Chrystal

Chrystal proved to be well worth watching. As usual, Billy Bob picks a movie with odd quirks and deeper meanings. His character Joe seeks forgiveness and a possible reconciliation with his wife Chrystal (Lisa Blount) after causing a wreck that kills their small son. Chrystal is also left with severe physical scars as well as mental wounds that will not heal. His return to Chrystal after a 20 year prison sentence is the central storyline. Billy Bob delivers a sad and touching performance as Joe. Lisa Blount does an excellent job as Chrystal. You feel her pain and hurt as you watch her struggle to deal with a life that has turned upside down. My favorite of all in this film was Walton Goggins' character,Larry. Goggins is an excellent actor, and "Larry," provides just enough comic relief (whether intended or not) to keep this movie from being too depressing to watch. Being a Southerner myself, I enjoyed the dialogue and Arkansas scenery. "Chrystal," while seeming deceptively simple, is an excellent film dealing with the struggle to find understanding with the often tough blows we receive in a harsh world.

It is rare to come across films as unique and fine tuned as CHRYSTAL, even more so when the only recognizable feature is the big name star on the film's cover. But in this first cinematic outing by the enormously gifted Ray McKinnon there are so many sparks of greatness that they dwell on the screen like glowing embers until the collective heat explodes into a impressive fire of creative skill.

Ray McKinnon both wrote and directed this film and also plays one of the key characters (in an award-deserving performance for supporting actor!). His method of telling a story is as slow and gradual as a festering abscess and he makes his audience stay alert until all of the dots are gradually joined to reveal the whole picture: that takes writing and directing guts in a time when audiences want to be spoon fed linear plots summarized in a sentence. McKinnon's courage (and budgetary constraints) made him cast his film with mostly unknown actors, each of whom performs like seasoned veterans. How much of that is due to the presence of such fine talent as Billy Bob Thornton, Harry Dean Stanton, and Lisa Blount is up for speculation, but it is McKinnon's sure hand both in writing and in directing that makes this little film so pungent and memorable.

Joe (Billy Bob Thornton - in a brilliantly understated performance) returns to a little trashy town in Arkansas in mid Ozarks after a 20 year prison time for drugs, DUI, and attempts to escape: his imprisonment began after a car crash that killed his young son and left his wife Chrystal (Lisa Blount, an actress of tremendous depth) with a broken neck and a broken spirit and soul, living in squalor and providing sex for all of the men and boys of the area. Chrystal is a used, spent, fragile creature, in constant pain from her neck fracture and living like a walking emotional zombie. Joe returns, and without much dialogue cleans the yard and house and land and ensconces himself on the porch of their house, tended only by Chrystal's confused old dog.

Word gets around that Joe, known for his growing of high caliber marijuana before incarceration, has returned and the local smarmy drug king Snake (Ray McKinnon) and his pals attempt to draw Joe back into a life of crime. Joe aches for redemption for his past mistakes, longs to retrieve his marriage with the severely emotionally damaged Chrystal, and is willing to fight to protect his new life. Gruesome encounters with Snake and with the townsfolk ensue. With all of the myriad pieces of this story finally woven into an amazing quilt, Joe and Chrystal come as close to redemption as is feasible.

The story is so much more layered than this too brief synopsis, but revealing more would deprive the viewer of the heady work and rewards of staying with this stunning film. The musical score is spare but eminently appropriate, combining Bruce Springsteen records with original music by Stephen Trask and some haunting Ozark tunes sung by Lisa Blount, Harry Dean Stanton (as Pa Da) and others. The setting is atmospheric and the cinematography by Adam Kimmel captures McKinnon's story's mood impeccably. The cast is some of the finest ensemble acting seen in years, especially in view of the fact that most of the actors have little screen experience.

Sounds like a rave review? Well, it is. This is one extraordinary piece of work and just like the not dissimilar Faulkner novels it takes work, but the payoff is equally satisfying. Highly Recommended - for viewing, for the afterburn of the experience, and for votes for just awards! Grady Harp

Starring Billy Bob Thornton and Lisa Blount. Think of cross breeding the film "Deliverance" with Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter" and Werner Herzog's "Heart of Glass". Set in the backwoods of an Appalachian dead end live a few people who are battered and scarred by Life's events and each other. There's history at the turn of every dirt road. There are regrets and bad, stupid blood. Nothing has gone right for them, and they don't see it changing, except during rare bouts of fantasy. That's right, this isn't a comedy. It's a steady, low key, almost hypnotic depiction of desperation. Acting by the entire cast is good. No one appears to be acting, let alone foreign to the experience. The folk music is haunting, the scenes flawlessly believable. I swear I've driven through that area. I tried to not stop anymore than necessary.

Chrystal is a movie that just won't leave you alone after you've seen it. It takes its time and burrows under your skin. Scenes take on a feeling of real time not 'reel time'. Directed by supremely talented Ray McKinnon, produced by McKinnon and Lisa Blount who completely possesses the title role, this film is a haunting look at what happens to people who will not and in fact, cannot put their overwhelming and powerful feelings into words. Someone once said, "There are rooms of experience that you and I will never enter." Well, that may be true in most cases, but McKinnon and his cast take you into one of these rooms and leave you there long enough so that you won't soon forget it. Balanced skillfully between moments that will make you twist and turn in your seat and moments of unexpected levity, this dark, Gothic Southern tale of loss leads to a strange kind of redemption. It will raise questions long after you leave the cinema. And how many movies these days do that? Don't miss it. It's a jewel.

I am not much of an "indy" film person, but really this didn't look or carry like an independent film. The production quality and the acting were on par or better than any studio release I have seen. It is good in the way that Saving Private Ryan was good. Ultimately it is a pretty depressing story, but a good story none-the-less.

Some of the dialog was down right hilarious which maybe seems misplaced in a dark story of this type but it actually worked to lighten the story overall. I really thought for the most part the acting was from good to great. There are a couple of classic scenes between Ray Mckimmon and Billy Bob Thorton that just steal the movie.

The scenery it's self is a big part of the story as well and some of the shots are just plain beautiful. No offense to the folks in Arkansas, but when you hear Arkansas you don't normally associate it with beauty, but it really is pretty.

So ya ultimately I thought it was a pretty good flick.