(older movie reviews with a new coat of paint)

Few films can go to dark places and resist becoming melodramatic or weighing down a viewer in the process. William H. Macy’s directorial debut(he also co-wrote the script with Casey Twenter and Jeff Robison) stays balanced by pulling the best work from Billy Crudup in years and infusing the viewer with great music to produce a part bleak part uplifting take on the healing power of music.

Crudup plays Sam, a successful businessman who calls his kid after a big deal goes through and wants to meet him for lunch, college work be damned. When the kid doesn’t show up. Sam happens to see a television with a school shooting on it and that’s all we get before seeing Sam spiral out. We see him next on a boat working manual labor and keeping to himself. It’s not until his ex-wife(played well by Macy’s wife Felicty Huffman) that Sam starts to come back to life. She gives him his son’s books of music lyrics and demo tapes. (more…)