Shotgun Stories (2007)

The 4 Tops had it right in 1966 when they sang this song - except this film was not made until 2007!! How did they know? Seriously people a 7.3 rating? Granted the acting was good and the soundtrack appropriate, but classifying this film as a thriller, as my 3 three year old grand daughter would say "is Ridkolous."The plot is slow, the actors talk slow, they move slow, the music is slow, the "action scenes" take literally seconds. (so I guess you could say they were not slow) I understand that things which occur off screen can take on greater depth and imagination, but for that to occur, something has to happen. And not much happens throughout the movie. And amazingly the director must have thought at times too much tension was building, so he even stepped it down a notch or two with even slower music between scenes. For instance, during one scene, a car drives up to the house!!! Now wait a minute, modern audiences can only take so much!! please let us catch our breath!Now some may see great existential meaning in the film - that this gives depth and meaning to the Southern farm experience, etc. etc. etc. Well the only thing I can say to them is Hans Christian Anderson called "BS" on that many years ago with "The Emperor's New Clothes." And then finally, there is the dialogue. Can it be true that people from Arkansas only speak in 2 or 3 word sentences? Well if this is your cup of tea, good for you. As for me and my household, we place this one among the notables of snoozdom: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", "Cache", and the all time snoozer: "Boyhood"

I watched this movie after watching Jeff Nichols' next movie TAKE SHELTER. One thing that I think Nichols does well - like Paul Thomas Anderson - is creating the atmosphere for a story that has only one possible outcome - a bad one. That sense of dread in a movie means you HAVE to stay and see what happens. In SHOTGUN STORIES, Nichols - along with his cast, including Michael Shannon, manage to capture a futility of American existence - almost Godot-esque. The three men, at the centre of the piece are called Boy, Son & Kid. These boys were not handed out a winning hand at the start.At the centre of the story is a family dispute - more specifically, a step-family dispute - that comes to the fore at a funeral. In that scene alone you get a great sense of how the actions of one man can still hurt many people down the years.I enjoyed this film - but I don't think everyone will. Atmospherically, excellent, and the story within is a good one for anyone with skeletons in their own family closet - however - it feels a little long in places - and I'm not sure how satisfied people will be with the ending once it arrives - I wasn't - but I enjoyed it.

I've seen Michael Shannon in too many movies to mention, but he may get his due this year with an Oscar nomination for Revolutionary Road. This indie, shot in the State I spent a lot of my growing up years in, is an excellent performance for him. Most of the others in this movie about family tension and revenge are new to acting.Wars between families and clans are nothing new. There are the famous Hatfields and McCoys, and I just watched L' Héritage (The Legacy) that had the same subject. Here, a daddy left three sons and went off to start a new family. They come together at the funeral, but the abandoned clan set off a feud when they dissed the old man.It was a slow movie, with a few fights, and it verged on exploding, but family wins out and bloodshed is minimal.

Shotgun Stories is a film that should be better than it is. The material provides any number of story lines to emerge that would be more convincing than what is actually shot. The movie does have one thing going for it: Michael Shannon. Too long has this great actor sat in the background of American film. Seen most recently in the William Friedkin adaptation of Tracy Letts' "Bug," Mr. Shannon has the ability to hide his intentions better than any other actor around. The only reason to keep watching this movie at all is because you're not exactly sure what he's up to. While watching this film, one can't help but notice that it looks an awful lot like a David Gordon Greene movie. That's a nice touch, except when the end credits finally...finally go up it shows that this much better filmmaker is a co-producer. Had Mr. Greene taken the helm of this "family tragedy" it's possible the end result would be a far better affair. One fine scene exits in the movie, and it centers around a monologue delivered believably by Mr. Shannon. The scene is early on in the film and occurs at a funeral, and the tension between the families and the setting alone prepare you for more well written, well acted scenes that involve the same amount of truth as this one. Unfortunately, those scenes never come. Jeff Nichols structures the film into an old fashioned Greek tragedy that pits brother against brother. The grudge between them comes from a deep seeded hatred for one another stemming from none other than their father. Family bonds and morality are tested, and the film does a decent job of showing rural American life. Nichols himself hails from Arkansas and one would think that his interpretation of this lifestyle is accurate. I won't argue that. The homes in which these people live seem believable enough, and the environment seems like a real place, but when anyone other than Shannon opens their mouth the film borders on parody, making us laugh at these men's schemes rather than making us understand them. It is a story in which these men are trapped by their environment and unreconciled hatred. The funeral scene in the beginning was supposed to solve this, but only fueled the fire. When the guns start blazing and the bodies start dropping, the movie falls into ordinary melodramatic garbage that we've been reading since the beginning of time. Michael Shannon deserves better, and perhaps in the upcoming "Revolutionary Road" he'll finally be recognized. "Shotgun Stories" should have done this, but instead leaves the actor desperately trying to carry everyone else on his back, which he does for a while. Someone better get him some icy hot and put him in a good film right away.