by Roger CO on Sun 25th Apr 2021 Streamed proj @ home

Feels like documentary

Summary

Life in the 'other' america - the flyover corner of the flyover states.

Full review

It feels like documentary and at the same time tells an interesting story covering universal themes (growing up, leaving home, the power of family and community, the curse of alcohol on the dispossessed).

We saw this two days before the director's (Chloé Zhao) latest film scooped up Oscars (Nomanland was already on our to-be-watched list), the boy, Johnny, and girl, Jashaun, could have won acting awards for playing themselves in this one.

Also very satisfying as a narrative with a clear crux point where our hero, Johnny, makes the decision that will determine his future. In the echo canyon as he is setting out to leave, he calls his sister's name and echo came there none.

A classic 'true fiction', that is in fact fiction but in spirit true.