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
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