The Corndog Man
Set in a sleepy South Carolina town full of dark secrets, Andrew Shea's The Corndog Man tells the story of a hotshot boat salesman (Noble Willingham) who's the target of an unseen stalker who bombards him with crank phone calls at home and work. Relentlessly stagy, The Corndog Man is essentially a one-man show for veteran character actor Willingham (The Hudsucker Proxy, The Last Boy Scout), who spends much of the film sweating profusely, cussing up a storm, and yelling angrily at his mysterious nemesis. Willingham gives a good performance as the unnerved redneck protagonist, but he isn't given much to work with, his character a simple, bigoted redneck who lacks the depth and dimension to carry a film. The Corndog Man clearly aims to be a country-fried allegory about the dangers of intolerance and bigotry, but it feels like a short film padded out to feature length. When Willingham's blustery stereotype receives his inevitable comeuppance and his tormentor's identity is finally revealed, the results pack nowhere near the emotional punch the filmmakers clearly think it should.