Crispin Hellion Glover’s two-night stand at the newly rechristened Sun-Ray Cinema @ 5 Points offers Northeast Florida cinephiles a rare chance to witness one of the most unique talents of the past 30 years. It’s the last stop on a short trek of two-nighters that seems as random as Glover’s résumé, with scheduled appearances in places as varied as from London to Nashville and from Chicago to Grandview, Ohio.

   The only field in which Glover has not attained some degree of success remains musical theater, and that may be reconciled in just a matter of time. Born in 1964, the second-generation actor came to prominence while still a teenager, doing guest spots on classic, wholesome shows like “Family Ties,” “Facts of Life” and “Happy Days.” In hindsight, it seems these career choices were meticulously planned to provide sharp contrast to Glover’s later endeavors. His confrontational in-character appearance as Rubin Farr on the Letterman show in 1987 was 20 years before Joaquin Phoenix’s less-effective take on creative-minded agitation, and of a piece with similarly outrageous performances by Andy Kaufman.

   Glover’s luck (and script pickery) was pretty much perfect in films like “Back To the Future,” “River’s Edge,” “The Doors,” “Wild At Heart,” “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” and “The People vs. Larry Flynt” — which brought him mainstream attention while funding the freedom to follow his own lead. During this time, Glover was honing his own highly personal craft. In 1989, Glover’s amazingly awkward cover of “These Boots Were Made for Walking” became a pivotal moment in the evolution of hipster irony. Glover has written more than a dozen books, five published through his own Volcanic Eruptions (crispinglover.com), using a form of the old William Burroughs/Brion Gysin “cut-up” technique, assembled from old books in the public domain. Glover combines artwork, and the heavily modified books become a twisted form of de facto objet d’art. The slideshows that precede the films on his tour are built around excerpts from these and other materials.

   Glover’s film work is distinguished by his adversity to the very Hollywood system in which he has thrived since the Reagan era. He consistently explores themes of alienation, fantasy and the means by which one copes in a chaotic world; the films he produces himself go even further. On Friday night, he’ll be showing 2005’s “What Is It?” Cast primarily with people with Down syndrome, the film’s imagist-heavy narrative is a fever dream involving snails, Shirley Temple and songs by Charles Manson. Saturday’s feature is 2007’s “It is Fine! Everything is Fine,” filmed from a script by Steven C. Stewart, whose starring role was shot weeks before he died from complications of cerebral palsy. Glover says the film is “probably the best film I’ll ever work on in my entire career.” (He reportedly funded the film in part through proceeds from doing the “Charlie’s Angels” movies.)

   This stuff could probably be marketed quite easily through DVDs and the independent circuit (especially in today’s market), but Glover refuses to submit his films to any censorious shenanigans. To that end, he tours the works himself, such that these shows are like immersion therapy for his acolytes, the kind of people who’d readily spend three-plus hours catching his act, then do so again (differently) the next night. One would guess there are plenty such people in Northeast Florida.

   There was a time when obtaining one of Glover’s self-released cassettes was like a Holy Grail mini-quest — the only way to get them was to buy them directly from him via mail-order in the halcyon pre-Internet days. Lacking any independent distribution, Glover’s stuff was a chore to obtain and it was literally easier to score hardcore porn (which, believe it or not, was actually illegal to buy or sell in Northeast Florida until the late-’90s) than it was to get a Crispin Glover cassette. I still have no idea how I wound up with a Glover tape, but I’ll never forget the feeling of utter confusion I had after listening to the whole thing. It’s a feeling that never really went away.

   The film industry hasn’t given Glover credit for his genius, and he certainly hasn’t sought it, yet he has built a broad, passionate fan-base that rabidly consumes his invitingly deranged output — be it through films, books or recordings. Glover’s upcoming appearances in town are a really big deal — tantamount to a visit from John Waters or Bill Murray, or even James Woods. His first trip to Jacksonville also provides one of the first big high-profile events for Sun-Ray Cinema, a venue that in a matter of weeks has made good on its promise to bring unique, singular cinema experiences to the area. And it will be equally curious and unique to see what kinds of questions Crispin Glover fields during the Q&A sessions.

Shelton Hull

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