Release date: 17 April 2026 (UK)
Director: Max Walker-Silverman
Starring: Josh O'Connor; Lily LaTorre; Meghann Fahy; Kali Reis; Amy Madigan
Distributed by: Bleecker Street
Running time: 1h 35m
Music by: Jake Xerxes Fussell; James Elkington

Awful title, awful. It smacks of, ‘we left the title til last because we couldn’t think of anything, and someone threw this out and we were too tired to keep workshopping.’ It’s the title I would have given this film if this film was a 1000 words mediocre short story I’d written to read out at an open mic writing night, which I was hoping would have more emotional impact than it did. I’ve forgotten the title of this film three times whilst pondering this review.

*People spend a lot of time sitting on stoops in this film*

That’s mean, because the film is quite good. It sort of washed over me, this one, never really hitting hard enough to break through the surface level of worrying about the baby’s food, the baby’s sleeping, the baby’s general wellbeing in an environment she’s rapidly growing out of. But it was perfectly pleasant to have on in the background, and in a different situation I think it would be an absorbing enough hour and a half. The really important thing is it’s not the Michael Jackson film, which is about to take over baby cinema, filling me with total horror. What are they thinking? Anyway.

This one is in the genre of ‘thoughtful American film about American rural life, with beautiful scenic vistas and introverted mumbling salt of the earth type people, where no one says the words ‘climate change’ or ‘economy’ out loud, possibly because there’s a few twitchy people on the funding board who don’t want to upset the conservatives.’ But this is really a film about climate change and economic decline, as so many in this genre are.

Josh O’Connor (took me ages to work out where we’ve seen him before, but it’s in the Knives Out film I forgot to review before Christmas!) is trying to rebuild his life after wildfires destroyed his ranch. He’s now living in a trailer close to his ex partner and their daughter, who sees his return as something more triumphant than it really is. He’s anxious to make it clear that he’s ‘not like the others’ - the others being his neighbours in the trailer park who also lost their homes in the fires. He still has land, on which he’s determined to rebuild (you see how subtle that title is now.)

There ensues the sort of gentle heartwarming hour and a half that, perhaps, comes across as cleverer than it is because of the artistic camera work, thoughtful performances and arty soundtrack. It all ends on a hopeful note, but somewhere along the way I found myself having a mild emotional breakdown - I don’t think it was the film, although the thought of people having their entire lives burned away does fill me with a kind of wistful horror. Maybe it was the tiny baby in the same bassinet we used to use, maybe it was the fact that my baby wouldn’t sleep, and instead went galavanting about the space, investigating other people’s prams and teetering on the steps. Maybe it was just the realisation that this is nearly over, time is passing, and I’m not the same person I used to be. Sometimes I fantasise about burning half of my belongings, just to make room for the new person I’ve turned into.

Well, she’s sleeping now, and I have a cup of tea. And soon all this will change again, and I’ll want this part back, and so it goes on.

Good things: The subtitles trying desperately to keep up with the cattle auction is very funny. Eventually they just resort to ‘auctioneer speaking quickly.’

Bad things: The title really bugs me. I’ve never realised until this year how awful so many film titles are.

My review: It’s going to go into the bucket of ‘nice films I probably won’t remember in a couple of months.’

Lily’s review: She’s asleep, I haven’t checked…

Next week: The aforementioned Michael Jackson film, which we will not be attending.

Rebuilding

The Drama