God's Country

God's Country is disqualified from being considered "bad" by its performances and cinematography alone. The film is largely breathtaking to behold, even when it at times becomes dull from a storytelling standpoint.

And this is where the film falters: its storytelling.

The "plot" technically has an inciting incident, but is really just a meandering series of events that make up a 90-minute petty neighborhood feud between a grieving Karen and a group of spited pseudo-alpha-males.

Given what we come to know about Cassandra's character background, some of the plot's events do hit pretty hard emotionally, especially the film's final 5 minutes and it's EXCELLENT final one-take scene.

But the brilliant conclusion does feel like a bit too little too late, as a great chunk of the story feels largely inconsequential to the film's larger themes that it's going for.

College professor Sandra (Thandiwe Newton) lives alone in the middle of nowhere Montana after losing her mother. Two local hunters keep trespassing on her property. The confrontations slowly build. She's struggling with an unevolved superior at work. The acting sheriff is limited help. The actual sheriff is on leave after shooting a local.

This movie is quiet. In a way, it's too quiet. Newton is doing good quiet with simmering rage. The tree farm confrontation is good tension. So is the invitation into the trailer home. There are moments and scenes with great tension. Mostly, the movie is way too quiet and the tension slips. It needs to build the tension, but Sandra doesn't change. It's a little flat.

A complex subject matter is carefully investigated and demonstrated in God's Country. How many of us had lashed out and acknowledged to ourselves of the misdirection of it. It's Sandra's view of herself unable to challenge the right place like many other men and women it bursts out, this is what's impressive of this tale it manages to give a perfect demonstration of unrests that has no roots. The snowy mountains and misty plains surrounded by gloomy forests is symbolic to the nothingness but conflicts are possible even in god's country. For the wonderful performance by Ms Newton's flawless this movie deserves credit.

Saw this back at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Director Julian Higgins creates a movie about a grieving college professor confronts two hunters she catches trespassing on her property, she's drawn into an escalating battle of wills with catastrophic consequences. Higgins starts off with a really strong beginning and introduction to the film but after 35 minutes into the film, the movie falls apart as the story becomes really basic, generic, and dull. There are many good aspects about this film. The cinematography, the score, atmosphere, production design, and sounding was really good. It helped to add flavor to the movie but the story and bland one sided characters really made the movie suffer. The pacing of the movie becomes really uneven as it dragged the movie from exciting to boring. Actress Thandiwe Newton gives a great performance throughout the movie as she does her best to keep this movie flowing well. But the other performances are just okay and some of them are quite bad.

Some of the dialogue is very clunky. The editing choices are bland. Lastly, the ending although is quite satisfying, because of the dull storyline, the ending doesn't really feel worth it by the end of the day. Higgins has talent but this movie was just meh and forgettable.

Rating: C+

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"God's Country features a remarkable lead performance from Thandiwe Newton, but the unfocused, predictable screenplay makes this film too dull to remember. Technically, it's one of the strongest movies of the festival. Gorgeous cinematography, sweet score, gripping atmosphere -- it holds the essential technical ingredients for a great film.

However, by attempting to tackle many different subject matters, Julian Higgins isn't able to properly concentrate and exceptionally develop a single one. In addition to this, the protagonist carries relatable motivations, but her consequent actions feel contradictory. The racism and sexism that she has to deal with are real, but her way of confronting these situations is far from exemplary.

Finally, the impactful ending beautifully works in theory, but since everything plot-wise is so unsurprising and slow-paced, the viewers will probably feel too tired to care by the end."

Rating: C.