The Quarry (2020)

This is a masterfully told tale on the level of a Henrich Boll or Carlos Fuentes short story. It is a story of people seeking redemption in a community that is defined by desperation. It is superbly set, acted, filmed, and directed. The pace of the movie is perfect, it helps tell the story. It depicts the power of despair to produce depravity that gradually masks your ability to see truth. In this small town, justice and redemption are sought within the four walls of a church building that serves as both a house of worship and a courthouse. The quarry is a place, like the church, where value was once found, but now only hides sin. The central figure is a man who murdered his wife and, while running from his crime, murders a pastor who is running from his own failures. He hides the body in the quarry, then poses as the pastor in the church seeking anonymity and redemption as someone other than himself. But the power of his internal despair and its impact others cannot be quenched. He is contrasted by a woman who has the strength to love in the midst of the desperation and thereby retains her personal authenticity. In the end, the only one who understands life outside of the façade of religiosity and structured justice is the only one who through whom redemption can be found. I didn't find the ending quirky at all. It illustrates both the power and the unpredictability of despair. This is a noir film that is as much about the substance of internal survival as it is the power of personal of darkness. I hope this movie finds its audience. In a day and age where CGI trumps substance this is truly good storytelling.

Fmovies: Michael Shannon and Shea Whigham carry this well paced crime genre based on teh 1995 Damon Galgut novel that dealt with the effects of apartheid in South Africa. For this adaptation, it has been set in a small border town in the Lone Star State, where the racism is still alive but in this case directed at Mexican immigrants. The film directed by Scott Teems and co-written with Andrew Brotzman.

I haven't read the other reviews. I guess they're not great. But there's a lot going on in this movie that's probably lost on most.

I found it to be a powerful character study where each actor faces a moral dilemma. It moves along the line slowly, thoughtfully, deliberately.

The notions of ontology, of faith, of redemption, and of truth are just a few of the concepts pulled into the story.

I get it's not for everyone, but there's a lot to find if you look for it.

The Quarry fmovies. I really wanted to like this movie, as I'm a big fan of Michael Shannon. Unfortunately it just drifted along, not really knowing what kind of story it wanted to tell. In the end I think the director just gave up on it, probably much like it's audience. I don't know how I got to the end.

It looked promising. It got worse. This film had so much improbability to it that I muttered "They wouldn't have done that!" more than three dozen times. The "pastor" probably uttered 20 words the whole movie. Michael Shannon..well, he's always good and I wondered how he loaned himself out to this oinker. The same ones who produced "Narco" (fantastic!) must've been on drugs when they wrote/filmed/edited this one. Don't waste your time. (Oh, the burning house in the very beginning was cool.)

Simple storyline Simple plotline Super slow movie.