The Comedy "Austin Found" is a Hilarious Find - A Fraudulent Kidnapping Makes for a Fun Film

The new comedy "Austin Found" is along the skewered lines of "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006).  Both parody beauty pageants of pre-pubescent girls.  Abigail Breslin had a breakout role as the daughter in a family of lovable wackos.   Breslin was not the typical pageant winning package but she wanted desperately to participate.  Breslin's doting family was totally dotty yet totally devoted to each other.  The film "Austin Found" features a young Breslin doppelgänger, Ursula Parker as Patty, the precocious & talented beauty pageant contestant who constantly sabotages her pushy stagemom's plans for glory in competition.  Patty is beautiful, bright & talented.  When questioned by the pageant director what is the hardest thing facing young girls she answered "The precious to look good & be thin."  Parker is a gifted violinist in real life.  She does her own playing in the film.  Her character wants to more time to practice but over programmed schedule doesn't permit sufficient time.  Her mother LeeAnn (Linda Cordellini "Geeks & Freaks") tells Patty dancing is what everyone loves, not the violin.  LeeAnn has plenty of plans for Patty to recapture her own glory days, and gain fame & fortune for them.  LeeAnn married Don thinking he was loaded.  Disillusioned with Don & his dismal financial state, LeeAnn concocts a plot to have Patty kidnapped to gain sympathy & notoriety.   She cons her drunkard ex-con, ex-boyfriend, Billy (a sleazy & sexy Skeet Ulrich) to do her dirty work.  Billy's fatal mistake is to be bullwhipped by LeeAnn & led on by her lascivious innuendos.  While in prison, Billy befriended T.J. (a praiseworthy performance by Craig Robinson "The Office").   T.J. agrees to help his friend harbor Patty under a false pretense of parental abuse.  Patty awakens terrified  & shackled in T.J.'s cabin after her mom drugged both her & her father (whose oblivious to the plan) to facilitate Patty's abduction.  Nevertheless, Patty finds her confinement liberating.  She confides in the kindhearted T.J. how constrained she is by her mother's demands.  The two form an endearing friendship despite the circumspect circumstances.  What kind of mother would go to such extremes?  A narcissist nut job like LeeAnn who expected more fame, glamour & recognition than her poor provincial life.  The screwball plot is deceivingly cunning and abetted by a cast who prove there are no small parts only small actors.  The sheriff (Patrick Warburton "Seinfeld") and news reporter (Kristen Schaal "Flight of the Conchords") with a vendetta v. the vixen mom are both guilty of scene stealing.   Our media frenzy society is subject to being spoofed. "Austin Found" is a rare find.  A smart, black comedy that is LOL & surprisingly unpredictable.  No one gets away from this film without clamoring for more.  Encore!