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Reviews Counted:40
Fresh:37
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7.3/10
Consensus: Thanks to a talented cast and its uncommon depth, Nichols' debut manages to rise above its overly familiar plot.
Theatrical Release:Mar 26, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: Son Hayes never speaks of the scars on his back. The shotgun pellets left under his skin make for a sporadic pattern of blue-black dots. The men he works with take bets on how he got them. His...
This stands true for the memory of his father, a man that never bothered to give his children proper names. He left the three brothers, Son, Boy and Kid, when they were young. Their last impressions were of a violent drunk who never hesitated to put his own needs ahead of his family. The brothers were left to be raised by their mother, a hateful woman, who to this day blames her children for the life she's been left with and the man she could not keep.
Their father, having left the memory of his children as completely as he left their home, managed to move on and put his life back together. He sobered up, became a devout Christian, married a wonderful woman, and fathered four new sons. All of who received proper names. His life became a model that most would aspire to, a man successful in business, community and family. His only true failing being the sons he turned his back on.
At the beginning of the film, we find Son, Boy and Kid as grown men. The three brothers' lives progress and their futures play out, but their past inevitably comes to claim them. Following a dispute at their father's funeral, a feud begins to simmer between these sons and the new young men their father has raised. It is an anger that has always rested uncomfortably in the background of their lives. However now, it is a thing that will rise up to overtake them all. Set against the cotton fields and back roads of Southeast Arkansas, these brothers discover the lengths to which each will go to protect their family.
--© Official Site [More]Starring: Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs, Natalie Canerday
Director: Jeff Nichols
There is much to "Shotgun Stories" that elevates it above the fray of Green derivatives and unflattering categorizations, bolstered by a roster of naturalistic, fully assimilated performances, led by "Bug"'s now ubiquitous Michael Shannon.
Good natural performances.
The credentials of many festival screenings might suggest to alert viewers that this isn't a shoot 'em up between two hill billy clans
Like Malick, Nichols knows that the sight of a combine transforming an Arkansas cotton field into an apocalyptic dust storm is as eloquent as anything his characters might say.
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A precisely modulated yet cumulatively forceful story of a rural family feud turned deadly.
Top CriticBrilliantly acted, superbly directed and beautifully shot, this is a gripping drama that really gets under your skin and marks writer-director Jeff Nichols out as a talent to watch.
Set in rural Arkansas, Jeff Nichols' relaxed, distinctive debut revels in the milieu of its redneck characters, but injects their rural half-blood feud with an almost mythic quality.
Writer/director Jeff Nichols is one to watch. He has fashioned a simple but powerful cautionary tale, equal parts Southern Gothic and Greek tragedy, and has given a familiar kind of material a fresh spin.
I'm sick of the kind of exceptional that Shotgun Stories represents.
The real key to the film is the commanding Michael Shannon.
The end reveals just how poetic, shifting and dazzling Nichols' touch was all along. That's because Shotgun Stories manages to pull away from a hair-trigger resolution with the same inherent right-ness that loaded the story with such tragic force.
Director Jeff Nichols lets the action unfold slowly following an impromptu insult, but the escalation of hatred and pain feels natural.
Top CriticThis low-key yarn about lowbrow men isnt for everyone. But whatever its faults and limitations, Shotgun Stories casts a spell unlike any other movie weve seen in ages.
... here there's also an undercurrent of biblical revenge that lends the narrative a sense of violent menace and an almost continuous tension.
Top CriticFew films are so observant about how we relate with one another. Few are as sympathetic.
Top CriticJeff Nichols modern Western is laconic and lazily captivating, its silence slowly building to rage.
An allegory of our times, Shotgun Stories is a tragedy of biblical scale and an intimate family drama.
It's clearly a labor of love and no doubt true to some regional ways and attitudes. But jeez, it's self-parodic, and all the more so for taking place in some uncharted corner of Dixie where nobody has the slightest sense of humor.
Shotgun Stories is a cautionary tale about revenge, but more than that, it is a beautiful, authentic-feeling portrait of a family and a place.
Top Critic
March 25, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
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