Pawn Shop Chronicles (2013) - Wayne Kramer

Wayne Kramer's Pawn Shop Chronicles is a film that defies plot description by traditional standards but the easiest way to sum it up goes like this:  It's a film of intersecting segments with the common thread being a small Southern small-town pawn shop.  There is a man searching for his kidnapped wife, a pair of white-supremacist meth heads, and an Elvis impersonator who isn't exactly doing well in life.  There is nothing particularly profound or even intelligent about Pawn Shop Chronicles but boy did I have a lot of fun watching it.  Much like Kramer's previous film Running Scared, the direction shows a great ability to understand the type of film he is making, never taking himself too seriously in delivering a chaotic and highly enjoyable experience.  The film is oozing with style and not just the derivative kind, doing a few things that quite frankly I'm not sure I've ever seen before.  Don't get me wrong, Running Scared is definitely more serious than Pawn Shop Chronicles, as this film by and large makes little sense with it's three story-lines that aim more for shock and awe then any true meaning.  In a way I think this film deserves credit for that though, simply creating a bizarre piece of filmmaking that is without question fun, loaded with style and a great sense of humor that is incredibly self aware.
7/10

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