In his second feature as writer/director, Clint Bentley trims his frame ratio down from a horizontal WideScreen of 2.35 to 1, well-suited for his horse-racing debut in JOCKEY/’21 (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2023/01/jockey-2021.html), to a more vertically inclined ratio of 1.5 to 1 for the tall trees of the NorthWest and the intimacy of family life found here. (Both films with cinematographer Adolpho Veloso’s emphasis on using natural light and too many backlit silhouettes.) The film a career definer for Joel Edgerton as a still-waters-run-deep loner, an orphan working for the railroad as a logger whose life improves when independent-minded Gladys (Felicity Jones) takes an interest. Romance, marriage, house building, child, played in stages between long separations on dangerous work trips. But even this unsatisfactory on & off family life will seem precious next to the whims of God & Nature that leave Edgerton with little more than haunted memories. The film, generally moving and refusing to push emotional buttons (it hardly needs to), though in the end, somewhat one-note in theme and execution. The biggest shame is that while digitally shot, the laconic characters and spectacular landscape might have played with far more power on the big screen*, and NetFlix barely gave this a short award-qualifying theatrical run. And regardless of promises currently being made, that’s the likely future of film; or rather the end of it.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *A proper release might help stop the blather on how only productions with casts of thousands and pricey screen-filling special effects get major boosts from theatrical showings. Ultimately, nothing’s bigger/more powerful than the human face shown in close up 50' wide. See Garbo at the end of QUEEN CHRISTINA/’33 for confirmation.
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