Jackpot ★★ 2001 (R)

Brothers Mark and Michael Polish follow up their critically lauded debut “Twin Falls Idaho” with this road tale of karaoke and crackpots. Sunny Holiday (Gries) is an aspiring country singer riding the back roads of the remote West with his manager Les (Morris), trying to break into Nashville via the untraveled karaoke route. Neither one seems to realize the futility of his dreams, but Bobbi (Hannah), the wife he's abandoned with their young child, does. The “Jackpot” of the title is his dream of making it big, the way he hopes to support his family (he sends them a lottery ticket each week in lieu of child support) and the name of the Nevada town where he hopes to be discovered. Tries way too hard to be arty in a folksy “look at these eccentric characters” way, but it's not without its own weird charm. 100m/C VHS, DVD . US Jon(athan) Gries, Garrett Morris, Daryl Hannah, Peggy Lipton, Adam Baldwin, Mac Davis, Crystal Bernard, Anthony Edwards; D: Michael Polish; W: Michael Polish, Mark Polish; C: M. David Mullen; M: Stuart Matthewman; V: Patrick Bauchau.

jack·pot / ˈjakˌpät/ • n. a large cash prize in a game or lottery, esp. one that accumulates until it is won.PHRASES: hit the jackpot inf. 1. win a jackpot. 2. have great or unexpected success, esp. in making a lot of money quickly: the theater hit the jackpot with its first musical.

jackpot a large cash prize in a game or lottery, especially one that accumulates until it is won. The term was originally used in a form of poker, where the pool or pot accumulated until a player could open the bidding with two jacks or better.