October Country (2009)

Documentary from directors Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri about Mosher's own family. Simultaneously repellent and absorbing, this film is for every person who gets the dreaded weekly call from back home and thinks "what now?". All the family members (mainly the female) have aimless lives and are stuck in patterns of abuse and bad (or, more accurately, moronic) decisions. The subjects are understandably at ease in front of Mosher's camera and are remarkably candid, many of the confessionals taking place over a cup of coffee (or Mountain Dew) at the kitchen table. Plus, the director spent a good deal of his adolescence with other family members in another state, so he has enough proper critical distance to show the ugliness, yet is close enough to be kind in his depiction. The sometimes fancy camerawork and ambient music score were a little much and smack of trying to "gussy up" the material, something that's totally unnecessary. Many will recognize shades of their own families, while others will be grateful for their good luck in ending up with the family they have. I can't help but think that Mosher made this film just to hold a mirror up to his own family in the hope that they'd get their shit together.