Antiquities (2018)

Antiquities is a 2018 American romantic comedy directed by Arkansas native Daniel Campbell. The film was written by Campbell and Graham Gordy, who is best known for his writing work on shows like Quarry and True Detective. Antiquities is set in a small, fictional Arkansas town with an ensemble cast of quirky characters headlined by actors such as Andrew J. West (The Walking Dead), Ashley Greene (Twilight), Michael Gladis (Mad Men), Russellville (Pope County) native Natalie Canerday (Sling Blade), and Academy Award–winning Arkansan Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard).

The story follows Walt (West), who returns to his hometown after the death of his alcoholic father, a man he never truly got to know. In an attempt to better understand his dad, Walt takes a job at the local antique mall, where his father used to work. The mall is home to an oddball cast of eccentric characters.

Walt becomes enamored with Ellie (Greene), a free-spirited woman who rents a booth at the mall, selling ceramics. The two strike up a relationship, and Ellie helps Walt become more open-minded about small-town life, as well as come to terms with his own life. On their several dates, Ellie makes Walt break into an abandoned theme park and ride a Ferris wheel, go to a strip club, and play bingo with a bunch of elderly people. Their romance goes smoothly until it is revealed that Ellie’s brother recently died in a car accident with a supposed drunk driver—the drunk driver being Walt’s father.

Each supporting character also receives their own subplot. Steenburgen plays a therapist with a back-talking support therapy parrot. Graham Gordy plays a booth owner who has recreated his perfect childhood in his stall, with fully decorated Christmas tree and bad Christmas sweaters. He is on the verge of being kicked out of the store for lack of sales because he refuses to let any of his ornaments go.

The aloof front desk clerk, Dolores Jr. (Michaela Watkins), obsessed with contemplating the pros and cons of plastic surgery, strikes up a timid romance with the mall’s resident maintenance man, Delaney (Gladis), who is a chronic compulsive liar. Lastly, there is turmoil between the owner of the mall, Dewey Ray (Troy Hogan), who wants to retire, and Blundale (Roger Scott), a Civil War enthusiast who sells dioramas of the Confederacy winning battles that, in reality, it lost. Ray would rather leave the store in the hands of Walt, which causes retaliation from the jealous Blundale.

Daniel Campbell created a short film of the same name in 2009. When titling the film, Campbell confessed that he did not know what the word “antiquities” actually meant, thinking it had something to do with antiques. The short film was shot by cinematographer Gabe Mayhan (Chimp Crazy), who would go on to shoot the feature-length version. At the 2010 Little Rock Film Festival, the short version of Antiquities won the inaugural Charles B. Pierce Award for the best film made in Arkansas. At that festival, Campbell met writer Graham Gordy, thus starting an eight-year journey to get the feature funded, shot, and completed. The writing duo teamed up with local actor, producer, and businessman Gary Newton and formed a production company, Mortuus Pater Pictures.

Campbell said that the idea for the antique mall setting was loosely based on the booth his grandmother ran at a similar mall. The thematic elements of the feature-length script developed as both Campbell and Gordy were discussing how they both lost their fathers early in their adult life.

On a budget of around $700,000, filming began in the fall of 2016, taking place for a little over a month. Antiquities became the first motion picture to qualify for Arkansas’s Equity Investment Tax Credit, making it completely financed by Arkansas residents and investors. Two-thirds of the movie’s twenty-five-member cast and three-fourths of its more than forty-member crew were Arkansas natives, including eighteen student interns from Southern Arkansas University Tech.

The main hub of filming took place in the Argenta district of North Little Rock (Pulaski County). The antique mall was set in the Galaxy Office Furniture building on Main Street, which had been a J. C. Penney store decades prior. The film utilized both floors of the building, and the business’s large variety of furniture and knickknacks made dressing the set one of the easier parts of the production.

The date scenes for the romantic leads were filmed in various locations around Little Rock (Pulaski County). The hibachi grill where Walt gets accosted by the chef was the old Shogun Japanese Steakhouse on Cantrell Road. The theme park scene was shot at the Arkansas State Fairgrounds. The strip club scene was filmed at Peaches Gentleman’s Club in Jacksonville (Pulaski County). Most of the B-roll and exterior shots were filmed around the Eureka Springs (Carroll County) area, while the climactic scene of the film takes place on West Mountain in Hot Springs National Park. Other locations included Terry’s Finer Foods and Franke’s Cafeteria in Little Rock.

Antiquities ran the festival circuit in 2018, premiering in June of that year at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California, at the Dances with Films Festival. It would later go into wider release and end up on streaming services in January 2019. Most reviews praised the cast and the quirky characters as well as the nostalgic style of the film, while criticizing the uneven pacing and structure of the screenplay. Piers Marchant of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote, “There isn’t all that much here to stick to your ribs, but its smooth finish goes down like a frigid limeade on a scorching afternoon,” while Ayurella Horn-Muller of Film Threat stated, “Without the talent demonstrated in this film, the narrative of Antiquities wouldn’t hold up on its own. A sweet, wistful piece, it is difficult to ignore the agonizingly slow way it gets to its main point—forgiven only because of a strong ensemble.”

For additional information:
“Antiquities.” Internet Movie Database. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6093618/ (accessed November 8, 2024).

Horn-Muller, Ayurella. Review of Antiquities. Film Threat, August 30, 2018. https://filmthreat.com/reviews/antiquities/ (accessed November 8, 2024).

“Locally Filmed Antiquities Gets LR Screening.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 25, 2019, pp. 1E, 6E. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/jan/25/locally-filmed-antiquities-gets-screeni/ (accessed November 8, 2024).

Marchant, Piers. “Southern Charm.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, August 24, 2018, pp. 1E, 6E. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/aug/24/southern-charm-20180824/ (accessed November 8, 2024).

Millar, Lindsey. “The Feature Film Version of ‘Antiquities’ Makes Its Arkansas Debut.” Arkansas Times, August 23, 2018. https://arktimes.com/news/cover-stories/2018/08/23/the-feature-film-version-of-antiquities-makes-its-arkansas-debut (accessed November 8, 2024).

Steed, Stephen. “Hutchinson Talks up Movie Effort.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 11, 2016, pp. 1D, 2D. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2016/nov/11/hutchinson-talks-up-movie-effort-201611/ (accessed November 8, 2024).

Topich, Al. “The Joint Hosts a Screening of Antiquities.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 5, 2024, pp. 1E, 3E. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/apr/04/filmscene-opinion-the-joint-hosts-a-screening-of/ (accessed November 8, 2024).

Alexander Topich
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette