Hunting Lands

This film had quite a promising start, but at the end of the first act, the story stiltifies to a glacial pace and becomes so crushingly dull the 83 minute runtime feels like 83 hours.

We watch our man (who's a little wooden in his hadful of speaking scenes, but otherwise quite credible) follow his target around in a pick-up for a dialogue-less eon to seemingly no end whatsoever. .. and the finale does absoluey nothing to resolve the plot. For such a simple story to not even be resolved is just a confounding finger in the eye to all those viewers who showed so much patience and determination slogging their way to the end.

It's a low budget, under 90 minutes, no dialogue, no characterization, weak script and all around boring movie of a story we seen a million times already.

The film builds tension well, there's a lot of great camera work, but the story is weak and unbelievable. Aside from the main actor, all other acting was poor including the overly-animated antagonist. The ending is silly and leaves you feeling like you invested much and received very little.

Very voyeuristic and quiet, Hunting Lands is a highly compelling watch steeped in film noir. The crisp and clean feeling of the cold snow is skillfully contrasted with damaged, lost characters and shabby dwellings like seedy motels, small used car lots and townie bars. One sequence plays out like a silent film as body language tells the story while quiet, foreboding strings play over the action. The Hunting Lands title doesn't just refer to the woods where main character Frank lives. A large part of the film takes place on the streets of a small town as Frank is trailing his suspect, Lance. Lance is played by Joe Raffa, who exudes a nervous energy and looks perfectly smarmy behind his thick mustache, working mans tie, and LL Bean scarf. Because he is watched from a distance for half the film, Raffa's performance is largely silent, relying on physicality to portray his character and he is absolutely superb in the role. Strikingly gloomy and beautifully shot, Hunting Lands comes highly recommended.

It was going great until we observe the bad guy over act in every scene he appears in. Outside the dealership was almost Charlie Chaplin like.