The Locusts ★½ 1997 (R) Backwater beefcake Clay Hewitt (Vaughn) swaggers into a small Kansas town where everyone has a lit cigarette and a secret and no one is safe from hopeless cliches and corny dialogue. Clay's sweaty, sleeveless t-shirts and choir-boy face soon have the women swarming, but he's only interested in helping a mentally and emotionally challenged kid named Flyboy (Davies) get out from under his emasculating and abusive mother Delilah (Capshaw), also Clay's boss and overly ardent admirer. Judd is barely used as Clay's spunky squeeze in this slow-paced, small-town drama by first-time director Kelley. Any high school freshman with an English lit class under his belt won't miss the notso-subtle metaphors at play—Delilah has workers castrating bulls a lot. 123m/C VHS, DVD, Wide. Kate Capshaw, Jeremy Davies, Vince Vaughn, Ashley Judd, Paul Rudd, Daniel Meyer, Jessica Capshaw;
Director:
John Patrick Kelley;
Writer:
John Patrick Kelley;
Writer:
Phedon Papamichael;
Cameo:
Carter Burwell.
