Ballast Review

Special effects expert Lance Hammer makes an auspicious directorial debut with this moody Mississippi melodrama. No-one says much, but the pain is tangible as African-American shopkeeper Micheal J. Smith mourns his twin’s suicide and seeks to build bridges with sister-in-law Tarra Riggs and thieving tweenage nephew Jim Myron Ross after they move to his homestead. Improvising on the back of extensive workshopping, the non-professional cast are exceptional. But it’s Lol Crawley’s restless camerawork and Kent Sparling’s inspired sound that enable Hammer to capture the oppressive isolation and spirit-crushing ennui of the backwater landscape. Owing much to Charles Burnett, David Gordon Green and the Dardennes, simultaneously bleak and beautiful, warm and sombre, this is what slice-of-life cinema should look and feel like.