• Nichols and his two leads (Negga and Edgerton), through nuanced and un-showy performances, go through pains to set up their love, these two people, and their circumstances as both common and some sort of eden of perfectness
  • The film is paced, measured, intelligent but also rather unremarkable which is disappointing now that we’re some years removed from nichols shotgun stories (2007) which is a great debut film and take shelter (2011) which is a transcendent sophomore effort
  • Nichols also does a good job of making urban living (DC here) look like doing time in the state pen
  • Some very beautiful rural landscapes
  • Edgerton’s performance here is like a B- version of ledger’s performance in brokeback– which is no slight or dismissal of edgerton’s work- it’s a compliment and comparison
  • Michael Shannon, Nichols’ regular, steals a great scene
  • In the archives but a bit of a disappointment coming from Nichols at this stage
  • Recommend and not in the top 20 of 2016