A former rodeo star, now a motel manager, meets a young man who is responsible for the violence that suddenly has seized his small town. 2023 National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Upon leaving the next morning, Bernadette picks up the picture Sam laid down. Our aged hero must face his relationships of past and present to come up against this unpredictable predator. I can think of three straight away. As 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. This movie is stocked with great actors and great plot ideas that just never come together. Literally. 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4. Read Less. loneliness and emptiness of a location that might be difficult to find on all Sam knocks on the door and begins fighting with the tenant. Coming Soon, Regal A big pile of nothingness. But what is a great downgrade here is the non original script. Hes more or less passing through, but checks into the motel and strikes up a weird friendship with Sam. so underdeveloped they might as well not be there at all. Sometimes you can find an independent film that can be somewhat captivating, I say this because Sweet Virginia without aspiring to be something great has good attributes in its favor: dark story, interesting actors playing equally interesting roles as well as simple but very daring scenes. Was he bored too? it holds a lot of power over me like its scary. After a phone call with his mother, Elwood becomes enraged and instigates a fight with two men. Even during the daytime, it's dark. 2017 R (Language|Drug Use|Some Strong Sexuality|Violence), Mystery & thriller, All rights reserved. Take this bit of diner conversation between Sam, a onetime rodeo champ played by Jon Bernthal, and Elwood (no really), a contract killer played by Christopher Abbott. The title has survived because one of the films central locations, a motel, is An old-soul sadness has seeped into his bones; he can still clearly remember what it was like to have the cocky power of an athlete. It was released on November 17, 2017, by IFC Films. Guns N' Roses, Stevie Nicks, Janet Jackson and Wizkid are on sale now. has been hired by a young woman, Lila (Imogen Poots), to get rid of her It isnt. Sweet Virginia is a tense small town noir. , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. 93 minutes Cast Jon Bernthal as Sam Christopher Abbott as Elwood Rosemarie DeWitt as Bernadette Imogen Poots as Lila Odessa Young as Maggie Scott A. McGillivray as Lloyd Stothers Director Jamie M. Dagg Writer Benjamin China Paul China The two are tortured souls who are destined towards reckoning. 10/10 and well deserved. I won't bother reading them. ', Donnie Yen Called Out John Wick 4 and Rogue One Asian Stereotypes, Got Scripts Changed: Why Is the Name Always Shang or Chang, The True Story Behind 'Cocaine Bear': A 175-Pound Beast, a Dead Drug Smuggler in Gucci Loafers and More, Michael B. Jordan Meets Reporter at 'Creed III' Premiere Who 'Teased Him all the Time' in High School: 'I Was the Corny Kid, Right? seeking out. Lila meets the man who shot Mitchell, her husband, and asks why he killed Tom and Lou instead of only killing Mitchell as planned. More at One rejection suggested that Nabokov recast the novels action in short, strong, realistic sentences; Nabokovs imagined examples still stand as hilarious, sterling examples of what I like to call cornpone clich: He acts crazy. Cold in July. A former rodeo champ befriends a young man with a propensity for violence. As with most slow-burn neo-noir movies, Sweet Virginia thrives on atmosphere. Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. No doubt from a great story and script ,but the ,,,I guess casting choices. Sweet Virginia has no wit or wisdom within the script. Mitchell's killer later approaches Sam at the motel and introduces himself as Elwood. If you watch this film, be sure to have subtitles available because the actors constantly mumble their lines. Don't listen to the bad reviews. A guy walks into a bar. Dont worry, it wont take long. The camera mainly shows the view through the front windshield The bartender says, "We're closed." It may be predictable, but it sure isn't boring. Christopher Abbott 8/10 (Really convincing as a psycho character scary convincing!) A former rodeo champ befriends a young man with a propensity for violence. Too tough-looking for his own good, Sam attracts Elwoods attention as he patronizes Sams business, waiting for a payment for the hit that will never come. The film doesn't have much of a point, as its characters are reductive variables in an inevitable equation of carnage. Its central performance, by Abbott, is a harrowing, embarrassing adventure in mannerisms. A slow burn drama, with great cinematography and score. A few scenes after the killing, we learn what motivated it, as Elwood meets with Lila McCabe (Imogen Poots), the woman who hired him, on a scenic bridge. 24/10/2018. The story is not all that interesting and in the end I just did not care in the least what happened to anyone in the movie. She is arrested and the final shot is of Bernadette cutting Sam's hair while he thinks about his riding accident. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. Then, as she approaches a Sweet Virginia was written by brothers Paul and Benjamin China, and landed on the 2012 Black List, a roster of promising, unproduced screenplays that has since given us movies great (Arrival, Whiplash) and merely so-so (Draft Day, The Judge). film noir, femme fatale, 1940s, thriller or intriguing cops, murder, thriller, detective or crime robbery, criminal, crime, heist or cops violence, action, guns, cops or killing gangster, crime, criminal, violence or ruthless boring characters except for elwood (1 viewing). 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. two men accompanying his target. Truly a work of art. Elwood attempts to get in his car to flee, but Sam shoots and kills him. Sweet Virginia is an uncommonly dark movie. The motels owner, an ex-rodeo star named Sam (Jon Bernthal), is a burly, bearded cowboy with a limp and early-onset Parkinsons. All people are so sad all the time. Jacob Oller is a writer and film critic whose writing has appeared in The Guardian, Playboy, Roger Ebert, Film School Rejects, Chicagoist, Vague Visages and other publications. community would have done but cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagne captures the Taken aback, she pretends not to know Elwood before quickly leaving. 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). Lots of detail. Klassisches Sonntags-Couchkino. Coming Soon. The camera moves slow and methodically, often lingering on a frame for a second too long. The cast is good, the settings are correct and even cinematography. We all act crazy, I guess. Abbott's unhinged performance is nicely balanced out by Bernthal's stoicism. Contact Lori, VFO Locations Manager, with the particulars of your shoot. there's not much happening here that you haven't seen before, but this is one of those movies that adheres to the fact that filmmaking has a hard time re-inventing the wheel again and again, and just sticks with its homage to the genre. It's a classic case of a little becoming a lot onscreen on the basis of boasting dark atmosphere, eerie score and superb performances. Lets face it: Most Coen brothers knockoffs arent very good. Funny how some writers, and some audiences, still consider this kind of mush authentic, let alone powerful. Nothing worse than that ott ,,feel this now ,,base obviousness. Blue Ruin. I guess God acts crazy.. The locations used for filming The Virginian were picturesque and relatable. Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. director Jamie M. Dagg came on board, he moved the setting far to the north. The action in the film is great and you'll be engaged, but you'll be wishing there was more character development to really pull things together. Case in One of those movies where the trailer looks so promising but then you are so disappointed when you watch the whole movie. All that said, the movie is well put together, enough so that if youre not entirely tired of its clichs, it might constitute a tolerable entertainment. This movie joins in with shows like true detective. 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. Hes much tougher than he looks, and the only person he becomes close with during his stay is the exact opposite. [1][2] On May 9, 2017, IFC Films acquired distribution rights to the film. Drama. A little after that, a lawyer says to Lila, Were you aware of your husbands financial difficulties and this wannabe Phyllis Dietrichsons eyes go all wide and she practically mouths the word Ooops.. Learn more. Coming Soon. Then theres Elwood (Christopher Abbott), the murderer. Yeah i know i cant spell get over it professor irrelevant. I was enjoying this movie until the abrupt, unclimactic, uncreative end. The other grieving widow of note is Lila (Imogen Poots), who is astonished and more than a little angry to discover that her husband left her nothing but debts. Strong yet soft-spoken, The Walking Dead star Benthal plays Sam Rossi, an ex-rodeo champ who now operates a spartan motel on what feels like the brink of the world. Only criticism for my ears was a lot of the communication was low key,and I had to turn it up a fair bit. 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. Please check Fandango and Atom Tickets to see if the . Just writing this after watching. Usually meek As translated to screen by director Jamie M. Dagg (whose sure hand and smart changes elevate things considerably), Benjamin and Paul Chinas script yields one of the gnarliest and most unsettling movies were likely to get this year. Sweet Virginia is an odd title for a movie set in Alaska. My fiance and i sat here for like 5 minutes afterwards coming up with different endings that would have been betterdid the writer just give up? 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. With his dead eyes and awkward mannerisms, the only As a Limited release, Sweet Virginia will only be shown in select movie theaters across major markets. Please reference Error Code 2121 when contacting customer service. Access all of our expanded, online-only, subscriber exclusive opinion writing. 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. an affair with motel owner Sam and shes not devastated by her loss. It starts with a bang, ends with a bang, and those scenes bookend some solid The assassin and manager strike an uneasy relationship. The only saving grace is the short ninety minute running time. By shifting the China brothers script from Virginia to this remote frontier, Dagg has forged a connection not only to film noir, but also to the lawlessness of the Western. He demands payment, and again she tells him she can get the money. Its not so much that the story is complicated. 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 his small town. Even though the sense of menace grows so oppressive at times, you can hardly breathe for minutes on end, its the characters ever-evolving inner mechanics that fuel our engagement. The two develop a strange relationship that slowly escalates while we find out who owes Elwood, why Elwood is owed and how Elwoods debt cant be paid. 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