Things That Hang from Trees

1 of the locally shot films in the Jacksonville Film Festival. A series of creepy, moody events guide this bare bones plot about a semi-retarded kid wanting to see the July 4 fireworks. The kid drifts through the days and seems barely aware of his cringe-inducing father, drug-addled mother (Deborah Kara Unger who poses in negligee in her store front window) and spiteful Christian weirdo neighbor. There are tons of weirdos in this film. The main character basically bumps into all of them along his way to see the fireworks.

This brings me to my only real issue with this film. There are almost too many unpleasant aspects of the south squashed into what is really just a straightforward story about a kid with a very kid-like goal. At times it weighs down the film.

The actors were all good. A seriously sexy Deborah Kara Unger was born to play roles like this.

Overall I liked the film a lot and thought it was a nice break from the norm.

An asthmatic kid in a town populated by dysfunctional individuals, beat up by the local bully, harassed by a religious busybody, befriended by a wino, ignored by a mother more interested in running her sexy lingerie shop, and an absent father that comes back to haunt the family. Mix those elements together, stir some uneven acting, pepper with dialogue right from typical Hollywood dregs and serve with an expressionless kid better suited for a poker table. The result of such a recipe cannot be appetizing. It isn't. Nonetheless there is a plot. It emerges slowly and ends in a climatic drama. Too bad the story gets clobbered by a sloppy directorial debut.

An extremely dark narrative about a young boy & his strange relationship with his mum (Deborah Kara Unger) who operates a sexy lingerie shop in a conservative southern township that clearly doesn't want her. (It doesn't help her situation that she models the nighties she sells in the windows storefront) Everything is tricky from the start for the young boy. He's bullied continuously & is frozen blank with fear of all that surrounds him. (Including the sickening memories of his estranged & deranged father the part played expertly by Ray McKinnon) The complications for the boy & his mother aren't simply resolved, & so the future of these characters isn't clear. The ending is enjoyably ambiguous & because of its general strangeness it will earn its spot in the genre of the cult film.

I was actually looking forward to seeing this film at the Austin film festival, but I was a little disappointed. The plot, although interesting and somewhat emotional, is presented in a tricky and sometimes confusing way. After seeing the movie, I looked to the person sitting next to me, and asked if they knew what had just happened. After seeing "Things that Hang from Trees", I went to its page here on this website and read the plot. To my surprise, it was completely different than what I thought it would say. Now that I think about it, it makes sense, but I shouldn't have to read the plot after the film to find out what the heck was going on. Nice try by the director, a period piece requires a lot of work and it truly shows in the overall picture and look of the film, but the story is just not there...

A great movie at Atlanta Film Festival. A slow but atmospheric look at the strange inhabitants of a small southern town. Racism, childhood trauma and religious hypocrisy abound.

The Director spoke about the film after and mentioned that the tree in the novel held a much greater symbolic importance than was in the movie. Though I didn't read the novel I could see that being true. That in my opinion was the weakest element of the movie. The only time they showed it was during begin credits and at the end. I'll read the novel.

This movie is a cult-classic-to-be because so many different feelings and opinions can be derived from its awkward quietness and because of the beautiful imagery and rich alien atmosphere it's the kind of movie you want to see times over.