Family Feud
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Arkansan Jeff Nichols tells the story of three brothers set against a richly textured backdrop
by Roger Ebert
May 22, 2008
For me, the great discovery at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2007 was Shotgun Stories. A first feature by writer-director Jeff Nichols, it creates implacable tension between two sets of half-brothers in rural Arkansas.
Three brothers who live together are the product of a marriage by an alcoholic father who deserted them, and a mother who should have. Their parents couldn’t even be bothered to name them, and they are Son, Kid and Boy. After the father sobered up and became successful, he fathered four more children.
The tone of the movie is set in laconic early dialog. Son (Michael Shannon) is called to the door by his mother’s visit. He doesn’t invite her in. “What is it?” he asks. “I came to tell you your father is dead.” No reaction. “When’s the funeral?” he asks. “You can find out in the newspaper,” she says, leaving. “You going?” he asks. “No.” The funeral leads to a feud between the two families, in a film that never steps wrong and holds us in a vise of tightening revenge.
Co-produced by David Gordon Green, a hard, unforgiving look at unhappy lives; the characters are not vicious or psychotic, are actually fairly nice left to themselves, but powerless in the face of childhood wounds.
Shotgun Stories
Two and a half stars
Starring: Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs and Natalie Canerday.
Director: Jeff Nichols
Rated: PG-13 for violence, thematic elements and brief strong language
Theater: Opening at the Capitol Theater in Olympia Saturday at 9 p.m.
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