Prepare County: Film Review

NY -- Author-director David Pomes trains an unblinking gaze around the scourge of very meth affecting rural America within the harsh indie drama Prepare County. Although it was completed before Winter's Bone, Pomes' first feature suffers in comparison using the robust literary backbone and strongly driven central character of this Sundance discovery. Nevertheless its raw performances and dirty-realist immersion inside a harsh atmosphere keep Prepare County engrossing. Primary setting is deep within the forest of East Texas, where 17-year-old Abe (Ryan Donowho) lives together with his permanently fried, meth-dealing Uncle Bump (Anson Mount, seen recently in AMC's Hell on Wheels) and the even-further-gone grandfather (Tommy Townsend), whose lucid moments appear like ancient history. Their isolated home is dilapidated and also the kitchen no more fit to cook not meth. But Bump is really a self-aggrandizing blowhard who perceives themself as Paul Revere, heroically delivering truth to folks. Regardless of that his 6-year-old daughter, Deandra (Mekenna Fitzsimmons), is certainly going hungry and being uncovered to some constant parade of human crud. While Abe has previously loved the oblivion his uncle's freely shared rock can offer, the boy's protectiveness toward Deandra causes friction together. That rift expands when Abe's father Sonny (Xander Berkeley) returns from the prison stint, going to stay clean, and also to repair his relationship together with his boy. The storyline is just one of almost unwavering blight, with Bump growing more menacing as his drug-fueled existence becomes threatened. Pomes brings sharp observational abilities towards the erratic behavior of addicts in moments for example Bump and the flaky girlfriend (Polly Cole) losing the thread while considering vacation to Las vegas to got married. Frequently seen through Abe's eyes because he watches in the door towards the kids' bed room, the meth parties are specifically vivid within their toxic sleaze. Shooting in textured Super 16mm, Kaira Hurrying uses handheld camera in most but a number of Houston interludes, contributing to the jitteriness of the atmosphere pregnant with paranoia and being applied violence. Pomes endows the film having a tangible feeling of place, heightening the contrast between your quiet woodsy locations and also the claustrophobic squalor of Bump's home. And also the soured flavor of small-town existence is taken in uneasy moments by which Abe or Bump's other flunkies are delivered to the shop to cook supplies. The cast is solid. Donowho balances anger and vulnerability. Berkeley keeps Sonny's agenda sufficiently clouded to keep tension. And Mount's sinewy Bump is chillingly persuasive like a guy whose only loyalty would be to his addiction, even when the performance isn't without hints of actorish self-indulgence. The storyline's ugly climactic developments most likely represent credible options of these figures, however they push a previously bruising film into much more sordid territory. Regardless of the final glimmers of hope and deliverance, you question who the crowd for this is. That question may also explain why, following a string of prize-winning festival showings in 2008, the film has had such a long time to achieve theaters. Opens: 12 ,. 16 (Hannover House) Production companies: Greenwood Films, Red-colored Noses Productions Cast: Anson Mount, Xander Berkeley, Ryan Donowho, Polly Prepare, Rutherford Craven, Mekenna Fitzsimmons, Tommy Townsend Director/film writer: David Pomes Producers: David Pomes, Thomas Bickham, Anson Mount, Xander Berkeley, Ryan Donowho, Emily Gerson Saines Executive producers: Fishing rod Lurie, Michael Whalen, Rigo Fernandez Director of photography: Kaira Hurrying Production designer: James Fowler Costume designer: Mirin Soliz Music: Scott Szabo Editor: Branan Edgens Ranked R, 93 minutes Xander Berkeley