the insurance company who has the hots for Nate. Dot is kind of a punk rocker chick and not necessarily Nate's type. But a set of circumstances occur, and Dot can't get enough of Nate.

There is Nelson Tarwater, who tells Nate that he's after him and the he's bringing in his brother Stoney to help out.

Nate has a budding relationship with Gretchen that isn't probably going to end well as he really doesn't know who she is.

All through the film, there is an undercurrent where Nate wants to broaden his horizons and leave their little town of Tapawingo. It is a small community in Kansas, apparently with not a lot going for it.

At an outing of bingo, Nate expresses his wish to head out west. Will mentions Garden City but Nate says no, Colby. It seems that Colby has actual fireworks stores that are open all year round. And that's a good thing for Nate. If you don't know Kansas geography the city references might not mean anything to you. But I live in Topeka, in the northeast part of Kansas, so I get the references. Garden City is in the southwest part of the state and Colby is in the northwest part of Kansas.

Thrown into the mix are two brothers, Glen and Ben, who end up being allies of Nate just when he needs them.

Jon Heder played Nate. Known for his breakout role, Napoleon Dynamite, he has starred in many films, including one I recently reviewed, Waltzing With Brando.

Jay Pichardo played Will Luna, Nate's best friend. He's been in episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles, Modern Family and Station 19.

Kim Matula played Gretchen. She was in episodes of Sex Life of College Girls and The Bold and Beautiful.

Sawyer Williams played Oswald and real-life brothers George and Paul Psarras played brothers Glen and Ben. Ariel Flores and Jacob Kemp played the two Tarwater brothers who beat up Oswald. Chad Dukes played their older brother Nelson.

Johnny Ray Meeks played Nate's boss Mr. Eubanks. And Amanda Bearce played Nate's mom, Ramona.

Besides Jon Heder, there were three notable actors in the film. John Ratzenberger of Cheers fame played Tom, Ramona's new boyfriend. Gina Gershen played Dot. From co-starring in the film Showgirls to starring in the show Snoops, she has over a hundred-fifty screen credits.

The third notable actor in the film was Billy Zane, who played Stoney Tarwater. He has close to two hundred screen credits from Titanic to The Phantom to starring as Marlon Brando in the film I mentioned earlier, Waltzing With Brando.

Other actors who appeared in the film include Luke Barrett, Reji Woods and Chris Gethard.

The film was directed by Dylan K. Narang. His previous directing credits include Broken English, All I Need and Soundwave. The screenplay was by Narang and Brad DeMarea, based on a story by DeMarea.

The film was produced by Narang and Jeffrey Robinson, who has a ton of screen credits as a first assistant director.

The cinematographer was Jarrod Russell. He's been a gaffer, best boy and lighting technician on a slew of films and television shows, including Lioness and Dopestick.

Other people working behind the camera were Cameron Barrett as the production designer and Jacob Yoffe as the film's music composer. The film was edited by Rex M. Teese.

The film had some really cool period songs. There was I Just Want to Celebrate by Rare Earth, Metal Health (Bang Your Head) and Cum on Feel The Noize by Quiet Riot.

There was also Jungle Fever by the Chakachas, Love Gun by Kiss, Escape (the Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes, Shadows of the Night by Pat Benatar, You're Gonna Kill That Girl by the Ramones, Sunny by Boney M, No Control by Boot Hill, Hocus Pocus by Focus, It's Late by Queen and Limelight by Rush.

Tapawingo was touted as being “Napoleon Dynamite meets The Bodyguard.” I wasn't sure how to interpret that. I mean, the Kevin Costner / Whitney Houston film was a pretty serious film, while Heder's Napoleon Dynamite was anything but.

There is quite a bit of just plain goofiness in this film. Especially as Nate at tim es seems to be a complete space cadet. You can see that the budding romance between Nate and Gretchen will either be sweet and tender or a complete trainwreck.

And the idea of protecting a supposed innocent and being courageous in the face of overwhelming odds is very appealing to most film audiences.

To me, Tapawingo was a funny film, albeit a bit strange. I grew up with a couple of guys like Nate, so I kind of got a feel for the character. I was rooting for him and Grethen. And for Nate to come out a winner in his battle with the Tarwater brothers. I was pleased how the film ended for the most part.

You can now pre-order Tapawingo on Amazon Prime, AppleTV and Fandango at Home.

And you can find out more information about the film, along with a link to the trailer on it's Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/tapawingofilm/?hl=en

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