A rising country music star spends an evening in Nashville with one of his heroes in Country Gold. Troyal (Mickey Reece) is an up-and-coming country star from Oklahoma, who receives an invite from his idol George Jones (Ben Hall) to come and hang out in Nashville. Upon arriving, Troyal learns that George intends to cryogenically freeze himself and wants Troyal to join him on his final night out.
Country Gold is the latest film from writer/director Mickey Reece (Climate of the Hunter, Agnes), which is the second entry of a loose trilogy that began with Mickey Reece’s Alien in 2017. As the previous film was a mock biopic of Elvis, Country Gold sees Reece himself play a country music star modelled after Garth Brooks. Set in 1994 and presented in a stark black and white, Troyal travels to Nashville to clash minds with his idol George Jones and soon learns that it is possibly not the best idea to meet your heroes.
Despite the title, Country Gold is a film that barely features any country music, other a song Troyal sings while receiving a machine or the film’s very interesting closing credits sequence. Instead, Country Gold features a very Lynchian narrative, which includes a number of asides, such as George Jones talking about his time as a contract assassin or describing with animated accompaniment why you should never order a steak well done. The film is built on the rapport between Mickey Reece and his frequent collaborator Ben Hall, with the end result being a weird, yet satisfying watch.
