"Sling Blade" is everything most movie-goers and critics have said it is; a warm, honest story about a simple backwards boy who has just been released from the state hospital after serving around thirty years for murder.
Billy Bob Thornton has done an incredible job in both acting and directing, as well as writing, in this gentile show which grapples with right and wrong. His script is both moving and compelling, his direction certain, and his performance is a disciplined exercise in consistency. It is only in the weightier area that "Sling Blade" lets itself down.
Thornton tries to deal with the nuances of right and wrong in terms that are too simple. Much of the film is dedicated to justifying old Sling Blade's actions, as Billy Bob extols the virtues of necessary evil. Never mind, nobody's perfect.
Good support comes from an auxiliary cast including Dwight Yoakam, Natalie Canerday, Lucas Black and Robert Duvall. This is always Billy Bob's show however. Daniel Lansis provides a memorable score while cinematographer Barry Markowitz shoots with style.
Monday, August 24, 1998 - Hoyts Croydon
Billy Bob Thornton has done an incredible job in both acting and directing, as well as writing, in this gentile show which grapples with right and wrong. His script is both moving and compelling, his direction certain, and his performance is a disciplined exercise in consistency. It is only in the weightier area that "Sling Blade" lets itself down.
Thornton tries to deal with the nuances of right and wrong in terms that are too simple. Much of the film is dedicated to justifying old Sling Blade's actions, as Billy Bob extols the virtues of necessary evil. Never mind, nobody's perfect.
Good support comes from an auxiliary cast including Dwight Yoakam, Natalie Canerday, Lucas Black and Robert Duvall. This is always Billy Bob's show however. Daniel Lansis provides a memorable score while cinematographer Barry Markowitz shoots with style.
Monday, August 24, 1998 - Hoyts Croydon