First-time director Tom Vickers teams up with documentarian Jacob Hatley for Clovers. The observational documentary tracks Jennifer Paschal in the aftermath of losing her position as a Randolph County corrections officer, a job she loved. Her husband convinces Paschal to join him in starting a new business venture: a strip mall casino using video games as its hook. Is such a thing even legal? Well, that depends on where one lives.
The “trailer park casino,” Clovers, has a stable of regulars whom the imminently personable Paschal gets to know very well. JD Cranford is smart, but would rather keep getting tattoos and coast by, doing all the drugs. His son’s mom, Sharon McNeil, is convinced she’ll win big at the slots one day. The narrative simply follows these people as they try to escape the fastest-dying town in North Carolina, and how they are actually trapped there.
“The ‘trailer park casino,’ Clovers, has a stable of regulars whom the imminently personable Paschal gets to know very well.”
Clovers runs 94 minutes long. But in that brief timeframe, the filmmakers let audiences in on every facet of these people. Paschal is perky, cheery, and naturally fun. She is also very smart, but stuck because of who she married and family ties. Cranford is fascinating, as a level-headed man who has been married too many times to count. His love of tattoos and body rituals says a lot about why he never got further in life. McNeil might be delusional: after she won $500, she proclaimed that the employees of Clovers “will not see that money again.” No points for guessing where McNeil is in her next scene.
The impressive thing about Vickers and Hatley’s direction is its empathy. They never mock or make fun of these people. Rather, the filmmakers share deep care for these people and how their class status is being wiped away. There is a genuine affection for the subjects here, even when it is clear that some of their troubles were brought on by themselves.
Clovers is not the most rewatchable film, as it is a bit of a downer. But it is an interesting slice of life about wayward people with nowhere to go. That Paschal is self-aware enough to know how and why she’s here explains all one needs to know why she’s the audience guide into this world.
For more information, visit the official Clovers site.
"…never mock[s] or make fun of these people."
