In a 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Morris spoke about the reasoning behind shooting the movie on 35mm film: "Right at the beginning, I knew that I wanted this to have the texture and grit and grain of film. I wasn't directly trying to make a 1970s movie, but I knew it would carry that kind of atmosphere about it. A lot of the visual references actually were from mid-century street photographers, who obviously shot on film. When Larkin Seiple came on board to shoot it, we looked at each other and we were like, 'This has to be on film, right?' We tested 35, 16 millimeter, and some digital grain filters. But it was clear after the test that there was only one choice, and I didn't want fake grain on this. I wanted to be ingrained in more of an American look."
Andrea Riseborough and Owen Teague also played a mother/son duo in the Netflix drama Bloodline (2015).
The film received critical acclaim, with Andrea Riseborough's performance garnering widespread praise and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. However, this nomination later became subject of a moderate controversy, when it turned out that both Riseborough's manager and director Michael Morris's wife had started a campaign directed at industry friends to bring the film under the attention of Oscar voters, with effect: many Hollywood A-listers (including Edward Norton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Amy Adams and even future co-nominee Cate Blanchett) took to social media to praise Riseborough's performance, ensuring her nomination through word-of-mouth rather than the typical extensive media campaigns and 'For Your Consideration' ads (which the small independent studio could not afford). This drew criticism from many who believed that this approach had violated Academy campaign regulations, thereby robbing Viola Davis or Danielle Deadwyler of highly deserved nominations (for The Woman King (2022) and Till (2022) respectively). The Academy eventually looked into the matter, and concluded that no regulations had been broken, although there was "concern" over the social media and outreach campaigning tactics, and the responsible parties would be "contacted directly".
The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 12, 2022.