Jackpot

Sunny Holiday (Jon Gries) is a sad-sack, country-style karaoke singer with delusions of grandeur. In fact, he's so convinced it's only a matter of time before he's "discovered" and swept into showbiz that he has hired a manager (Garrett Morris). But over the course of Jackpot, Sunny slowly realizes he is just an unemployed absentee father who sleeps in a 20-year-old pink Chrysler and drives all over the Southwest trying to win karaoke contests. A nebulously whimsical character study about a man coming to terms with his dreams being dashed, the writing-directing Polish brothers serve up the same kind of artsy-fartsy moodiness found in their 1999 film Twin Falls Idaho. But the style is an ill fit for this simple story, making the film feel conspicuously self-important, and ultimately distracting from the very strong performances by Gries, Morris and Daryl Hannah as Sunny's wronged wife. Ironically, the Polish brothers suffer from the same problem as Sunny himself: they apparently see Jackpot as something more consequential and profound than it actually is. Optional. (R. Blackwelder)