The Quarry

A while ago I was real happy to find out that She Whigham will have a leading role, something he truly deserves and rarely gets, and this time in a small town crime neo-noir, no less. And Michael Shannon co-leading? Now that's a recipe I could get excited for. I'm happy to report that the performances are the absolute standout factor of "The Quarry". The rest? Certainly effortful, genre-fitting and ambitious, but ultimately confused.

"The Quarry" is a an existentialist tale of guilt, wrapped up in all the known elements of a neo-noir, begging to be a Coen Brothers movie, but lighting a fuse too long for it only fizzle out at the end. However, it goes great before it gets worse. In the first half we meet Shea Whigham's drifter with heavy emotional burden on his shoulders who assumes the identity of a travelling preacher and takes his place at a small town's church. The character is in search of hope while being caught in continuous conflict with himself, full of heartbreak, and is one of the consistently effective elements of "The Quarry", showcasing a tremendous, authentic and felt-through performance by Shea Whigham. Michael Shannon plays the town's Chief, suspecting a foul play in the mystery of the town's new reverend, and is also the other most stable foundation of "The Quarry". The rest of the cast plays along equally well, in togetherness creating a decent portrait of a small town community. Problem is, the slow-burning story that's seemingly building up an exciting showdown, starts getting more and more tiring around the middle of it & in the end we get led to a much expected albeit decent conclusion, clothed up in all that's underwhelming. In other words, the filmmaker's intentions are not quite clear, and the movie, as elegant as it is, ends up being a pale imitation of many better movies. A commendable aspect of "The Quarry" is its design - it's photographed quite beautifully and is never really boring visually, while also being accompanied by Heather McIntosh's subtly and silently threatening original score.

"The Quarry" has such terrific performances and good aesthetical design that it's actually such a shame that story wound up as confused and unpolished as it did. I liked it, but it could've been so much better. Unrelated to my complaints, but it's funny how they sell it on the poster - "From a write of Narcos: Mexico". Well, he wrote a single episode. Despite all, the summary of this neo-noir, in my opinion, lands a mark above average, and might just contain of the best acting performances of Shea Whigham's career. My rating: 6/10.

Yes, it started out extremely slow and trust me, it didn't pick up. I almost turned it off about 20 minutes in but there was something about this film that made me stick with it a little longer. It's not a "whodunnit" by any stretch, they take care of that right away. But I was interested in the characters and the performances of the men. They were so relevant to today and the ongoing struggle in society over good v evil in whose eyes.

While reading reviews on several movies these past weeks I noticed a common theme those who like the picture and analyze it ask why the poor reviews ??

My take on this is it's become like most everything else now if the movie is of an independent sort with issues one has to think about there are those who just don't want to get it I would say they need to be spoonfed but that's a little cynical Again it's extremes of the people who watch only Marvel or the superman Batman things if that's marvel I don't even know if they need the constant visual input then these movies will never please them they don't have the flash. On the other hand I'm not saying all independent films are good but this one was Michael Shannon is phenomenal and the rest of the cast was almost as good I personally just like movies where you have to think through them not necessarily flamboyantly "entertained"

I haven't read the other reviews. I guess they're not great. But there's a lot going on in this movie that's probably lost on most.

I found it to be a powerful character study where each actor faces a moral dilemma. It moves along the line slowly, thoughtfully, deliberately.

The notions of ontology, of faith, of redemption, and of truth are just a few of the concepts pulled into the story.

I get it's not for everyone, but there's a lot to find if you look for it.

Shea Wigham's best role I think. I saw him first in True Detective and thought he was amazing, nothing short of tour de force! I think he also played a preacher in that one too. He just gets better and better. Michael Shannon is another tour de force type of actor. He's great as the sheriff. He can play any character and he's just a natural, I love his movies. The movie shifts into high gear and when it was over, I kept thinking "This style of movie mystery is like an old fashioned killer movie from the old days." It's just plain good and intriguing til the last minute. I absolutely loved the storyline, script, the acting was superb, especially Shea Wigham. His best acting performance I think. It had to have been someone with style and class bcz he took over a preacher's identity and preached to the parishioners. Simply amazing. The ending was intense as well. Do not miss it, take look at Shea Wighams performance. He might deserve an Oscar for this one, I'm not sure. He definitely nailed his character down amazingly.