THE PLANTERS gives us the kind of world David Lynch would inhabit if he were a bit more gentle-spirited.
Quirky small-town hijinks are complemented by stop motion fantasy sequences in this deadpan comedy about an unlikely friendship between two twentysomething women, Martha and Sadie. Martha is a shut-in telemarketer who’s actually the jilted heir to the company she represents. When Martha takes in childlike drifter Sadie, she’s not ready for the complications arising from Sadie’s multiple personality disorder. The title comes from Martha’s avocation: burying boxes of, uh, treasure for other residents of their desert hamlet to dig up. Naturally, Sadie “helps.”
Writers/directors/stars Alexandra Kotcheff and Hannah Leder have been bathed with awards on the festival circuit.