It's late and I can't stay up much later to write a truly decent "review," but I went to see the documentary called "Burnout" tonight -- featuring our own Kellie Pickler -- in uptown Charlotte.
This is a movie about a monthly auto festival in a small Stanly County town near Albemarle called Oakboro. (It's smaller than Albemarle.)
One of the big attractions is an event where people spin their tires until they produce a huge cloud of smoke and pop the tires. This is called a "Burnout."
They block off an intersection and a local school librarian (for real) hoses down the pavement. Then people take their own cars onto the wet pavement, pop their cars into first gear, then slam on the brakes and accelerator at the same time to make their tires spin. You get a huge cloud of smoke and burning rubber shooting all over the place, until finally the tires give out.
About 25 crazy people do that every month, spending their own money on gas and brand new tires. (New ones burn longer and make more smoke.) They draw a huge crowd of spectators, about 1,500 each time.
But the festival also includes a really amazing classic auto show (the Cruise-In), and if you're into cars, you'll like that aspect. They showed some really beautiful cars. Lots of hot rods, restored classics, and a few super high-dollar cars like Lamborghinis.
None of those cars were there for the Burnout, of course, as doing that to a classic would be a horrible crime.
The festival also has live entertainers. (Hmmm, can you guess who appeared here? Yeah. I'll get to that, hehe.)
But the "Burnout" is what truly makes the festival unique, and the event apparently helped revitalize the town after the biggest employer, a textile mill, closed down the factories a few years ago and moved its operations to another country with cheaper labor.
The town was dying, and only had about a 20 percent occupancy rate downtown. Just a few years after the festival started, they're back to 100 percent occupancy downtown.
The documentary was nicely done. It was full of funny good ol' boys and gals. It makes you wonder if everyone in Stanly County is brimming with homespun humor like Kellie.
This version was like a director's cut, I think, because the film maker said he's going to be spending a few more months editing and expects to cut out about 30 minutes before releasing it.
Kellie's appearances
Now, finally, what you're waiting for ....
Kellie appears SIX TIMES in the version I saw tonight. It's all from one interview session. They're all really brief.
In the first bit she talks about how when you live in a small town it's great that everyone knows everyone, but "everyone knows everyone's business, too."
In another, she talks about how friendly everyone in Oakboro is. She mentions that she entertained there, so I assume she sang at the festival at least once or twice.
In two more she talks about how crazy the burnout is, and how bad it stinks when the rubber from the tires starts burning. She said she didn't plan on taking her own car through the Burnout ... it's "a guy thing."
Finally, at the end, when the credits are rolling the film maker asks her to sing a few notes for him. First time, she does a line from Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man," and it sounded great.
The final little appearance is preceded by some women at the festival talking about how much they love Kellie, but the one being interviewed keeps stumbling trying to say "Pickler." She finally gives up and says something like "I love her, I just can't say her name!
"
The final appearance by Kellie is best of all. She does the same line she did at the auditions from "Broken Wing." She just sounds astoundingly beautiful, I think even more so than at the audition.
At the end, she gives a little smile, and lets out a little "YEAH!"
It really brought me back, because it was like watching the audition again. You can see she's thrilled that someone loves her voice, and that little innocent smile shows how happy that makes her.
At end of the film, the film maker came out to answer questions. He volunteered that he really liked Kellie, thought she had an amazing voice, and that she was just as funny and sweet in person as she appeared on TV.
He said he wasn't sure he had really captured her personality in his film, but I think she was darling, especially in the last segment.
But in a way he's right, because she seems a bit reserved the first few times she appears on film, and there so many funny people interviewed -- the Burnout drivers, the people bringing the classic cars, the spectators, the people who organized the festival, the reporter who first started writing about the event, a Scottish guy who I think does a magazine on classic cars -- that she didn't stand out quite as much as you might expect. But all her bits were from one interview session, so I think it's really outstanding she's in there six times.
Hope that's good for now. I dropped off my email with the film maker so he can send me updates on the documentary. I'll let you know what I hear.
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Here's a link to a story on the documentary (with some video) if you want to know more:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlot...s/15263083.htm
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Here's a link to the Oakboro Cruise-In Web site with pics:
http://www.oakborocruisein.com/
