Junior's Groove

It tells the story of Junior Brown (Martin Villafana), an obese musical prodigy and his dysfunctional relationship with his mother (Lynn Whitfield). Despite his passion for music, his mother has clipped the strings from the household piano, which he tries to "play" anyway. To hear himself play, Junior Brown has to visit his music teacher, Miss Peebs (Margot Kidder) or visit the local music store.

When Junior Brown is not playing, he hangs out with an assorted group of outsiders. There's also a tentative romance and some rather surreal visual elements, but with very little to connect the viewer emotionally with the characters or the material.

There's plenty of style and atmosphere, but a noticeable lack of a coherent plot. This is really too bad, because Virgo has a lot of creative ideas. He has also populated the film with an unusual assortment of characters, but he doesn't always seem to know what to do with them (or find a way for a viewer to emotionally connect with them).

The title character is extremely passive. Throughout the film he mostly reacts to the actions of others. When he does take action, its hard to identify with him. This is not simply because the character is obese (actually it's quite admirable on the film's part to focus on people of different physical types), but rather the film's inability to find something in the character's behavior that resonates with the viewer. This makes the film really frustrating to watch. It's as if the filmmaker expects us to connect with Junior Brown, simply because of who he is and his situation. This is not enough.

The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Urbanworld Film Festival. It was also nominated for several other awards, but failed to get much of a release within the United States. If you see the film, you'll understand why. In a word -- odd.