The facility of an intrinsically certain group and a nostalgic love for a longstanding institution are movie tropes that routinely floor. They convey on a well-known sense of heat, like a decent hug from an previous buddy, regardless of bearing a reasonably stiff formulation: A small enterprise or some heritage web site fortunately carries on prefer it has for many years. A robust determine steps in and threatens to implement trendy, soulless adjustments — typically boasting plans to tear the place down and use its land to construct a strip mall or chilly housing complicated. Stated actual property tycoon, investor, developer, et cetera, is usually defeated by natives who unite to save lots of their favourite institution, inexperienced area, or third place. In some circumstances, a greenback sign-eyed determine adjustments their tune by the tip of the movie, relishing the fantastic thing about shared identification and historic preservation.
These themes are woven into movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Barbershop, and The Muppets (2011). This very particular subgenre is welcoming a newcomer on April 25, 2025. Known as The Salamander King, the Dallas Worldwide Movie Pageant entry follows the eclectic employees of the Austin Municipal Golf Course, a.okay.a. MUNY: a rinky-dink public course that does not adhere to the stuffy code of conduct or conventional values of stereotypical elitist golf golf equipment. Trousers and collars — not to mention shirts — aren’t frequent at MUNY, as its misfit employees and patrons have little interest in a golfcore aesthetic or persona. These Austinites are there to benefit from the sport, get some solar, contact some grass, and bond with their group.
Combating to Hold the Golf Course Bizarre
The Salamander King
3
/5
- Runtime
-
97 Minutes
- Director
-
Austin Nichols
- Writers
-
Drew Waterproof coat
- Comedic actors Ryan Hansen and Dulcé Sloan shine on this candy comedy, infusing their in any other case fundamental characters with wealthy empathy.
- The inherent love for Austin is evident in The Salamander King, with area of interest references and photographs of companies and locales cherished by locals making the movie distinctive.
- The way in which gentrification is highlighted feels generic and lacks variation.
- The backbone of the movie in addition to the quirky character archetypes lack creativeness.
Austin, Texas, has develop into an more and more common metropolis (it is even one of many high 10 locations to reside in America in keeping with U.S. Information & World Report’s 2024-2025 “Greatest Locations to Dwell” rating), and MUNY has been working at a adverse ROI for years. Situated simply 5 minutes away from the downtown space, MUNY’s 130 acres are uber-desirable, and Samantha “Sam” Lambert (Adrianne Palicki), a municipal authorities guide, steps in to shake issues up on behalf of Austin’s Inexperienced Area Authority.
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Naturally, MUNY’s lax golf teacher and passionate Austinite, Ray Mueller (Ryan Hansen), is not too eager on Sam’s inflexible strategy. Ray is an upbeat man-child who lives rent-free in an Airstream trailer parked immediately on the course. He spends his time hiding out within the property’s secret swimming gap, downing Shiner Bock beers whereas instructing newbie golf classes, and gawking on the native strip membership with the boys. Naturally, Kind A Sam — a girl for the town — and Kind B Ray — a person for the folks — butt heads, which makes steering MUNY right into a optimistic ROI tougher than the Don Juan Taco Problem. Sadly for the lovable weirdos of MUNY, the “Hold Austin Bizarre” mantra might should take a backseat for the general public course to see a revenue.
One other Love Letter to One other U.S. Metropolis
The function directorial debut from actor and passionate Austinite Austin Nichols (who you could know from One Tree Hill, The Day After Tomorrow, and Wimbledon) is a transparent love letter to the culturally wealthy Southern metropolis and the oddballs that give it character. Such gusto for a undertaking that celebrates one’s metropolis and honors its quirky residents who maintain sentimentality and inclusion near their hearts could be blinding. Pictures of beloved native spots like Tex-Mex favourite El Arroyo, the historic Paramount Theatre, and “Austin’s premier gentleman’s membership,” The Yellow Rose (which can also be seen from the within in the course of the movie’s first act), cannot masks the truth that the naked bones of The Salamander King‘s plot lack originality.
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The distinctive features of the movie are immediately associated to Austin historical past, because the fictional Austin Municipal Golf Course itself is predicated on the real-life battle to save lots of the Lions Municipal Golf Course. The true MUNY turned the town’s first public golf course in 1924, and, in keeping with Golfweek, “one of many first peacefully desegregated golf programs in America” in 1950. The Salamander King makes slight adjustments. “Austin Municipal Golf Course, based in 1916, is a leisure haven for the folks,” Ray tells Sam throughout a tour. “It additionally has the excellence of being the primary course in Texas to permit ladies on the grounds.” In fact, Sam clarifies that “canine got the identical proper eight years earlier,” certainly one of many nods to Austin MUNY’s imperfection.
A Trusty Band of Misfits Provides Cookie-Cutter Characters
With a long-standing signal that declares “Swingers Welcome!” and the MUNY employees’s tendency to permit a throng of LARPers to battle on the inexperienced property free of charge, The Salamander King has a couple of bits that actually work. They really feel equally silly and intelligent, a profitable combo. Nonetheless, adoration for Austin (with screenwriter Drew Waterproof coat additionally pulling from his experiences, particularly these from Lions Municipal) feels extra genuine than the characters themselves, who really feel like copy-and-paste tropes.
Ray is the free spirit who hates change however may certainly use some. Sam is the realist workhorse, a metropolis beginner who realizes she has a lot to be taught concerning the place she’s making an attempt to sanitize. Sam’s boyfriend is the misogynistic, narcissistic Mr. Flawed who seems to be down on the movie’s main girl and has a stuffy, high-paying job. He is a wealthy Stanford alumnus and A.I. tech bro named Dylan Hench (Justin Chatwin), a person who admires polarizing “alpha males” like Joe Rogan and Elon Musk. Dylan feels particularly on-the-nose, like a tongue-in-cheek joke that is a bit too literal. He is an amalgamation of 2025-specific poisonous male traits, nothing extra, nothing much less.
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All the MUNY employees is a various band of misfits harking back to the forged of Parks and Recreation, as an illustration. Stated misfits see one another as “discovered household,” and it is as lovely as it’s common within the comedy sphere. Comic and former Every day Present correspondent Dulcé Sloan brings her always-impeccable comedic timing and attraction to the position of Roberta Solomon, MUNY’s bookkeeper, buying supervisor, and grill cook dinner. Nonetheless, her abilities and fast wit are arguably under-utilized.
Sure, Even the Snobbery of Golf Can Be Gentrified
Massive adjustments to a rising metropolis usually adhere to gentrification (a core theme of Barbershop 2: Again in Enterprise), negatively impacting lifelong members of a group. As famous by a Curbed piece on the historical past of gentrification, within the Nineteen Eighties, “municipal governments registered that revamping swaths of the town meant more money of their coffers.” This explicit model of gentrification, and consequential class divide, is prevalent in The Salamander King.
When Sam prioritizes polished branding, adjusts costs, enforces a costume code, restricts exterior meals, and banishes the LARPers, MUNY’s complete funds deficit shrinks. Because the funds deficit shrinks, so does MUNY’s soul, attracting preppy white belief fund dudes who drive BMWs and Tesla Cybertrucks. Earlier than Sam sucks the attraction out of MUNY, unaware she’s doing so, Ray spits some unhappy truths:
“The hire on this metropolis has gone up greater than 10% yearly for the final 5 years. There isn’t any free parking wherever near downtown. Each new street has a toll on it. Individuals are bored with getting squeezed, Sam.”
One can perceive why the MUNY employees desires to guard the place that fees simply $30 to putt and hook at any time when. When “older, duller, and whiter” persons are the one ones who can afford to play, it is clear that MUNY because it as soon as was is useless.
Gentrification cuts each methods. (Who would not love shopping artwork galleries and popping into cutesy espresso retailers?) Holding Austin genuinely “bizarre” simply would not align with gentrification. The Texas Observer printed an essay by former Texas State Consultant Wilhelmina Delco in 2019, titled “I’ve Lived in East Austin for 60 Years, and I Do not Acknowledge it Anymore.” She discloses her experiences watching gentrification fade Austin’s once-vibrant Black group over a number of a long time. The Salamander King would not highlight gentrification with a magnifying glass, leaving little room for nuance, however maybe a better degree of element would bitter a lighthearted comedy comparable to this one.
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The metaphorical title of the movie will get defined by Ray and refers back to the early-Nineteen Nineties case of the Austin blind salamander, whose habitat was preserved when native activists argued the land was residence to an endangered species. In The Salamander King, the endangered species is the inventive maverick who calls heritage spots like MUNY their habitat. This message is without doubt one of the movie’s stronger ones; it is a by line that is obvious in even a fleeting point out of Threadgill’s — a.okay.a. the well-known Austin music venue/beer joint that witnessed the start of Janis Joplin’s profession earlier than finally closing down.
These hotter moments are at instances overshadowed by the movie’s predictability and off formulaic construction. Anybody who has seen a comedy may have predicted that Sam and Ray (who’ve a transparent “opposites appeal to” factor brewing) would put their imaginative (Ray) and sensible (Sam) heads collectively to save lots of MUNY, spawning a group fundraising occasion to save lots of the day. The entire “energy of group is mighty” trope is seen in consolation movies like A Bug’s Life, and reveals like Cheers famously champion homey third locations. Although The Salamander King gives little newness, its coronary heart and levity could also be price it for these craving a heartily nostalgic and totally buoyant viewing expertise.
The Salamander King simply had its world premiere on the Dallas Worldwide Movie Pageant. It’ll have a second screening on April 26, 2025, at 8:30 PM. Discover extra data right here and watch this area for details about a future huge launch.