Review of Grand Theft Parsons (2004) by Stuart K — 07 Feb 2013

Directed by David Caffrey (Divorcing Jack (1998)), this is an unbelievable true story of what happened to musician Gram Parsons after he'd died. It's a story so unbelievable and shocking, you can't believe this really happened, but it did.

It caused an outrage with the press and public at the time, but the fact the makers have turned into a black comedy may sound disrespectful, but the fact is this approach actually works. Gram Parsons (Gabriel Macht) dies in a motel room in Joshua Tree, California aged only 26 after overdosing on morphine and alcohol, his manager Phil Kaufman (Johnny Knoxville) is distraught, but Parsons' ex-girlfriend Barbara (Christina Applegate) reveals a paper that contained Parsons' wishes on how he would want to be cremated in the Joshua Tree National Park, the body is in Los Angeles, so Kaufman calls upon the help of hippy Larry Oster-burg (Michael Shannon), to go and steal the body, and take it to where Parsons wished to be cremated.

Only thing is, Kaufman hasn't told Oster-burg what they're doing, and the seriousness of this. While some of this does seem a bit too contrived to be true, it's a very enjoyable film, and it turns into a bit of a buddy movie along the way, and the film shares DNA with what was to come in Taking Woodstock (2009), a bit of an underrated gem.