Blood Country

Blood Country: Written and directed by Travis Mills

Let me try to see if I can surmise exactly what this movie was about because honestly I have no clue. It introduces characters and then they leave with no rhyme or reason. It has this blood feud at the core of its story that seems to have started over cabbage. This movie is only 89 minutes long but it could have benefited from more time spent on the characters or the story. The pacing is dry and very, very slow. This film was just so boring. It shouldn't have been.

This was a meandering mess. It creaked along at a very slow pace throwing random characters into the proceedings developing none of them along the the way. I'm ragging on this indie film a bit much so let me state some things that were good about it.

It is a beautifully made film. The shot composition is extraordinarily well done and I enjoyed the technical work in that department.

This is where the compliments end I'm afraid. None of the cast is given much to do. Most of them stare off pensively in the distance. We gather no insight into what they're thinking or feeling. A narrator shows up about halfway in the film to tell us what is happening and it still is not enough.

We needed this narrator in the beginning to set it up. It catches the audience offguard when it happens. The action beats that periodically pop up are fairly languid as well. By the time the big chase happens for the fugitive cabbage murdering guy, it's not enough to wake people up. This might have been going for an art film western approach but it failed dramatically. It is a snooze fest.

I give this movie an F.

This movie has made me realize that a man will kill over a head of cabbage. Not the best two hours of my life.

The lack of sufficient context makes it difficult to watch. There's a feeling that parts of the narrative are missing never mind trying to form an opinion as to guilt or innocence.

This previously highly-rated mess was boring. The story was disjointed. The character development was predictably puerile. The cinematic cutaways, apparently intended to add gravitas to an otherwise weak cinematic effort, instead distracted from any chance of an interesting plot development. Good that it ended in such short order. Save your time. Not worth a look.

A visually stunning movie about post Civil War Mississippi made in Mississippi on a shoestring budget. If you support film being made in Mississippi, this film is worth a look.