Unconformity

This was a cute little movie, and should have been more enjoyable. But the fact that the main actress was giving "super disaffected millennial who dgaf what anyone else thinks or does" ruined it. (And I'm a female Millennial who's been known to give that myself...)

I get that she's kind of supposed to be tough, has been through hell in academia, and is from the East Coast - I have actually been all of those things so I know - but I'm pretty sure it was her green acting and lack of ability to go deeper emotionally into her character that made her eminently unlikable. Not any of the other context.

Either way, it was frustrating because all of the other actors were doing a great job, and the story itself was really engaging. I was glad to see geology getting a highlight! I'm not a scientist, but I'm an avid rock climber, and was really happy to see that also featured in the film.

The actress unfortunately frowned, skulked unnecessarily, and displayed no emotional range - anger and eternal aloofness aside. And you needed that range exactly because the character's emotional journey was supposed to be subtle; it was the focal piece of an otherwise very quiet film. In short? She needed more *heart*.

Stuck it out because I actually cared about what happened to her friend. Worth it if you like indie films with good stories in spite of stiff acting you can't connect to emotionally.

Unless they are hidden gems. The editing is outstanding being short and precise. Example is at the end Nick is waiting outside on a college campus watching students walk to class and he throws his rancher hat inside his rancher pickup and walks off camera left to right. Positive. He has finally decided to leave the life of a rancher and get a college education. Numerous shots of Alex were beautifully done. The camera captured her well. She is stunning. I really enjoyed the use of geological nomenclature. It just made sense. My favorite scene was the last one with dad and son sitting on the porch without words as they gaze at the future. One chair remains empty next to them and is soon occupied by Alex. Beautiful scene that summarizes the intentions of the scriptwriter. This movie is not "All hat and no cows".

I may view again.

I'm generally not a big indie movie fan. But the story was nice, the acting was really good, and so was the music. Plus lots of beautiful shots of the desert. If you like this sort of movie, I think you'll like this one.

The scenery and the music are amazing and the overall feel of the film is solidly wistful and hopeful. There is a twist at the beginning that really got me invested in the movie and Alex's response to that and her growth and recovery were very moving. The ending was a surprise too but a very good one, and I was really startled at how good the depiction of academia was. Lots of tense moments but it was really refreshing to see a movie with a female lead that didn't rely on exploiting her trauma to make a plotline develop.

I had doubts going into this movie because it's about a geologist, but the characters and beautiful scenery drew me in. I won't spoil the opening, but by the time Alex heads to the desert i was in her corner for obvious reasons, and I was intrigued by her growing relationship with jack mulhern's character nick. It turns out the geology and ranching storylines were actually pretty interesting and i did not see the ending coming. Worth checking out.