Uncle John
Studio: FilmBuff
Directed by Steven Piet
Sep 16, 2015
Web Exclusive
In the first long, uninterrupted chunk of this film, we watch as Uncle John—a hunched, rugged man with a lot of strength left in his aged frame—observes a man as he stumbles into shallow water and drowns. He wraps the body in a tarp, hauls it off in his battered pickup, and sets it aflame in an empty quarry. As he disposes of the body, he runs into several of the locals; immediately, it’s clear John is a beloved figure in his small, rural community. As rumors begin to circulate about the unexplained disappearance of an undesirable neighbor, we see John struggle to maintain his friendly demeanor—all while the reasons behind his actions remain hidden.
John’s story is riveting, which is why it’s occasionally frustrating when Uncle John tears us away from this Midwestern murder mystery to delve into the romantic tribulations of John’s nephew, Ben, an animator who lives in urban Chicago. Ben works for an advertising firm, where his boss hires an attractive new producer, Kate, whom Ben becomes instantly smitten with. The film cuts back and forth between his hometown’s unsolved murder and Ben and Kate’s mumblecore romance. The two storylines do eventually connect—Ben takes his crush home to meet the cherished uncle who raised him—but not before we’re forced to sit through many prolonged will-they-or-won’t-they “platonic” dates and one painfully improvised-feeling hookup scene.
The Uncle John ship manages to right itself once Ben and Kate become collateral figures in John’s tenuous cover-up, and the film’s final act is an intense ride. The mystery at the movie’s core is so compelling that when all is said and done these early, meandering transgressions will likely be forgiven and forgotten by most viewers. A more prudent cut—at least 15 minutes can probably be trimmed without missing a note—could have produced a rural noir film on par with the Coens’ classics, but the final product we have here is still, overall, a very impressive piece.
Author rating: 7.5/10
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