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"It was inescapable, my father’s depression…like some fumigator’s mist filling our lungs. It seemed to be the focal point of our lives that summer. The geological center around which everything was defined.”
Twelve-year-old Bo Groden (Valentina De Angelis) longs for the life of a “normal” family with “a lawn and in-built sprinkler system.” Where she can be a Girl Scout, and have a phone. Instead, her father Charley (Sam Elliott) and mother Arlene (Joan Allen) live with Bo far off the road in the high mesa of northern New Mexico. They are 1970s refugees from the chaos of the city and live a very self-sufficient life by hunting and growing their own food, and scouring the dump and bartering for what they need or want. Bo is homeschooled but longs to go to school with other children.
But this story is about the summer Charley suffers a near catatonic depression. Arlene asks their friend George (J.K. Simmons) to go to a psychiatrist and pretend to be depressed in order to get medication for Charley.
In the midst of this, William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost), an IRS agent arrives to audit the family for tax evasion. Shortly upon arriving, William falls into fever that lasts for days and causes him to be delusional or sleep. Once he comes to his senses, the mysterious and tragic William turns to painting and never leaves the Groden farmstead.
Amy Brenneman also appears as the adult Bo reflecting on this difficult summer.
And I have to say, the stunning New Mexican landscape is just as much a character as any of the humans. The cinematography is often just breathtaking.
An exceptionally artistic, articulate and literate film with lines that remains memorable to me:
”…there is a hole in the day without you.”
“It has struck me to view the ocean as the past, the sky as the future, and the present as that thin, precarious line where both meet. Precarious because as we stand there, it curves underfoot, ever-changing.”
“Your life is yours.”
Directed by Scott Campbell.
Run time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Rated PG-13.
My personal rating: A-
Twelve-year-old Bo Groden (Valentina De Angelis) longs for the life of a “normal” family with “a lawn and in-built sprinkler system.” Where she can be a Girl Scout, and have a phone. Instead, her father Charley (Sam Elliott) and mother Arlene (Joan Allen) live with Bo far off the road in the high mesa of northern New Mexico. They are 1970s refugees from the chaos of the city and live a very self-sufficient life by hunting and growing their own food, and scouring the dump and bartering for what they need or want. Bo is homeschooled but longs to go to school with other children.
But this story is about the summer Charley suffers a near catatonic depression. Arlene asks their friend George (J.K. Simmons) to go to a psychiatrist and pretend to be depressed in order to get medication for Charley.
In the midst of this, William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost), an IRS agent arrives to audit the family for tax evasion. Shortly upon arriving, William falls into fever that lasts for days and causes him to be delusional or sleep. Once he comes to his senses, the mysterious and tragic William turns to painting and never leaves the Groden farmstead.
Amy Brenneman also appears as the adult Bo reflecting on this difficult summer.
And I have to say, the stunning New Mexican landscape is just as much a character as any of the humans. The cinematography is often just breathtaking.
An exceptionally artistic, articulate and literate film with lines that remains memorable to me:
”…there is a hole in the day without you.”
“It has struck me to view the ocean as the past, the sky as the future, and the present as that thin, precarious line where both meet. Precarious because as we stand there, it curves underfoot, ever-changing.”
“Your life is yours.”
Directed by Scott Campbell.
Run time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Rated PG-13.
My personal rating: A-
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