TANKHOUSE (2022)

TANKHOUSE tells the story of a flamboyant but heterosexual theatrical actor and producer and his actress girlfriend, who are run out of New York City in shame and wind up finding new adventures and greater purpose in Fargo, North Dakota. TANKHOUSE is a screwball farce that overcomes too much silliness in its first half to become a highly original and very funny comedy, but it’s marred by a Romantic Non-Christian worldview and a non-sexual portrayal of a male homosexual couple, two supporter characters.

Tucker Charlemagne (Stephen Friedrich) is an avant-garde theatre actor and producer in New York City who runs a troupe with his girlfriend, Sandrene (Tara Holt). All is going well on their artistic terms until one night, a shocked old lady has a heart attack and dies right in front of a theatre critic, ruining their show engagement and driving the couple out of town in shame.

Sandrene is from Fargo and asks Tucker to move there with her and start over. As soon as they arrive, they find that an old movie palace that would be perfect for theatrical shows is about to be given away to the winning troupe in a theatre contest.

Tucker is driven to win the contest. He assembles a ragtag group of performers, including a Swede who speaks hilariously broken English, a blind man who ruined his own eyes by do-it-yourself laser-pointing in an attempt to fix a problem, and two closeted young men who are extremely close friends. There is also a far too shy female stage manager who looks ready to explode at any moment in frustration. They take over a decrepit storage space called the Tankhouse and make it their theatrical home.

The troupe’s main competition comes from another troupe run by Mr. Masterson (Richard Kind), Sandrene’s former high school acting teacher. He ruthlessly wants to win the contest and employs a spy from his team to find out what Tucker’s team is doing and then sabotage them.

Also, Sandrene’s high school boyfriend finds her in town and tries to win her over by making an audition video reel for a major TV audition. Tucker’s jealousy and Sandrene’s waffling feelings for the two men stirs up one final level of comical conflict.

Can Tucker win the theatre? More importantly, can he win back Sandrene’s heart? Will they all survive the nonstop obstacles that seem to befall them?

TANKHOUSE is an outright farce, which is a genre that’s rarely if ever made in recent years. Director/Co-Writer Noam Tomaschoff overcomes an annoyingly over the top first half to deliver an uproarious, occasionally touching second half.

Stephen Friedrich’s performance as Tucker is a comical marvel to behold. He steals the movie outright. His nonstop hilarious facial expressions and ability to deliver numerous speeches with perfectly calibrated condescension is a master class in comic acting. The supporting cast of weirdoes is also top-notch and very funny.

However, TANKHOUSE has a strong Romantic worldview about art and personal relationships, with some light biblical, redemptive content stressing forgiveness and sacrifice. There are also two or three scenes where two homosexual men come “out of the closet,” argue about the way they did it, then kiss and hold hands. Also, the two leads are living together. Aside from that, there’s literally no other lewd or graphic content. TANKHOUSE does have some light comical violence. For instance, Tucker tries to teach a big man how to throw a punch on the stage, but the man ends up actually punching him in the jaw.

MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for the movie’s Romantic worldview, homosexual references and implied acceptance of premarital sex.