Revving up those mowers and making music

Finally a movie about us landscapers. And a darn good one too, we've read.

And if you've ever worked on a mowing crew you know that there's fertile ground for humor, most of it supplied unintentionally by the guys you're working with, right?

The movie is “Mow Crew,” a comedy with lots of original music directed by young filmmaker Taylor Toole. The film is about a young man working on the mowing crew of a landscape company on Martha’s Vineyard. Toole is a Vineyard native. The movie is loosely based on Toole’s adolescent experiences working on a real-life mowing crew for Tea Lane Nursery, an established island nursery and landscape business.

In the movie, the lead character, Eric Campbell, and his girlfriend, Sage, both of them talented musicians, have some tough decisions to make as the summer draws to a close, including whether to stay on the island or take off for Los Angeles where they’ve been promised a record deal.

Adding to the storyline and providing much of the comedy is the ongoing “landscaping war” between Campbell’s mowing crew (with a disaster-prone crew member) and a rival outfit decked out in pink polos and khaki trousers. (Pink polos, puh-leeeze!)

Shot on Martha’s Vineyard in just three weeks in the summer of 2008, the film shows the Vineyard for what it is — both its loveliness and some of its warts, says a review by the island press.

Keep an eye out for it in your city. After all, when was the last time a professional cutter was cast as the lead character in a movie?

Finally, if you've seen the movie, let us know what you thought of it. — LM Editors