Back Roads

Gloomy and painful drama about a fudged-up family in the Eastern sticks

After a mother (Juliette Lewis) goes to prison for shooting her husband in a backwater town in the Eastern USA, a young man (Alex Pettyfer) has to forsake college and take care of his three younger sisters, including a teenage hellion (Nicola Peltz). Meanwhile a wife who lives down the lane catches his interest (Jennifer Morrison).

"Back Roads" (2018) is a melancholy psychological family drama with a crime element that could be classified as Southern Gothic. While the events take place in Western Pennsylvania they could occur in any backwater community in the Eastern USA or Canada. The film was shot in St. Francisville, Louisiana, which is a half-hour drive north of Baton Rouge along the Mississippi.

Films that come to mind include “Mud” (2012), “Joe” (2013), "Winter's Bone" (2010), “Undertow” (2004), "Snow Angels" (2007), “Monster’s Ball” (2001) and “The Fugitive Kind” (1960). The flick leaves you with a bad taste because it deals with some ugly things and features painful emotions, not to mention it’s unrelentingly gloomy. If you think your family growing up was dysfunctional, you ain’t seen nothing. But, if you reflect on the movie and the understated clues, everything makes sense and is well-written, based on Tawni O'Dell 1999 novel. Just don’t expect a pleasant time.

The film runs 1 hour, 41 minutes.

GRADE: B-/C+