‘Win a Trip to Browntown’ Review

Stars: George A. Tramountanas, Kendra McDermott, Gabriel Conrad, Manoli P. Tramountanas, Eleanor Tramountanas, Heather Reynosa, Phillip Dean Silva, Amelia Samson, Sam Schragel, Kiana Vaziri, Danielle Daggerty, Àngels Ratés, Mel Massey | Written and Directed by George A. Tramountanas

Win a Trip to Browntown is the kind of film that is explained perfectly by its title. If you’re a filthy-minded person who knows what that means then congratulations, you’ve figured out the plot of this film, which follows Frank Tsigas, a middle-aged family man who can only see his life’s shortcomings. To distract him, his soft-spoken wife Laura offers a unique anniversary gift: she offers him the titular trip to brown town if he can lose 50 pounds in three months…

Essentially, in the most simple terms, Win a Trip to Browntown is American Pie for grown-ups!

Of course, American Pie is for grown-ups too, but what I mean by “for grown-ups” is that Win a Trip to Browntown has more adult themes, focused more on the adult experience. This is not a bunch of horny guys looking to get laid, this is a man who’s suffering something of a mid-life crisis; whose career has not gone how he wanted, who dreams of being a writer; but who ignores how good he has his life. It’s a very familiar story but one that is boosted by the ridiculously crude humour. That and the wonderful central performance by writer and director George A. Tramountanas

George A. Tramountanas plays Frank like a loveable oaf, a grown-up version of Jason Bigg’s Jim if you will. They’re both mirrors of each other – in fact, you could recast this film with the cast of American Pie and it would be something of a 20 years later sequel. And that’s NOT a bad thing. The American Pie franchise was a behemoth and still has fans to this day – to be able to recapture the magic of that franchise on a lower budget, with an indie production is remarkable. Especially when you consider how many have tried the same formula and failed epically.

But on the other hand, Win a Trip to Browntown is also – if not for the sex references – very much a family-friendly movie. With values and morals that, again if not for the sex references, would make for very wholesome fare. It’s a brilliant dichotomy, a warm-hearted story about a family overcoming their issues but with “gross-out” references to anal sex, masturbation, and more! But Tramountanas knows how weird that is, in fact he points that fact out at the end of the film in a hilarious meta moment as the film closes.

Frank’s wife Laura is played by a wonderful Kendra McDermott in what is essentially her first leading role – a role she smashes by the way. Whilst Tramountanas plays Frank as the aforementioned oaf, McDermott has to be his perfect foil, his other half, the yin to his yang. In this case it’s listening to her husband’s worries, trying to alleviate them and be sympathetic but also taking care of herself and the couple’s kids. Of course, being sympathetic gets her into this particular predicament; a predicament that she is gleefully tormented about by her friends and McDermott perfectly captures a naivety in her performance, especially when it comes to discussing the sexual aspects of her character’s journey but also in the way that she interacts with Frank. Plus Tramountanas and McDermott have great chemistry together, which helps a lot when it comes to believability… in particular the entire premise of the film!

To be fair, the whole idea of a wife offering her husband an*l sex is merely crude sexual humour on which to hang a sweet story about a man and his relationship with his family – his wife, his daughter and his son – and how his dreams, his life goals can affect them and be affected by them. And Win a Trip to Browntown does all that with aplomb. I loved it!

***** 5/5