Stars and Bars ★★ 1988 (R)

O'Connor misfire strands Day-Lewis in the midst of hillbillies. A stuffy English art expert travels from New York to Georgia to price a Renoir, and happens on a bizarre backwoods family marginally run by Stanton. Stereotypical pursuit of humor teeters precariously on the edge of black comedy without actually being funny. Stinky script dooms fine cast to just acting weird in a “Deliverance” sort of way. Based on the novel by William Boyd. 95m/C VHS . Daniel Day-Lewis, Harry Dean Stanton, John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Spalding Gray, Will Patton, Martha Plimpton, Glenne Headly, Laurie Metcalf, Maury Chaykin; D: Pat O'Connor; W: William Boyd.

Stars and Bars • pl. n. [treated as sing.] hist. the flag of the Confederate States of America. It had a horizontal white stripe between two red stripes, and in the upper left corner was a blue field with a circle of seven white stars, one for each of the original seven seceded states.