Shotgun Stories (2007)

My colleague is going to despair. I finally get around to writing a review for (what I thought was) a 2008 film, then IMDB tells me it's 2007, even though it's only just come out on DVD. What to do? Well, I'll just have to go ahead and review the film anyway.

Shotgun Stories, a classic Matt-pleasing lyrical, pensive, beautifully shot, drama, set in the American south, focuses on three brothers, named Kid, Boy and Son who feud with four half-brothers following the death of their common father. Hated by Kid, Boy and Son, but beloved by the other brothers, Cleaman, Stephen, Mark and John, their father's legacy divides an already unstable family and shatters an uneasy peace, leading to inevitable tragedy, as plain and as sure as the sweet Arkansas sun laying in the rivets and shards of cotton in the fields which form the sumptuous and delicate backdrop to this unassuming, but engaging, human tragedy.

From the start, this is a powerful film. You begin by thinking that Film-maker Jeff Nichols has chosen very poor names for his lead characters but, following the powerful and foreboding funeral scene (eaten up on screen by Son, played by Michael Shannon, more on whom later), it soon dawns on the viewer that their names bear the indelible mark of a neglectful and abusive father who couldn't give so much of a damn as to give them a proper name. Notably unlike his other four sons, who proclaim, with all honesty and integrity, that their father was a changed man after he ran out on Kid, Boy and Son. It's a powerful message - a history, a legacy, is a hard thing to shake at the best of times, but harder still when your name, and how it contrast with that of more favoured and fortunate siblings, stands as a constant reminder to pain, loss, struggle and turmoil, never clearer than when Son, at his father's funeral, reflects that their father ran out on them "to be raised by a hateful woman" his voice bleeding with pregnant rage.

As required by character-lead dramas, the performances here are high end and the characters deep, fluid and interesting. Michael Shannon, as Son, steals the film. An incredible mixture of Joaquin Phoenix, Di Caprio and early Brando, Shannon gives a performance here that suggests he will go on to greater things. I hope he does, he deserves to. Son is one of those rare characters whose fate you just feel tide to and in whose world you have some strange urge to belong, despite its difficulty and struggle. A great performance. Douglas Ligon and Barlow Jacobs, as Boy and Kid respectively, have more to do than the brothers from the other side of the family, and both ably support Shannon and all three brothers are deep, interesting, characters that stand well above the level of caricature, not always easy with a film such as this. The other four brothers are less developed, with the exception of the interesting and pained Cleaman (Michael Abbot Jr.), and this is a flaw, but one that will have to be excused, given the film's running time. It doesn't, I think, have designs on being 'epic' and that will be reflected in the final grade.

Shot by David Gordon Green (on producer duty here)'s favorite cinematographer Adam Stone (who photographed Green's George Washington, All The Real Girls and Undertow), this looks accomplished, lyrical and stunning, the images deliberately provoking contrasts with one another and the overall mood of the film (Green's influence on Nichols is palpable here). The score, by Lucero Pyramid, is suitably haunting and compelling as well.

I really liked this and will add it to my collection as soon as possible. It's very much my kind of film and that is reflected in my grade, so the recommendation comes with that warning that this is very me, but that is not to say it isn't very you either. Well, well, worth a go and well worth an

A-