2/19/19 - Hale County This Morning This Evening (2018) - 5+/6-/10

Cinéma vérité slice-of-life with some truly magnificent shots and a lovely insightful peer into a generally underrepresented peoples/lifestyle.  Perhaps my biggest problem would be my general under appreciation of cinéma vérité docs as a whole; the more artistic and less focused, the greater my struggle. It was a poetic blend of whimsical existential cinematic compositions and down-to-earth harsher realities, mixed into a flowing and unfocused this/that. It is a narrative that lacks a narrative, which was interesting but unloved by me.

Particular visions stay with you. The time lapses stars seem through the basketball hoop, the shards of angelic light slicing through the black tire smoke, the sweat steamed work being ground out at the basketball practice court, and the single tear welling up as a mother and her adult son argue about who should spend time with the child. Plenty of bold visions and powerful moments. These are the beguiling instances and visual language that lets the film cast its spell.

On the whole though, I couldn’t say I was really into it. The tiny and mundane emphasis never bored me, but I never felt jazzed about the experience. This is a movie I enjoyed and certainly appreciated, both artistically and philosophically, yet felt little passion for.