Paint

In Hollywood, timing is everything. Release Paint a decade ago – when filmmaker Jared Hess was at the height of his popularity following movies like Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre – and it would still be a good movie. But release Paint now, when every other film at the multiplex is a three-hour blockbuster sequel and Owen Wilson is undergoing a cultural reevaluation, and Paint is both a breath of fresh air and one of my favorite movies of the year.

Carl Nargle (Wilson) has been Vermont’s most popular public access television painter for decades. Each day, people around the state – bars, retirement homes, and amateur painters – tune in to watch Carl guide them through painting exercises and reflections on life. But when newcomer Ambrosia (Renée) begins to usurp Carl in the ratings, he finds himself caught in a lifetime of regrets – including the breakup from Katherine (Watkins), the manager at the station.

On paper, Paint is supposed to be a sendup of Bob Ross, the prolific painter who spent a decade teaching Americans life lessons through art. But it isn’t that – at least, not really. Wilson’s Carl is his own beast entirely, a man frozen in time between ego and insecurity. While he may play the sensitive artist on the small screen, he continues to paint the same landscapes again and again. Wilson is often hilarious in the film – truly, no one else could take on this role – but Paint creates a three-dimensional character in Carl and lovingly puts him through some very thoughtful paces.

Writer/director Brit McAdams also spends most of the film lovingly poking at amateur production values and shoestring budgets that define public television around the country. In one scene, Carl proposes the Super Bowl of telethons, pitting himself and Ambrosia against each other in a pledge-off that will also determine which painter is the most popular. Once the pledges are collected, the station has earned more than $8,000 dollars from the local community. “And how much did we need to raise?” a character asks. “More than $300,000,” another replies.

In the end, of course, the station is saved. But part of the charm of Paint is that the provincial setting prevents there from ever being stakes to begin with. We are only really asked to grapple with the ego of a single aging painter and the frustrations and fears that come with creating art. We need gentle comedies like this in the world; we certainly need more movies that remind us of why we fell in love with Owen Wilson in the first place. Like the work of Carl Nargle, history will hopefully be very kind to what McAdams has created.