I was enjoying this movie until the abrupt, unclimactic, uncreative end. And it takes place in Alaska (though filmed in British Columbia), where we open with a triple homicide in a small town diner. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. As the hit man from the opening scene, Abbott comes across as even more of a cipher. Sams special woman, Bernadette (Rosemarie DeWitt) is now a widow, because Elwood (no really) killed her husband and two other guys in the movies opening scene. Sign UpYes, I would like to receive Paste's newsletter, 2023 Paste Media Group. Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. It wasnt a happy marriage shes having We're in small town America (apparently, Alaska, though I don't remember them mentioning that in the film, and it was filmed in British Columbia, of course). Please reference Error Code 2121 when contacting customer service. I'd rate it 8.5/10. The movie opens with a brutal killing, as an outsider cruises into town, lurking in his car outside a local bar till well after midnight before bursting in on a friendly card game and murdering all three men in the establishment, taking money from the register practically as an afterthought. Elwood searches the room but finds that Sam has escaped through the bathroom window. Regal He checks into Sams hotel under the name of Elwood, and reveals only fragments of himself to others although the film privileges us by eavesdropping on a private moment in which he calls his ailing mother from the hotel room, offering a valuable insight into the torment that fuels his temper (a dimension overlooked in characters like Chigurh, where the less we know, the scarier they seem). The rest of the cast seem a little bit less asleep. Despite his reputation as a man of action, railroad crossing, the gates come down and a train impedes her progress. And yet, going deep is what makes Sweet Virginia great heck, more than great. Punisher, is cast against type. Elwoods on a short fuse, you see; he drives around town talking to himself, making profane observation about the locals; after one pay phone conversation near a convenience store, Elwood kicks the crap out of some punks who are looking at him funny; with every line reading and twitch of the shoulder you can see Abbott congratulating himself on playing a genuine PSYCHO whos also complex because of his terse one-sided phone conversations with his terminally ill mother down south of Alaska. In Lilas case, years of disrespect and misery have pushed her to ordering her husbands murder. Their humanity, along with Bernthals, puts the alien strangeness of Abbotts performance into stark relief. It may be predictable, but it sure isn't boring. [5], On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 79% of 57 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. Pros: Dark and gritty, well shot and perfectly paced with a handful of strong performances and a suitably ominous, understated score. 27 August 2016. And who is this monster, who brings violence to a community that needs guns only for hunting, changing the entire dynamic of a town so small that everyone (believes he) knows everyones business already? Overall this isn't a bad a movie; it's good, but not great. Sam knocks on the door and begins fighting with the tenant. A former rodeo champ befriends a young man with a propensity for violence.A former rodeo champ befriends a young man with a propensity for violence.A former rodeo champ befriends a young man with a propensity for violence. He demands payment, and again she tells him she can get the money. Sam then runs to the motel office to grab his grandfather's gun and tells Elwood to stay until the police arrive. Nice movie. neo-noir slow burner that is exquisitely filmed, offering you a fine score underlining appropriately . EXCLUSIVE: Jon Bernthal (Daredevil), Christopher Abbott, Imogen Poots, Rosemarie DeWitt and Odessa Young have signed on for director Jamie Dagg's upcoming thriller Sweet Virginia, which was a Sweet Virginia has no wit or wisdom within the script. "I'll have the early bird special." Bernthal dials things down to play Sam who, despite an impressive physique, has for violence, some strong sexuality, language, and drug use. By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. In it, we find a rural American thriller that in the first minutes already reveals the reason for the events that will provoke a series of, Jon Bernthal was the main character in this and Im still fairly sure he has less screen time than his costars. Email Locations. I understand - and appreciate - the unnatural darkness that some directors like to use to set the theme. , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. A wasted opportunity because of the great cast. We want them to survive, of course, but mostly, we want to understand them. Chris Knight: The central theme of murder and its aftermath is interesting for as far as it goes, but thats not enough to carry the picture home. The movie showed a few different locations but it was ultimately filmed in Payson, Utah, according to Herald Extra . "R" (Violence, Profanity, Sexual Content), (There are no more worst movies of Christopher Abbott). It starts with a bang, ends with a bang, and those scenes bookend some solid View full post on Instagram Hes much tougher than he looks, and the only person he becomes close with during his stay is the exact opposite. When Mitchell tells him to leave because the bar is closed, the man threatens him and angrily leaves. One too many falls. Sweet Virginia, where dreams come to die. Literally. Fresh off the 2012 Black List for best unproduced scripts, the screenplay from twin brothers Benjamin China and Paul China offers up a neo-noir with a familiar enough premise in a not-so-familiar setting. The website's consensus reads, "Smart and well-acted, Sweet Virginia delivers a tense, atmospheric thriller that transcends genre conventions even as it embraces them. This film has surprised me and even more considering that I had avoided it several times for the simple fact that the trailer did not convince me since it was released, but thank goodness I have seen it to get rid of that doubt once and for all. When she confronts Elwood after the killing, she tells him You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off, I mean, he was only supposed to kill the one guy, and he explains to her how killing three guys made total sense because it made the whole thing look so random. Sweet Virginia is a tense small town noir. Elwood chases Sam into an occupied motel room, shooting the tenant in the process. It was Daggs idea to relocate the movie to Alaska, though he kept the title, turning it into the element that Abbott and Bernthals characters have in common, allowing them to bond where otherwise each would probably keep to himself: Both have roots in Virginia, but have run off to Alaska for their own reasons. When theyre not hanging out, we see Elwood cleaning his gun, exercising, picking fights and having emotionless sex with a prostitute. The film stars , , in the pivotal roles. This movie gripped me from start to finish. It's a mystery, drama that will haunt you at the end. two men accompanying his target. From James White to Katie Says Goodbye, the Greenwich, CT native seems exclusively drawn to characters who could punch a wall at any moment you cant take your eyes off the guy, but its hard to shake the feeling that he picks his roles by imagining what might happen if Marlon Brandos Stanley Kowalski walked off the screen and started wandering through the modern indie landscape. But as directed by Jamie M. Dagg, this story moves in fits and starts, with secondary characters (a noisy hotel guest, the town cop, Sams young coworker, etc.) Sweet Virginia can't find itself on the cinematic map, John Ivison: Whether the Liberals winked at Chinas helpful election meddling is the lingering question, Trudeau was regularly briefed on foreign interference in elections, national security adviser says, Michael Higgins: 'A lot of reason to be afraid,' says censured teacher critical of the woke revolution in classrooms, Three arrested after activists deface mammoth at Royal B.C. The movie is dictated by Lila (Imogen Poots) hiring Elwood (Christopher Abbott) to murder her husband, which he ended up killing two more people. Every character from his loved ones to his business patrons, plays a part in the unravelling of this community. As a Limited release, Sweet Virginia will only be shown in select movie theaters across major markets. The writing is naunced ,with little windows being left for each character ,to ask why? Sweet Virginia - Movies on Google Play A former rodeo star, with a small time life, unknowingly starts a rapport with a young man who is responsible for the violence that has suddenly gripped. an odd title for a movie set in Alaska. This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. Posters are sourced from TMDb and Posteritati, and appear for you and visitors to your profile and content, depending on settings. The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth: Season 8, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 1, Link to Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Link to The 5 Most Anticipated Movies of March 2023. Bernadette (Rosemarie DeWitt) loses her husband of 18 years in the melee, and turns to local motel manager Sam (Jon Bernthal) for solace. Just okay. 24/10/2018. Some of the films best moments of dread are conversations much too tense for normal folk, but otherwise perfect for a world in which everyone has a motive and everything is connected. New York City, New York Most Hallmark movies have similar plots or storylines. Sweet Virginia would clearly like to stake out some territory on the dark dramatic edges of the cinematic map, but ends up a little lost. Its strength is in its restraint. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. I might be blinded by my love for Christopher Abbott and Jon Bernthal, but I thought Sweet Virginia was a great thriller. All rights reserved. (occasionally cutting to Lilas face). And some scenes that should've been done in a quick 30 seconds or one minute tops took 2 or 3 minutes long. The film doesn't have much of a point, as its characters are reductive variables in an inevitable equation of carnage. A woman is bent over and a man is seen thrusting her. and unassuming, she is anything but laid-back if the situation demands it. The movie opens with a brutal prologue featuring a triple This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of serviceapply. It was released on November 17, 2017, by IFC Films . Super engaging scenes that makes you learn about all of them. But what is a great downgrade here is the non original script. Production companies: XYZ Films, Automatik, Oddfellows Pictures Distributor: IFC Films Cast: Jon Bernthal, Christopher Abbott, Imogen Poots, Rosemarie DeWitt, Odessa Young, Jonathan Tucker, Joseph. Sam has trouble lifting his right arm and walks with a limp due to injuries suffered from bull riding. I can think of three straight away. Upon returning to the motel, Sam finds a tenant complaining about the noise in room 128. Elwood attempts to get in his car to flee, but Sam shoots and kills him. A slow burn drama, with great cinematography and score. Elwood refuses claiming that they are "square", a reference to him letting Bernadette live. Hes a damaged-goods drifter catering to other drifters, running in place from some heartbreak he cant quite forget. I only new a couple. Dark movie. Lets face it: Most Coen brothers knockoffs arent very good. This plays out like a good old fashioned film noir and sadly it does not go very well for all the characters involved. This movie joins in with shows like true detective. It's a simple and contained film, but worth watching if you are a fan of either actor or slow-burn thrillers. Fargo. The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox. really boring and useless. Please click the link below to receive your verification email. Release Date (Theaters): Nov 17, 2017 limited Release Date (Streaming): Nov 17, 2017 Box Office (Gross USA): $8.4K Runtime: 1h 35m Distributor: IFC Films Cast & Crew Jon Bernthal Sam Rossi. Right out of the gate, the China brothers noir-hearted sensibility was being compared to that of fellow film siblings Joel and Ethan Coen, as critics hailed the Australian writer-director duos debut Crawl as a modern-day Blood Simple. On the surface, their 2012 Black List-selected screenplay for Sweet Virginia dives further down that rabbit hole, featuring as it does a wife who hires a guy to bump off her own husband (a gender-flipped twist on the basic Fargo plot) and a hit man whos as cold-blooded as No Country for Old Men killer Anton Chigurh. The photos,pace,characters,locations. He tells Sam that his father was a huge fan of Sam and would have loved to meet him but he's now deceased. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Letterboxd Limited. She is arrested and the final shot is of Bernadette cutting Sam's hair while he thinks about his riding accident. Please check Fandango and Atom Tickets to see if the . An ex-rodeo rider strikes up a friendship with a young man who may be behind the violence occurring in their small town. We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your email. Wer einen dieser oder genau solche Filme mag, sollte auch dieses Kleinstadt-Thriller-Drama in Ordnung finden. 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