Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Just perfect...

Admirable film.

A lot of fun.

If you are expecting a shoot 'em up western, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a film that examines the aftermath of the Civil War in somewhat brutal terms and offers a "that was then, this is now," perspective to the average, impoverished white Confederate soldier coming home from the war, this is your film. Editing could have been tighter while keeping the pensive tone. There's some elements of metaphor that should have gone just a little deeper with another draft on the script (who perishes, who survives & manner of disposal). It seems that most apt films about the South are made by foreign directors, starting with Renoir's The Southerner. The Aussie director gets a lot of things right, and for that, I will indulge some of the dialogue and pacing issues. Ethan Embry disappeared into his role, and the film is worth watching for that. Could have done without the graphic bedroom scene early on (not that I'm opposed, just that it wasn't necessary to establish the character as evil), but I'm guessing it was supposed to be a metaphor for how the wealthy barons of the South raped it even after it was no longer the Grand South? If that's the case, then the character is both baron and carpetbagger in one, which is a little odd, but we'll roll with it.

This was torture to sit through. To call this piece tedious and boring is an understatement.The plot is basically about a Civil War vet returning home to his family and becoming involved in a feud with their neighbors. There is nothing compelling to drive the story forward, there are long scenes of characters doing mundane things and not too much happens in this. I wonder what was the point of making it. Is it supposed to be experimental? I don't get it. The performances from the actors were, in my opinion, quite subpar. William Forseythe did what he could I suppose, but you can't build a house without a foundation, and this script's foundation was never laid. I'll assume it's lazy writing, what else could it be? Also, the accents of the actors were way off, not even remotely realistic.I regret spending time watching it.

Well, I just wonder if you ever watched NBC's singing contest program, "The Voice". Did you ever feel that you were going crazy when you listened to one of the coaches, Adam Levine? He usually got nothing to say, but that did not stop him to blah, blah and blah, blabbering with lot of hollow words, beating about the bush endlessly, like he was trapped in his own hollow words and didn't know how to stop and get out of it. Why a guy with nothing to say but still tried so hard to say something that he did not know what he was saying or talking about? So every time when its his turn to say something but couldn't find the exact words or thoughts he's trying to say but did not realize he just tried to talk about something out of nothing, at that time, you lost your temper and patience, jumped up from the sofa, yelled and screamed at the image of Adam Levin on the screen: "SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!" Did you ever attend a college class with a lousy professor who mysteriously got the tenure to teach the students who tried to learn something but only got clueless garbled rubbish from him? Did you ever tried to listen to some of the idiotic politicians to deliver a hollow speech in front of the voters? This film is exactly like what I have to point out as the above-mentioned. There was actually nothing to say, the storyline was just a very thin and short straight line; you could actually put all the words in half page. The whole movie is like it could be told all in the short synopsis out of a very very short story, but miraculously turned out to be a 600 pages big novel. The whole movie was snail-crawling from the very beginning to the end without almost nothing to tell, so a scene of shaving head or cutting, chopping wood, walking through the forest, or woke up from nightmares, praying, press flowers between book pages, eating, skinning animals....all in close-up like slow motion crap. We also saw a camera usually followed behind the actors without any special purpose, the shaky scenes usually prolonged quite a while for nothing to tell specially.This pathetic movie, I think, was actually written and directed by Adam Levine.

Kane Senes establishes himself quickly as a director to watch. This touching, poignant, masterfully directed western hearkens back to an earlier era of filmmaking -- sharing more in common with earlier films of Robert Altman and 70s filmmakers who aren't afraid to let a shot play out and let scenes breathe.Of course, the acting here is magnificent. James 'Badge' Dale, Ethan Embry, and Maika Monroe are all at the top of their games.If you are expecting a shoot em up; this isn't for you. This belongs to the western ouvre of films that breathe: one that Eastwood mastered and now Senes has as well.