Butler's Cinema Scene

Marc Maron, Jon Bass

“SWORD OF TRUST” My rating: B

89 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Lynn Shelton’s “Sword of Trust” is marvelously funny descent into the wacko fringes of modern America, enacted by a superb cast of players who work the material for every droll moment.

Reportedly built on extensive improvisations (the Christopher Guest model) the film opens in a Birmingham pawn shop overseen by Mel (Marc Maron), a morose, cynical guy whose greatest pleasure is buying exotic merchandise on the cheap.

His constant companion is Nathaniel (John Bass), a slack-jawed assistant who wastes most of the business day chortling over Internet videos.

One day they are visited by a lesbian couple, Mary and Cynthia (Michaela Watkins, Jillian Bell) who are interested in selling a Civil War-era sword found in the home of Cynthia’s late grandfather.

The old man left behind an envelope crammed with “documentation” allegedly proving that the sword was surrendered by Gen. Phil Sheridan to one of Cynthia’s rebel forebears.

According to the old man’s scribblings, the sword is proof that the Union lost the War of Northern Aggression.

Michaela Watkins, Jillian Bell

Mel figures the sword is junk until Nathaniel finds a web site operated by memorabilia-collecting zealots determined to disprove the vast conspiracy that maintains the Confederacy lost.

“What is this…” an amazed Mel wonders. “‘Antiques Roadshow’ for racists?”

Before long Mel, Nathaniel, Cynthia and Mary have joined forces to sell the sword to the highest bidder, a decision that has them on the run from a couple of true believer good ol’ boys (Timothy Paul, Whitmer Thomas) and a vaguely threatening character named Hog Jaws (Toby Huss) who kidnaps the quartet so that they can make their case to his millionaire collector boss, Kingpin (Dan Bakkedahl).

Along the way the film repeatedly bursts the pretentious bubbles of Civil War geeks. Our protagonists can never quite get their stories straight.  Did the sword belong to Sheridan or Sherman?  Was it actually surrendered at the battle of Chickenpox? Maybe if they keep talking, nobody will ask.

Aside from skewering “the South shall rise again” know-nothings, “Sword of Trust” is largely fluff.  But it’s great fluff, a consistently entertaining character-driven wonder.

Since delivering the jaw-droopingly good “My Sister’s Sister” back in 2011, Shelton has worked in the fields of episodic TV and struggled to deliver a feature of equal strength.  “Touchy Feely” and “Laggies” were bombs; “Sword” finds her back in fighting fashion, and it’s pretty wonderful.

| Robert W. Butler