Tomato Red

There is nowhere in Arkansas that looks like this. It was filmed in British Columbia. That was my first issue with this film. I was intrigued to watch by the named actors.

Great beginning, 1st Q. Then it draws to a pace that, as visually artistic as it is, and it is, it just goes too long without dialog and movement. Lulls to a crawl. Good sub plots although the main plot is fairly monotone. Then the ending is really just stalled on a big decision. Short resolution that never does tell us why.

Decent Music. Very Good actors. The three main of them grew from this, I would imagine.

It's the pace, for me.

Julia garner is, as expected, mesmerizing. The role might hew a little too closely to the character she plays in Ozark, but in an hour and a half she brings similar nuance to a character she developed over many years in the Netflix show. Anna Friel as Bev is a subtle sensation and Nick Roux as Garner's on-screen brother is sublimely understated. Jake Weary as the male lead is in one of those roles where it's difficult to imagine anyone else doing it. He *is* Sammy.

Much of the dialogue is truly mesmerizing, a credit to Juanita Wilson whom it is impossible to imagine isn't from a trailer park somewhere in the impoverished American south. (I swear I'd read the ingredients panel on a Hostess snack cake were it written by her.)

This may be the most poorly titled film I've seen in a long time, the title suggesting the kind of story that we don't get. It's not an action flick. In fact, the genius of this film is that at almost no point is it about what you think it's going to be about. At one point it seems a light hearted caper, at another a wonderfully tragic and perverse love triangle, and at yet another a tale of revenge and regret and horrible choices to be made in horrible circumstances. But in that lies the movie's success. Separately these themes don't tell the story this movie is telling but woven together as they are the narrative theme coheres: being poor white trash is a desperate, powerless, anguishing situation, yet those who survive, survive. And sometimes we should pity them for it.

This film is why independent film exists and should continue to exist despite and especially because of the pressures the major motion picture industry exerts.

This film has some great actors- and pretty good performances. The dialogue goes in and out from natural to poetic... but then it switches into self conscious, kind of stilted pronouncements that reminds us that someone wrote this dialogue and is trying to be profound and important.

The main challenge, though, is that the "holler"-ostensively a thickly wooded valley in the Ozarks- is shot in some desertlike part of Canada. Ok, so there are some large, dry mounds around that could signify "mountains", but come on! Are the Canadian Film Board subsidized tax breaks worth making it impossible to suspend disbelief for the entire film? Nope!

A looser meets other loosers. They bond and they both continue to struggle through their daily looser lifes. That's basically the story about these young, poor Americans, who live in constant poverty and sorrow.

The good: acting is good, yet not above normal good. The time that is taken to get to know these poor loosers is nice as well. It gives a good portrait of every character.

The bad: lacking spark. It lasts an half hour too long at least. And there is no real chemistry between the leading actors, who do act decently, but nothing above barely decent. Dialogues are good, but the general storyline is not very credible at moments and not very thrilling either.

Not bad, simply lacking just that bit of extra. Therefore only 6 stars.

No direction, no interaction between actors, and no storyline! If you watch this and don't agree in the first 15 minutes you're going to waste the rest of the hour and a half you watch this movie. What a shame for Julia Garner who carried Ozark in many episodes. But wasted or lost her talents in this snoozer. So let me put it like this if you read this twice you may get the message.

No direction, no interaction between actors, and no storyline! If you watch this and don't agree in the first 15 minutes you're going to waste the rest of the hour and a half you watch this movie. What a shame for Julia Garner who carried Ozark in many episodes. But wasted or lost her talents in this snoozer.