LAFF 2012: DEAD MAN'S BURDEN

Martha (Clare Bowen) in Dead Man's Burden.

Sins of the daugther

By Don Simpson

Dead Man's Burden is clearly made by someone who unabashedly loves the western genre, though writer-director Jared Moshé does make some notable updates to the genre. Most importantly, Moshé places a strong female character in the lead role, a character -- Martha McCurry (Clare Bowen) -- whose closest cinematic kin would be Michelle Williams' Emily in Meek's Cutoff.

Despite being married to Heck (David Call), a man with a violent criminal past, Martha maintains full control over her household. After murdering her father (Luce Rains) in the film's striking opening scene, Martha becomes a full-fledged landowner. The problem is, she does not want the land; Martha wants to sell her family's New Mexico homestead to a mining corporation for enough cash to open a hotel in the burgeoning town of San Francisco. With her father dead, it seems as though Martha's dream will certainly come true, but then a long presumed dead brother reappears. Wade (Barlow Jacobs) has lofty aspirations of turning his family homestead into a full-fledged farm. Thus, a family feud begins.

Shot on lush 35mm film (by Robert Hauer) with impeccable production design (Ruth De Jong), costume design (Courtney Hoffman) and art direction (Jason Byers), Dead Man's Burden is a visual masterpiece. Bowen's unsettlingly conflicted performance as Martha is nothing short of amazing; Jacobs and Call's performances are also spot on. Occasionally, a few performances do veer a bit too far into the realm of the melodramatic for my tastes. However, I will chalk that up to the periodically stilted dialogue and the film's studious allegiance to a machismo-yet-melodramatic genre.

AUSTIN 2011: DARWIN

A scene from Darwin.

 

Mine your business

By Don Simpson

Contrary to my initial assumption, Darwin has absolutely nothing to do with the infamous English naturalist Charles Darwin (On the Origin of Species). Nick Brandestini’s documentary actually refers to the town of Darwin, California (which is named after Darwin French). Located in the desolate nether-regions on the east side of the Sierra Nevada (not too far from Death Valley), the ex-mining community of Darwin boasts a population of 43. Brandestini wrangles 30 or so of Darwin’s residents to tell their tales to his camera and — within minutes — it becomes quite obvious that the secluded locale of Darwin has attracted a very unique and eclectic collection of people. Darwin also touches upon the town’s history, dating back to when Darwin’s mine — as well as its brothels and saloons — was still active (a period of time that at least one resident refers to as the “glory days”).

Brandestini relies heavily upon the townspeople’s wackiness to drive his documentary, and there is no denying their cinematic appeal. It seems as though most (if not, all) Darwinians have come to the desert to hide from something -- whether it be their checkered past, an all-too-judgmental mainstream society, legitimate employment, or life in general. Darwin appears to be a self-imposed penal colony of sorts where its constituents are able to live out a life sentence of self-enforced exile from mainstream society, yet this seclusion simultaneously allows them to enjoy near-absolute freedom. Together they have created a Utopian society of Libertarian proportions in which everyone enjoys their personal freedoms without much judgment from their neighbors or pestering by the police. They expect their government to provide them with the basic necessities of electricity, water and unemployment checks; otherwise the people of Darwin exist as far “off the grid” as humanly possible. With no mayor, city council or local law enforcement to speak of, Darwin’s only form of political hierarchy appears to be a small panel of residents who occasionally gather together to debate the state of their water supply. Apparently all of the townspeople are armed to the gills — and at least half way to crazy — so criminals steer clear of Darwin. Maybe Darwin has evolved beyond Libertarianism, maybe this is a town of anarchists?