Where Have All the Good Men Gone (2016)
Frelle Petersen’s <a href=”https://letterboxd.com/jwldk/film/uncle-2019/>Uncle</a> really impressed, so I was curious to go back to his debut film to see where he started. I didn’t expect much, assuming it would be a smaller simpler film on a shoe-string budget. While the tight budget is true, though it doesn’t really show, it was surprisingly a pretty ambitious and unique film that can be hard to get a complete grasp of.
In terms of style and theme, Uncle is a lot simpler and more straight, whereas this was several genres at once that seemed confusing and weird at first, but I really came to appreciate what he aimed for in the end. Starts off as something brutal social realism and I first thought this was taking the “misery porn” angle, which it sort of does but in an exaggerated that almost becomes a caricature of those types of films. Odd at first, but that is exactly what the director was aiming for. The styles changes to something a little less bleak, while still keeping everything close to realistic but still a little bit off. While it is not supernatural or anything, the structure reminds me of a fairytale. But also a western. That may sound confusing and it is for certain a film some people will not connect with, as it can seem jarring that it is not fully committing itself to one type of film. I do however love the experimentation and the surprises this approach gives.
Rating: 4.5