Sundance Review: Thandiwe Newton In ‘God’s Country’
24.01.2022 - 09:51
/ deadline.com
Thandiwe Newton, as she now spells her first name, finally gets a role she can really sink her teeth into with God’s Country, a disturbing, unusually class-and-race-conscious modern Western that paints a pretty despairing view of human relations in red state America. Methodically paced and dominated by negative emotions all around, director/co-writer Julian Higgins takes his own sweet time exploring the troubling, unfriendly mindsets on both sides of the fence. Fences, in fact, would have been a very apt title for this quietly simmering study of people who bring little but ill-will to the table.
Higgins must have a thing about academics and trespassing; his 2004 debut feature Mending Wall dealt with conflicts in a small New England town, while his 2015 short Winter Light (apologies to Ingmar Bergman) centered on a battle between a college professor and two hunters intruding on his property. In his new film, which is set in a mountainous, sparsely populated Western state, no dialogue is heard for the first eight minutes, which effectively foreshadows the clenched resentments and ill-will that come to dominate the drama. If every character in the cast were to be asked the question, “Can’t we all just get along?, “ the answer from both sides would be a resounding, sinister “No!”
Bidding her students and colleagues farewell just before winter break, Sandra (Newton) tells them, “Sometimes it feels like things never change. But I promise you they do. They have to.” Generally out West, locals tend to be friendly, if sometimes also a bit guarded, but when two young men drive onto Sandra’s property and agreeably ask if they can park nearby so they can hike further up into the mountains, she bluntly refuses them permission.
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