A thick sheen of luscious lens flares and Terrence Malick–like poetic lulls feel like icing on an undercooked mud pie—Bedford’s script deserves a stronger engagement with its characters’ desperation. Instead they collide in a clichéd ending that feels padded.
Compelling as Zylka and Keough may be — and we're definitely rooting for their well-etched characters — Bedford too often plies a kind of woeful wooziness here when a more propulsive approach is in order.
50
The PlaylistRodrigo Perez
The PlaylistRodrigo Perez
Low on ideas and high on atmosphere, Dixieland is a promising debut, but it likely won’t find you overwhelmingly writing back home about it.
This is well-worn territory, and though the two leads are very good, the romance that is supposed to drive the story isn’t particularly well delineated.
30
Village VoiceChris Packham
Village VoiceChris Packham
Writer-director Hank Bedford delivers some tactile, human details.... But the film is slow and often agonizingly predictable.