Review by Kiefer Doerksen.

Shotgun Stories stands, in many ways, as the anti-Trailer Park Boys. While most of that show’s humour stems from poking fun at its characters’ “trailer-trash” tendencies, Shotgun Stories celebrates those tendencies. It’s sympathy for the simpleton brothers Son, Boy and Kid that keeps Shotgun Stories from becoming a comedy, allowing the film to work as a serious dissection of violence and revenge.

After his wife takes their son and moves in with her mother, Son invites his brothers to stay with him until she returns – after all, there is extra space. Boy lives in his van and powers his blender through the car battery (which occasionally turns on the stereo instead). Third brother Kit has been living in a tent in the front yard. The brothers’ easy-going lifestyle is interrupted by the death of their estranged father. Son's less-than-forgiving speech at the funeral upsets his father’s new family, especially his half brothers, starting a feud between the two families that quickly escalates to violence.

The film lingers on the vast fields and slow lifestyle of the American South. The camera captures this world as plainly as possible with no visual flourishes or sweeping movement. Director Jeff Nichols is patient with his leads, who often express their feelings in short sentences and physical gestures. Even when tension escalates between the two warring families, the pacing stays deliberately calm; with their backs are against the wall, the characters still take their time taking action. Michael Shannon (Son) gives a slow-burning performance as someone who doesn’t want to start trouble but impulsively feels the need to get what he feels is just. Douglas Ligon is a stand-out as Boy, Son’s pacifist brother who, while being the ‘deadbeat’ of the family, finds time to coach a children’s basketball team. An unusually sincere portrayal of the rural South.

Shotgun Stories
Jeff Nichols | USA | 2007 | 92min

Thur. Sept. 27 | 7:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Mon. Oct. 1 | 2:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Thur. Oct. 4 | 9:45pm | Empire Granville Theatre