User Reviews

Definitely tense and starkly beautiful. Hard to imagine such a wide open and desolate place still seeming claustrophobic, but it feels suffocating. I've how you're at once sympathic and repulsed by David, and Clayne Crawford pulls off an amazing performance riding the thin line between them. Coy as Dersk brings a tense and predatory Ed Norton vibe to what turns out to be a managing character, and with very little screen time. This is a great flick about a disintegrating marriage and the desperation of losing it.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

A small little film filmed in my native Utah, an estranged husband and wife go through a trial separation, pushing the sanity and patience of the husband to the edge as he tries to grapple with his wife's newfound relationship. First off, the always fascinating 4:3 aspect ratio reallyakes this film stand out, as do the performances, particularly Clayne Crawford's unhinged performance. Storyline, the film definitely hooked me, but execution-wose, I felt rather underwhelmed throughout most of the film, and the ending in particular felt loose, open-ended, and like nothing was really resolved. Overall, very well-shot and a tense mood throughout. However, the film simply just underwhelmed a little in the end.

It had so much... presence. I was utterly present in this minuscule, but gravity-filled, world. Acting was perfect.

When a couple goes through a trial separation with an open approach to dating others, difficulties arise when the spouses see the arrangement differently from one another, leading to tense exchanges, heartbreak and eventually the threat of genuine danger. But, in director Robert Machoian's latest, things are not always what they seem to be as this chilling and suspenseful tale plays out. The film's brilliantly orchestrated and executed minimalist treatment, coupled with its expertly crafted atmospheric mood, ethereal soundtrack, stark cinematography and fine performances, combine to make for a taut, gripping story that keeps viewers spellbound, especially when it spins off in unexpected directions. Admittedly, the picture could have benefitted from a little more back story, though that's more than made up for by the production's superb character development and many other attributes, a film that shows more than tells in conveying its narrative. This Independent Spirit Award nominee for the competition's John Cassavettes Award was certainly well deserved, showing cinephiles and the movie industry at large that it is indeed possible to produce great work with meager means.