The closing night film at the Maryland Film Festival Sunday
was “Little Accidents”, directed and written by Sara Colangelo, developed in a workshop
sponsored by Sundance (working on the material of her earlier 2010 short film –
an artistic progression that Jorge Ameer had enjoyed with “The House of Adam”). It is filmed mostly around Beckley, W. Va.,
and rather than preaching about the environmental damage done by the coal
industry, it sets up a drama showing how the work affects the lives of ordinary
miners and their families. It is
structured like a Robert Altman film, with intersecting stories, that do
include tragedy. Since there is a loss
early, and since there is so much detail about the gritty life of the people,
one can imagine David Lynch having done a project like this, with simply a
different take and feel, perhaps brooding but not weird.
The film, at the opening, seems to focus on a young miner
Amos Jenkins (Boyd Holbrook), relatively handsome and likeable and clean cut
now, as he recovers from a mine accident that had resulted in head injury, and
a limp and difficulty with speech. He
takes a computer job with the mining company, to the anger of other union
miners, because he wants the satisfaction that he can work again. (It’s
interesting that he has the skills for the job.) During the course of the film, he seems to
recover of his speech and ability to walk and do physical tasks, without more
treatment, all of this unexpected and fortunate. He takes care of a father who will die of
black lung, and develops a relationship with the single mom (Elizabeth Banks)
of a boy who has disappeared in the woods.
He also takes on a quasi fatherly relationship with another middle
school boy Owen (Jacob Lofland, from “Mud”).
Now, there is another Altman-like plot thread that we know
all along. About twenty minutes into this 105-minute film, Owen and the missing
boy are playing in the nearby woods, at the base of a mountain hollow and
undamaged by the coal industry so far.
They have an argument, and Owen throws a stone at the boy. It hits him in the temple and he falls
unconscious. A third boy, apparently
with Downs Syndrome, is with them.
Rather than run for help, Owen cowardly (I’m projecting my own values)
hides the crime for most of the film, and bullies the mentally challenged
younger companion into keeping quiet. How this will unravel becomes a major
plot point of the film. At one point,
Owen is in the boy’s room, which the mother has preserved.
There is also another subplot, a little less directed, about
litigation against the coal company for the accident. One of the characters, a plant manager, gets
fired.
The Sundance site is here. The theatrical distributor will be
Amplify Films. (I would have expected
larger companies like TWC to want this one.)
After the screening, sold out, at the large MICA Brown
auditorium, there was an extensive QA, and then an after-party about a
half-mile away at the Festival Shed north of the Charles Street area. We actually took a school bus as a shuttle to
the party! Such is the Charm City. (Don’t
arrive there while an Orioles or Ravens game lets out.)
The sound and digital projection quality of the films in all
the venues was top notch.
Wikipedia attribution link for picture of Beckley W Va Exhibition Coal Mine; I made a visit in May 1991.
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