I don’t know what’s weirder about “Saugatuck Cures,” a family-friendly comedy set for release on June 30:
- The name, which won’t resonate with 99.9999999% of American moviegoers (and does not exactly roll off the tongue).
- The plot: “Drew and his best friend Brett set out on a road trip to pose as ex-gay ministers using exuberant high jinks to scam churchgoers, all in order to raise money for his mother’s experimental cancer treatment.”
- The only pre-release review I saw (“dynamic … whole-hearted” — Edge). When was the last time you heard a movie described as “whole-hearted”?
- The fact that it was filmed on location in Saugatuck. Okay, not our Saugatuck. This is the one in Michigan. But still.
There is one Westport connection — kind of. The TV evangelist in “Saugatuck Cures” is played by a guy named Kurtis Bedford.
Bonus fun fact: The film’s budget was $200,000 — the caterer’s rounding error for major films.
(Hat tip: Dan Lasley)
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But wait! That’s not the only Saugatuck Westport/Michigan connection.
Alert “06880” reader Kate Davis finally got around to watching “Still Alice.” In the movie, the daughter of Julianne Moore — a woman with early onset Alzheimer’s — performs at the “Saugatuck Theater.”
Intrigued, Kate googled it — and found a link to a “Red Barn Saugatuck” in Michigan.
Is that a Midwest way of remembering that before the Nisticos’ current restaurant by Exit 41, they owned the Arrow down at Exit 17?