17: Texas Moon
The official poster for Texas Moon!
Logan here.
Some of my fondest and earliest memories involve watching movies alongside my brothers and my parents, many of which we would reference or quote for years to come. My whole adult life I’ve chased the high of those childhood weekends when we’d get out of school and head to Blockbuster to pick out movies we loved or had been dying to see, watching them at home after dinner, all together in our living room. To this day, we still often spend family nights watching movies. Many of my all-time favorites, like The Princess Bride, Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, Good Burger, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, were introduced to me by my family. The Garners love movies! One of the Garners, in particular, though, has turned his love for movies into a passion. This month at Writer on Wheels, we’re talking about the film Texas Moon, and the filmmaker behind it all: my brother Trevor Garner.
Graduating in 2020 from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Radio, Television and Film Trevor has long pursued his passion for making movies, though he is still very passionate about watching movies, too. He has written and directed a host of projects over the years, including a five-episode documentary that you can watch here, a short film about a BBQ dynasty you can watch here, his first feature-length film, Peach Pits, and his latest feature (and my personal favorite) Texas Moon. While the movie is not yet publicly available, Gia and I had the opportunity earlier this month to attend a premiere screening for family and friends.
This movie follows a group of twenty-somethings navigating their current lives and futures: family, romantic relationships and careers, set against the backdrop of a Texas town. There is plenty of sharp dialogue, heartfelt moments, humor, a great soundtrack, and some unique twists. It is an ensemble movie, so there’s several main characters, but I’ll hone in on one: Mac. We meet Mac as he’s reminiscing over the past and how everything was better back then. He longs for a return to the “good ol’ days.”
Early in the movie, Mac sits with a group of older, more seasoned guys as they share stories from their former days laughing and joking, furthering this idea in Mac’s mind of the past being richer, more enjoyable than his present. This nostalgia creates conflict in his relationship, he becomes distant, not present in the moments with his girlfriend. Mac starts to come to his senses in a later scene with that same group of guys, this time as they share about trials of the past. What I think Trevor was trying to convey is that there is beauty in remembering the “good ol’ days,” but remembering the bittersweet moments and losses helps us also appreciate the growth we undergo to get us to the present. If you’ve read many of my posts, you know that growing from the past and hope in the future is something God has been teaching me to practice time and again.
What I love about Trevor’s work is how, to those who know him well, how evident his voice is, like in a particular line of dry humor in a script or the music choices in a scene. He creates art that is genuinely Trevor, and Texas Moon is no different. There are movie and music references in the screenplay, nods to restaurants we went to as kids, and extended scenes shot on our family’s property, Windy Hill Ranch. The coolest detail of all is that we got to be a part of it! The older men who talk to Mac are my dad, my uncle, and two longtime family friends, Tommy and Brock, all telling real-life stories from decades of friendship. Gia and I made our big-screen debut as well as extras! (Now you really want to see it, huh?). He spent a year of hard work on this movie, pouring his time, talent and treasure into it, and not because anybody is telling him to, but because he believes in it; it’s his calling. My brother embodies the work ethic described in Colossians 3:23-24, which states,
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
His determination and commitment to the project, from drafting to screening, inspires me to create and see my ideas through. Thanks, Trevor, for reminding me to move forward in creating, because the present moment is preparing me for a bright future under the light of the Texas Moon.