Uncle John

I watch this knowing nothing about it as I like to do with smaller, indie type films.I watched this expecting a horror movie, it isn't. The acting was fantastic, especially John Ashton who I hadn't seen since way back when he was in Beverly Hills! The pacing was slow but kept me glued the whole time. The sub story which runs along separately from the main story was great. Casting was perfect. Could quite easily pass as a Cohen Bros film, very Fargo-ish. The last 20 minutes are so tense my heart was thumping! Beautifully shot, I will be checking out the director's other work real soon and I just hope this gets a UK blu ray release. A real gem of a film that looks great, sounds great and shows yet again that you don't need £100 million to make a great film! Bravo!

There's a lot to like about this movie.

Its deliberate pace will alienate some viewers. Others will appreciate the artful way the back-story is unveiled and the lack of up-front exposition. The performances are all excellent, but John Ashton steals the show as the title character. The direction and photography are fantastic as well.

I found the structure interesting, and was surprised at the some of the choices that were made. Many films follow different story lines and bring them together for a definitive conclusion. In Uncle John, the two story lines do pass by each other but they don't merge. And after their brief meeting, they go their separate ways.

I found the story following Ashton's character to be the more interesting to of the two and I believe a movie could have been successfully made using that storyline alone. Still, this film works and I will definitely check out Steven Piet's next.

If you do enjoy Uncle John, I would give this film a try:

Small Town Murder Songs- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1429392/? ref_=nv_sr_1

I tried to give this movie a chance. It started off well, but the story just dragged on, and I felt like I was watching paint dry... There was an opportunity by the director, or the writer to make this movie more interesting to viewers by expanding on the back story of several characters mentioned in the movie and how they connected with the main character. If they had done that, it certainly would have made the movie more interesting and would have given viewers a clearer story as to why the main character, made the choices he made. To me, that missing information, was the key to the entire story and it wasn't told... at all. Thus making the film as a whole, hollow!

John Ashton is one of those supremely gifted character actors that constantly find themselves in movies not quite worthy of their talents. The litmus test is this: Search through Ashton's film resume here on IMDb and find movies you've seen that he's starred in. His wide-eyed, wizened face has been endearing you longer than you may realize (his most famous turn has got to be as Judge Reinhold's gruffly sardonic mentor in "Beverly Hills Cop"). His comedic delivery is often so dry it crackles.

This makes him the perfect find for the title role in director Steven Piet's surprisingly engaging, often very funny thriller "Uncle John." The film begins with John hauling away and burning a body in one of his fields on his rural Illinois farm. The victim turns out to be a guy named Dutch who (from the vitriol spouted by almost everyone in the small town) people despised --- and even more so when he found religion and embarked on the not-too-smart idea of going from door to door and "apologizing" for his past sins.

Piet and co-writer Erik Crary's script is rather bold in its execution however, because it doesn't just stick with John and his quietly engrossing story. The writers ping-pong constantly to another plot revolving around John's nephew (Alex Moffat) and a co-worker he's tentatively courting (Jenna Lyng) at a small commercial ad agency in Chicago. For a good part of the film, you'll wonder what the hell this plot has to do with the A-story, but after a while you won't care: Moffat and Lyng have such an electric chemistry and their dialogue is so real, so drop-dead funny at times, that it's just a joy to watch (the B-story actually does provide a lot of insight into John's character, though it's not really needed thanks to Ashton's skill).

It's one of those two-trains-speeding-down-the-track-rolling-right-for-each-other-type scripts (think "No Country for Old Men," though not on that scale, obviously). And of course there's a time bomb at the collision point, and quite a menacing one, in Ronnie Gene Blevins, who plays the dead guy's angry, redneck, slightly-psychotic younger brother.

It all comes together because of Ashton, however. As per usual, he conceals virtually everything he's feeling, but in that cunningly transparent way that lets you into his subconscious --- whether you want to be there or not. He tells you everything you need to know about his life, his dead wife (who Dutch was snaking), and his sense of morality without saying much at all. It's all in that face and those eyes, which have just gotten more expressive with time.

"Uncle John" also gets the look, feel, and cadence of rural Illinois stunningly right. The diner scenes with John's daily cronies (Don Forsten, Gary Houston, and Matt Kozlowski --- all worth mentioning) are priceless and not just in non-condescending accuracy. They're a wonderful Greek chorus. And Alex Moffat's dry-ice deliveries recall David Spade at his sharpest.

It's not a film for the impatient, but there's a mother-lode of riches in that there brush fire.

Although this movie can be a bit slow and the two plots may seem to be polar opposites at first. They come together and the film becomes deeper. This picture demonstrates what could be going on at your neighbors house. I loved the quaintness, the true location shooting and how real the film seems due to the low budget. The main characters act fairly well, but there are some flaws in the supporting actors. John Ashton was great as Uncle John and portrayed the character's turmoil and quiet strengths very well. The nephew, played by Alex Moffat, was upbeat and witty and took the movie in a different direction with his quest for love. I think the film is a great movie for buffs or people flipping through the independent section of Netflix. Don't expect gore or moments of suspense. This movie is strictly about cause and effect.