Dustan Moravec’s Slovenian-American Polka! The Movie explores one of Cleveland’s key musical trademarks in affectionate but flawed fashion.
Not until the last half-hour of its 90 minutes does Polka! turn contemporary. Even then, it stumbles, detouring for a look at the 2008 Polka Hall of Fame's Slovenian Sausage Festival that stresses meat over motion. Fortunately, there’s an interview with Kim Rodick, drummer in her husband Eddie’s contemporary polka band, to juice the enthusiasm – and showcase what seems to be the one female musician in this very male scene.
Frankie Yankovic, the Grammy-winning accordionist who for a time was more popular than Sinatra, gets his due, as does Eddie Simms, a great accordion player and boxer who fought “brown bomber” Joe Louis (Simms lost) and called himself Simon in Jewish neighborhoods and Simms in Boston. He went by his real name, Simoncic, in Cleveland, attesting to the strength of this city’s Slovenian community.
Richie Vadnal, who succeeded Yankovic as Cleveland’s polka king, gets too much face time. So does Tony Petkovsek, a polka advocate whose daily show on WELW (AM 1300) has been running since 1961. Editing is weak in this movie, originally made for Slovenian TV, in both narrative and photography. Polka! lumbers. It also suffers an acute analysis shortage.
There’s plenty to cover, from the history of the Slovenian migration to the U.S. in the 19th century to the taxonomy of Slovenian gathering places like the Polka Museum, social halls and old-age homes. In addition, there’s musical history to explore, showing how the smooth Cleveland style of polka draws on jazz, pop, even Broadway musicals. Some scenes, like Vadnal band performances in Slovenia, are quaint and endearing but, again, too long; others, like the Roddick band’s stomping showcase at that sausage fest, are infectious. But cinematographer Jurij Nemec often defaults to dull, flattening polka refresher Johnny Koenig, a 20-something émigré from Brooklyn, New York, who lives in Cleveland, with shots of Kent State University students eating fast food at a student union performance. What Koenig has to say is cool, but the visuals are irritating.
Sociologically, the movie is interesting, suggesting this quintessentially happy music will mutate and remain contemporary. It has to, though narrator/writer Joe Valencic notes there are 200 Slovenian-American bands in the country. Rodick, Koenig and Joey Miskulin, the ridiculously versatile accordion virtuoso from Riders in the Sky, are clues to polka’s future. More focus on them would have been welcome.
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Reviews are scored on a four-star scale.
Catch Polka! The Movie again on Wednesday, March 30, at 4:50 pm, or Saturday, April 2, at 9:20 am at the Cleveland International Film Festival.
WATCH: A polka performance during the Cleveland International Film Festival
[Video by Elizabeth Weinstein]
