Movie Reviews
That is why I loved directors like David Gordon Green. It this new generation of great American film directors that are working to change what I argued in the previous paragraph.
Green’s film “Undertow” is helping that cause. He has a style that is not about hooking up loose ends of a weak story, oh no, his style is there to do what Orson Welles’ and Hitchcock’s style was there to do: make a solid movie better. That’s it. Style, in terms of directing, should be an accumulation of visuals that one would learn from experience. And if you’re a director, your character in the movie is your style.
Green is swiftly becoming the type of filmmaker whose movies could be unaccredited, and you would still know that it belong to them. That’s what stylization is there for.
“Undertow” is the uncomfortable story of Chris Munn (Jamie Bell), his brother Tim (Devon Allen), and their dad John (Dermot Mulroney). The family is dirt poor, and living on what their hands can produce. Although John expresses his love for his kids, Chris just won’t stop getting into trouble.
In the opening scene, we are casually tossed into an uproarious chase. Chris has just thrown a rock through his ex-girlfriend’s window. Her trigger-happy dad storms out of the house sporting a recently cocked shot gun. So off Chris runs, through the woods and backyards until he steps on a wood plank with a nail sticking out of it. Now, I’ve seen some of the goriest movies ever made, but I kid you not, I audibly yelled when it happened. The way Green and his editors (Steven Gonzales and Zene Baker) cut that scene is painful to watch.
Then Deel (Josh Lucas) comes to visit. Deel is John’s near-estranged brother, fresh out of prison for unknown crime(s). We sense the hostility between John and Deel, but Green waits a very long time to reveal the whole story. When it is told, the result is almost scary. The way Philip Glass’ score and Green’s direction unfolds; the violence that amounts from a tempered conversation. The scene is brutal and unexpected.
Chris and Tim are forced to flee from home. They hide in the woods, borrow some time by working for a nice family who feeds them for a day, and eventually construct a crude makeshift home out of spare car parts. The two aren’t schooled, but their intelligent, observant, and deeply in touch with their emotions. Despite their age difference, there is a bond that is there, which grows as the movie progresses.
There are a couple of scenes that stray from the plot on purpose. Green allows his characters to just sit and talk or think. What they have to say are things you’d never hear yourself say, but when it is said you wouldn’t expect anything different from them. We understand these characters remarkably well.
I think part of that is because no one is ever labeled. Green doesn’t allow that because that would alienate us from the story. And for awhile, we are forced to follow their way of life.
Undeniably, Green’s film is thrilling, but it’s not a thriller. And yes, it is even heartbreaking at times. I think the best way to put it is this: “Undertow” is a story about unfinished business. ****