Undertow (2004)

In which wunderkind director David Gordon Green gets crossed up by a genre he shouldn't be touching. It's all well and good that Green, having shown a deep respect and love for the rhythms of the South, would try his hand at Southern Gothic. But therein lies the problematic: Green's heavily stylized previous films are notable, among other things, for being incredibly generous with their characters. Green's worldview seems to take it as an article of faith that everyone is basically good in their hearts. Southern Gothic, on the other hand, is a genre built on the idea that pretty much everyone is evil. So when Green's unashamed romanticism runs up against the misanthropic undertones of the film he's made, the resulting wreckage is a curious and detached work that shows evidence of too-muchness. Instead of just making a movie, Green has tried his damndest to make A David Gordon Green Movie. This has incidents that work, and I still love the guy, but he forced it this time.

Grade: C+