Highbrow Magazine - Montana Story https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/montana-story en ‘Montana Story’ Is a Mellow, Lyrical Family Drama https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/19977-montana-story-mellow-lyrical-family-drama <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sat, 05/28/2022 - 13:16</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1montanafilm.jpg?itok=OxxLnTuT"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1montanafilm.jpg?itok=OxxLnTuT" width="480" height="243" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>Montana Story</em> speaks to a moment in which old monuments have eroded, layers of mythology have begun to unfurl, and the skyline is altered in ways that can’t be adequately articulated. Landscape is integral to Scott McGehee and David Siegal’s film, its setting functions as a means of explicating the chasms of understanding that time and distance create. The immensity of the symbolism captured within the Big Sky can serve to obscure the quiet struggle taking place underneath it, and it is this tension that <em>Montana Story </em>sets out so eloquently.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Cal (Owen Teague) returns to his family’s 200-acre ranch in Montana to care for his sick father. His estranged sister, Erin (Haley Lu Richardson), arrives unexpectedly at the ranch, seven years after she ran away following a confrontation with their father. Cal arranges for the last ageing horse left in the stables, Mr. T, to be put down; but Erin decides that she will take the horse back with her to upstate New York, and begins to arrange for the transportation. As the siblings share the details of their lives, they must reckon with the event that drove Erin away. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2montanafilm.jpg" style="height:251px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>Montana Story</em> has echoes of Wim Wenders at his most meditative, tapping into the aching sadness of these blank expanses fringed with imperious mountain ranges. As Cal and Erin drive across stark plains and struggle to come to terms with the people they have become, it is hard not to be reminded of <em>Kings of the Road</em> (1976) or <em>Paris, Texas</em> (1984). </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">It is equally a sort of Bressonian Western; the understatement of its tone undercuts the majesty of the backdrop, achieving a naturalism that interrogates the nature of the frontier and the legend that attends it. Cinematographer Giles Nuttgens lensed one of the defining neo-Westerns, <em>Hell or High Water</em> (2016), and there are parallels to the chilly, forbidding qualities he brings here.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Cal and Erin struggle to meet the past on their own terms: Cal approaches life from a position of anxiety, while Erin projects tenacity; but they are equally grasping for purchase against the upheavals that have warped what was once familiar. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3montanafilm.jpg" style="height:257px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Both performances reveal a slow seething to the surface: Richardson has a severity to her demeanor, which articulates Erin’s determination to rectify old wounds and pay off a karmic debt; while Teague is tortured by his inaction, striking a penitent posture to expiate his burden of guilt. The unease which Richardson and Teague bring to their interplay is compelling, unearthing depths of loss, pain, and anger. <em>Montana Story</em> hinges on its central performances, but also noteworthy is Gilbert Owuor as Ace, the father’s nurse, who functions as a buffer between these emotional poles.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">McGehee and Siegal’s framing communicates as much as dialogue ever could; contrasting the smallness of the story with the vastness of the landscape, charting the reverberations that are felt from what is left behind from a solitary life, and commenting on social issues with a light touch. But the writing occasionally lets them down, veering into expository territory rather than allowing details to be inferred from the unspoken elements. At one point, Ace reminds Cal that ‘Some things are clear without explanation’; it is advice that writers McGehee, Siegal and Mike Spreter should have heeded, as the somewhat inelegant handling of the family’s backstory doesn’t live up to the sophistication of the visuals, or the skill of the performances.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4montanafilm.jpg" style="height:600px; width:405px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>Montana Story</em> belongs in the canon of post-financial crisis films that deal with characters seeking a new center in the wreckage of the world they once knew, echoing the likes of <em>Certain Women</em> (2016) and <em>Lean on Pete </em>(2017) in its understated pathos. The light and stillness turn into a reproach when the endless horizon begins to contract, and the fealty to violence upon the body, the soul, and the land becomes unbearable. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>Montana Story</em> enacts a kind of generational reckoning; Cal and Erin strive to clear up the eyesores of the past by choosing to recognize the skyline afresh. McGehee and Siegal have created a deft, perceptive yet imperfect testament to the power of letting go, and the necessity of connection amidst the wilderness. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>D.M. Palmer is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/scott-mcghee" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Scott McGhee</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/david-siegal" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">David Siegal</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/montana-story" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Montana Story</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-films" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new films</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/dramas" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">dramas</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/movies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Movies</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/family-movies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">family movies</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/movies-now-playing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">movies now playing</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">D.M. Palmer</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Sat, 28 May 2022 17:16:29 +0000 tara 11113 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/19977-montana-story-mellow-lyrical-family-drama#comments