Movie Reaction: Them That Follow

Formula: Winter's Bone + Snakes

I tend to forgive Sundance movies for things I wouldn't for other movie. It's an independent movie festival, so the movies that screen there are smaller. They have limited budgets, stars who are often looking for a chance to do something different than what Hollywood casts them for, and stories that play more like "proof of concept" pitches than full screenplays. The shorthand I've come up with for them is that they are short story movies, not novel movies. You can sense the limitations everywhere. Fewer locations used. Fewer extras. There's aren't many or any side plots. The movies themselves rarely become favorites of mine, but they do make me excited to see what the filmmaker makes next.

Them That Follow is one of these short story movies in almost every way. It tells the story of Mara (Alice Englert), who lives in a small mountain community. She's betrothed to marry Garret (Lewis Pullman) even though she has feelings for Augie (Thomas Mann). She feels pressured to be with Garret because that's who her father (Walton Goggins), the town minister, wants her to be with. This community has some strange religious beliefs: Christianity mixed with snakes. And that's pretty much the plot. Mara has a secret to hide; one that you can figure out pretty easily. Mostly, it's all an excuse to explore this location and these characters.

It is impeccably cast. It pulls Alice Englert from the southern gothic Beautiful Creatures. It take Goggins and Kaitlyn Dever from Justified. Thomas Mann looks comfortable in a blue-jean jacket. Olivia Colman continues a long tradition of Brits doing a fine job throwing on a stern, exaggerated southern accent. Lewis Pullman and Jim Gaffigan look right out of Appalachian central casting. This is the rare Sundance movie that looks like they got their first choice for every role. And they all do a great job believing their characters. They aren't making fun of them or looking down on them. They're real. They're also a little awkward at times.

This is maybe an unfair distinction to make, but I don't think the movie does that much to make the world interesting. If someone told me, there's a movie about an Appalachian snake church, the amount of interest I have in that pitch is the same that I had after seeing this movie. It doesn't make the idea any more (or less, to its credit) interesting than the idea inherently is. Part of that is that the story is thin and the lead performance is very internalized. That's a tough combination. Alice Englert spends a lot of time not saying anything, but her doing nothing isn't as interesting yet as Olivia Colman doing nothing. This isn't a world with interesting enough supporting characters for the lead role to be an observer. Colman and Goggins make any scene more interesting. I think Kaitlyn Dever has more to offer with a more interesting performance to play off. That's about it though in terms of screen presence. The end result is a movie that felt a little pointless. I don't really know what the writer/directors found so interesting that they needed to make a movie about.

One Last Thought: Does Lewis Pullman have a small mouth? I noticed it about midway through the movie, then I couldn't stop seeing it. Is his mouth weirdly small or do I just not pay enough attention to mouths?

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend