Not only the best 'indie' I've ever seen -- by FAR -- but one of the best historical movies I've ever seen. For an hour and a half I really felt like I'd wandered around rural America during the Civil War.
As the previous reviewer commented, this is a movie about textures, not plot. The dialogue is spare, very spare; the accents feel authentic, so much so that there are moments when it's hard to make out what they're saying -- but it doesn't matter. Plot points, such as they are, don't come out in dialogue as much as through the flow of images. Nobody talks about relationships -- they don't talk much at all, which feels 'right' for the place and time -- rather, we sense the relationships through how people look at each other, how they react, wordlessly, to each other's behavior.
The casting is excellent, too. With one minor exception, all the people in the film feel like figures from that era. This is a very hard thing to achieve, you really have to work hard to find actors who don't have that contemporary energy -- but they pulled it off.
It's involving, it's seductive in how it reels you in, it's just all-around impressive as hell.
One bit of advice: if at all possible, do not wait for this to appear on DVD or streaming video. GO SEE IT in a theater, it will be a much better experience.
Honestly, I haven't been this impressed with something in ages.
