Dancer, Texas—Pop. 81

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Dancer, Texas—Pop. 81 ★★★ 1998 (PG)

Four buddies have to decide if they're going to fulfill the pact they made when they were 11 to leave the eponymous town upon graduating from high school. Each one has a reason to consider sticking around: Keller (Meyer) tkaes care of his widowed grandfather; Terrell Lee (Facinelli) is expected to join the family's failing oil business; Squirrel (Embry) thinks he should care for his alcoholic father; and John (Mills) is a natural at cattle ranching. Coming-of-age comedy deals in honest emotion and humor, and doesn't resort to syrupy sentiment or small-town stereotyping. Texas-born writer-director McCanlies' feature debut. 95m/C VHS, DVD . Breckin Meyer, Peter Facinelli, Eddie Mills, Ethan (Randall) Embry, Ashley Johnson, Patricia Wettig, Michael O'Neill, Eddie Jones, Alexandra Holden; D: Tim McCanlies; W: Tim McCanlies; C: Andrew Dintenfass; M: Steve Dorff.