2007 SXSW NARRATIVE SHORT! Johnny Barrington’s short “Trout” takes place in a rural corner of Scotland, where a young couple live in a broken-down trailer. He’s a fisherman, but his incompetence results in the loss of his job. She works in a convenience store, where she ogles packaged diapers with hope and rue. He comes home drunk and takes her away from her dinner preparation (a pot of boiled potatoes) to tie her to the bed for some role-playing hoochy-koo. Except that he winds up electrocuting himself (don’t ask) and she’s stuck on the bed while a stray bull comes along and starts banging on the trailer.
Confused? Try deciphering the thick Scottish accents, the weird irrelevancies that seem to come out of David Lynch-land (the dancing bartender, the shopper who insists on one-upping compliments), and the denouement in which the characters survive a fiery explosion with nary a bruise.
Honestly, it wouldn’t hurt to feed “Trout” to the fishes.
